The cornerstone of the Jubilee was God's act of deliverance from Egypt and the giving of the Promised Land. In order to ensure that his people would not return to the slave conditions of Egypt, God gave each tribe, clan, and family their own land, commanding that it remain in the family forever. Further, there were strict limits on Hebrews owning Hebrew slaves. Every 50 years (Leviticus 25), there was to be a Jubilee in which property was returned to the original owners, debts forgiven, and slaves liberated. Apparently, the Jubilee legislation was practically never enforced.

How, according to Wright, did Jesus proclaim the Jubilee? First, Jesus did not proclaim the Jubilee as a social/economic program for all of Israel. Nor did he command his disciples to reclaim their ancestral lands. Rather, he called some of his followers, the twelve for example, to renounce their lands and wealth and follow him. Others were not called to make this sacrifice, but all his followers were called to forgive financial debts and to show radical mercy for the poor and needy. As Jesus' followers forgave debts and shared with the needy, they became the light of the world, the salt of the earth, the city set upon the hill, a witness to the mercy and glory of God. (1)

What relevance does this have for today? In the time of Jesus, commercial and agrarian relations were more localized and immediate. Slaves and hired hands worked for landowners and masters as Jesus' parables make clear. Today, however, we are enmeshed in a world economy where persons we never see make products for people they never see. Let me give an example. When I was a missionary in Honduras, I was the rector of five churches in a rural area of Honduras. The land was concentrated in a few hands with coffee as the principal crop. Most rural people made their living doing seasonal work for landowners who paid them $2.50 a day. The workers and their families were desperately poor. Most of the coffee was exported and consumed by people like you and me. In other words, Honduran rural workers produced the coffee we drink, yet we produced virtually nothing for them due to their extremely low wages. Like the masters and slaves of Jesus' parables, they worked for us but we did almost nothing for them.

Honduras is not atypical. All over the world desperately poor people are working at wretched wages producing wealth for the wealthy. In 1998 I looked into these matters and learned that Haitians produced Disney products at 28 cents an hour, amounting to 6 cents on each 101 Dalmatian outfits selling for $19.99. Nicaraguans received between 19 and 23 cents an hour making J.C. Penny products, with payment for labor on a $14.99 pair of jeans amounting to only 6 cents. Dominicans made garments for Victoria's Secret and were paid 3 cents on articles selling for $12.OO. In China, Nike paid as low as sixteen cents an hour, requiring a work schedule of seven days a week, eleven to twelve hours a day. Who profits from all of this? mostly stockholders and the corporate personnel who manage these matters, as well as consumers like you and me who purchase these products at prices that do not reflect fair wages.

How does Jubilee speak to this condition? The Jubilee was instituted for the sake of people who, because of poverty, went into debt to buy necessities. A number of the smaller coffee growers in Honduras were in debt, and many Honduran rural workers were so poor they had nothing to offer as collateral for loans. Yet they were working, working for wealthy people who were drinking the coffee they were producing. The Jubilee would right this gross injustice. If N.T. Wright is correct, Jesus did not expect those who weren't his followers to institute the Jubilee. He did, however, expect it of his followers. In other words, the church today is called to right the gross economic injustices that characterize our world. But how?

There are several options. The first option, and this is directly envisioned by Jesus, is that Christians, individually and as congregations, begin programs that establish justice, both at home and abroad. One such program, instituted by the Anglican Mission in America, buys coffee produced in Rwanda and sells it here in the States at a fair price, remitting thirty percent of the price back to the Rwandan workers. This program is not charity. It simply enables the people who produce the coffee we drink to receive a fair wage for their labor. Even at that, the price of this Rwandan coffee is comparable to the price of other specialty coffees. There are many, many Christian programs like this, and believers need to be in the forefront of the efforts to enable fair wages world wide.

A second alternative is for Christian owners and employers to run their businesses in a Christian manner. I hope to write on this more fully in the future. A third option would be to work politically to ensure a fairer and more just world wide economic system. This would require more comment, especially given Wright's claim that Jesus did not institute a political program for Israel apart from belief in him.

In light of the whole of the biblical revelation, with Jesus Christ at the center, I do believe there are grounds for Christians to be involved in the secular pursuit of economic justice. One such effort here in the States is the Living Wage Campaign, the effort to make sure all wages are living wages. Be that as it may, the first option is not optional: Christians are called to proclaim and live the Jubilee, as individuals, as congregations, and as networks of churches.

---The Rev. Robert J. Sanders, Ph.D. is rector of Christ the King Anglican Fellowship in Jacksonville, Florida. He is also VirtueOnline's resident cyber theologian

Endnote

1. N.T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God, (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996). See especially the comments pp. 294 5, 403 5.