LIVES WORTH LEADING
JUSTICE IN THE LAND
TO BE CHRIST-LIKE IS TO SERVE THE POOR AND OPPRESSED BY COLIN MCCARTNEY
D
oes lack
your Gospel witness power? It could be
because it’s missing a critical element — social justice. As someone once said, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care”. If we just tell people God loves them but don’t live out God’s love for people, then our Gospel becomes a weak, wordy message that lacks punch. Jesus packed a punch. In Luke 4: 16 - 19 we read that Jesus returned to his hometown as a guest Rabbi in his Synagogue. While there, He was handed the Scripture in which He read from Isaiah 61 and claimed He is the fulfilment of this Scripture. This is what he read: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” It’s interesting to note that the above Scripture describes Jesus’ mission as words and actions that proclaimed favour for a unique population group — the poor. This is important, as many of the people who heard Jesus speak were poor. You see, the blind in Jesus day were poor. All throughout the Gospels you read about the blind begging for money. When Jesus says He is sent to proclaim freedom for prisoners, He is pointing to the poor who were in debtors’ prison for being unable to pay taxes. Israel was an agrarian culture, and the way people survived was through having
land to grow and sell crops, cattle, injustice — every 50 years all land must etc. In Jesus' day, both the corrupted be given back to its rightful owners, religion with its Temple tax and the and all debts were to be forgiven. What conquering Romans with their tax a great law for the poor! It’s restorative forced many Israelites to sell their land justice, and this is what Jesus says His to rich aristocrats in order to have the mission is all about — justice in the land. money to pay these high taxes. The rich I was preaching on this recently landowners would hire the previous at a First Nations church. When I told owners to work their land at low pay. them about the Jubilee year and how Eventually, these workers could no the owners of the land were to get it longer afford the yearly taxes, and back, they rejoiced and danced in the they would be forced to sell aisles! It was very moving IF JESUS IS their children off as slaves to to see how people, who have work the land. In time, when experienced the injustice of ALL ABOUT the taxes swallowed up the their land being stolen away THE POOR AND from them, moved to tears money they made for selling OPPRESSED, their children, they would be knowing that God is for thrown into debtors’ prison them, because God is a God THEN for not paying taxes. So, the of justice. And, so too, must SHOULDN’T prisoners in this passage we be people of justice. WE? are the poor. The oppressed Jesus identifies Himself that were to be set free are as the fulfilment of this all those who suffer under this horrible Isaiah passage. It is what Jesus is all unjust system. Yet, Jesus is saying that about. And I am convicted by this He has come to proclaim God’s favour truth. If Jesus is all about the poor and for them all — the poor and oppressed. oppressed, then shouldn’t we? If we The Bible teaches us that there was are to be “Christ — like” and if we are to a day called the “year of the Lord’s follow Jesus, then shouldn’t we also be favour” known as the “year of Jubilee”. all about the poor and oppressed? We read about this in Leviticus 25 that every 50th year was to be a “year of Jubilee” (the “year of the Lord’s / COLIN MCCARTNEY is an ordained favour”) in which those who lost their minister, speaker, and a bestselling land were to get it back, and those in author. He is also the founder of debtors’ prison were to have their UrbanPromise Toronto and now leads debts forgiven. God made this law Connect Ministries in Toronto where he, because He knew that unjust systems his wife Judith, and their two children would take place in the promised land reside. For information in booking Colin due to the state of sinful man, so He as a speaker, please visit devised a plan that would counter www.connectministries.org.
MARCH / APRIL 2019 SEVEN 31
