Freedom
When will we celebrate a true Jubilee?
Amid the many laws and regulations laid out in Leviticus, God gave the people of Israel a beautiful gift — the Jubilee, a holiday to be observed every 50th year. Unlike the other feasts throughout the Jewish liturgical calendar that took place annually, Jubilee was a festival to be celebrated all year long.
“And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you: you shall return, every one of you, to your property and every one of you to your family.”
Leviticus 25:10
In the year of Jubilee debts were forgiven, enslaved people were freed, the land rested, and property was returned to its ancestral roots. Bible scholars tell us that there is no evidence that Israel ever fully observed a Jubilee,1 but isn’t the idea lovely? What a beautiful picture of freedom and justice for all.
Today in the United States, we remember a different freedom story on Juneteenth.
Juneteenth celebrates the day that all were made free in America, when the burden of slavery was broken on June 19, 1865.2 We still celebrate Juneteenth 159 years later, but similar to the way that the biblical Jubilee was never celebrated fully, we cannot celebrate fully now either. Because we are not all fully free.
This Juneteenth week began with a cage fight on the White House lawn. Beyond the absurdity of that scene alone, one of the fighters ended his victory by grabbing a mic and calling former First Lady Michelle Obama a man, a racist and sexist slur that has been used ad nauseum for well over a decade.3
The same day, a toddler was shot and killed in Mississippi after police officers fired on a car in response to a shoplifting allegation.4 As with so many other tragic stories before, we are told not to be upset about this horror: we are told that we must wait for the full story, give the police the benefit of the doubt, the car was headed toward them and they feared for their lives.
But there is no “rest of the story” that justifies a baby being shot by police.
There is no “common sense” in a trained law enforcement officer shooting a moving car in a Walmart parking lot and thinking that was a safe and good idea, especially when they are responding to an allegation of shoplifting. A child’s life for a pack of diapers?
We are living in a society that refuses to hear the phrase, “Black Lives Matter,” but continues to demonstrate on a daily basis why it must be said.
Black lives matter.
Little black boys deserve to grow up.
Black mothers deserve to go to the store without being shot at by police.
Black women deserve to be treated with dignity, rather than being called slurs on the White House lawn.
And this Juneteenth week in the year of our Lord 2026, we cannot equivocate on this.
When we hear these stories that are especially heartbreaking and devastating to the Black community, there is often a tendency among white people to start looking for a reason for the tragedy. It is uncomfortable to admit that the system is unjust, so some try to find a tidy answer that places the blame on the person suffering the injustice. Like Job’s (so-called) friends, we tend to blame and shame those who weep in the ashes of a ruined life.5
We must stop doing this.
Sometimes there are no words to make a situation ok. Sometimes we do not have a tidy answer. This week is one of those times. And in the mess and the ruin and the devastation, perhaps we should do what Job’s friends failed to do. Perhaps we should sit in the ashes and weep with our neighbors.
Lord, have mercy.
Jesus, be near.
According to the Jewish Study Bible, 2nd Edition footnotes, “It is not known whether the jubilee was ever observed in actual practice. There is no mention of the jubilee in biblical books dating from First Temple times, and according to the Rabbis it was not observed in Second Temple times at all.” (pg. 256)
https://nationaljuneteenthmuseum.org/juneteenth-history
https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2026/06/15/michelle-obama-abuse/90557358007/
https://wreg.com/news/local/mother-of-toddler-killed-in-walmart-shooting-speaks/
With friends like these...
Last week we talked about how interpreting proverbs requires discernment, and this week the story of Job is powerfully illustrating that truth. The sayings of Job’s friends sounded a lot like Proverbs, but their words were certainly not sweet to the soul or healthy to the body (Proverbs 16:24 NRSVUE