To the Captors and Those Restraining a Jubilee
When Jesus proclaimed the Lord’s Year of Favor, he was announcing a worldwide change in the way man views himself and the way he should treat his brothers. It was not only to the poor, blind and oppressed captives. It was also a message to the captors that they, too, can gain their liberty and the Father’s mercy by complying with His wishes and letting His people go.
The religious leaders of today can escape the awful fate that the 1st century religious leaders suffered for the mistreatment of the ‘sheep in their care.’ In the 23rd chapter of Matthew, Jesus declared that their houses of worship would be abandoned to them because they:
- shut the door of the Kingdom of the heavens (vs. 13)
- commercialized their spiritual gifts (vs. 14)
- made proselytes and turned them into atheists (vs. 15)
- gave more honor to money and gifts than to worshiping God (vs. 16-22)
- were more concerned with tithes than with justice and mercy (vs. 23-24)
- pretended to be ministers when, in fact, they were merchants (vs. 25-26)
- were outwardly clean, but secretly filthy, hypocritical and bloodguilty (vs. 27-28)
- freely identified themselves with the ‘killers of the prophets’ (vs. 29-32)
- and finally rejected the Father’s mercy through Jesus Christ (vs. 33-37)
As his last words to them, Jesus said:
“For I tell you, you shall not see Me again until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
– Matthew 23:39
History shows they never did. And the prophetic pronouncement came true:
“They will not leave one stone upon another within you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
– Luke 19:44
But this is not a foreordained outcome for today’s religious leaders. They can, all of them, repent from their poor and ignorant treatment of the children of God and brothers of Christ Jesus. (Matthew 25:40) They can cease dominating their brothers as if they were the masters of their faith. (2 Corinthians 1:24) They can step down from their self-created seats of honor, abandon their self-proclaimed titles of superiority (Matthew 23:11-12), and use their resources and ill-gotten gain to support the poor and downtrodden among them. (Luke 16:9) Thereby, they will ‘store up treasures in heaven.’ (Matthew 6:20-21)
Let those of the 1st century serve as a warning example to all who suppress and oppress the children of God to stop now, repent and turn around with joy. You can change your fate if you truly, without any false humility and with a pure heart, turn away from sin and remember the love you had at first (Revelation 2:4) – the love that caused you to begin a ministry and to take upon yourselves the responsibility of caring for the Lord’s sheep. It is possible, as well as desirous on the part of the Most High, to forgive, show mercy and ‘freely pardon.’ (Isaiah 55:7) There is so much to be done by all in bringing in the Lord’s Year of Favor, and if there is no harassment by supposed men of faith to hinder the progress of this Jubilee, we can ‘bring heaven down’ swiftly and thoroughly.
