When we preach the gospel, we proclaim God’s jubilee to others. In Luke 4:18-19 the Lord Jesus made a proclamation concerning the coming of the jubilee. The proclamation of the jubilee in Luke 4 governs the central thought of the whole Gospel of Luke, and the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15 is an excellent illustration of the jubilee. Before examining this parable, however, we must consider a few verses. In Ephesians 1:13-14 Paul says, “In whom you also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, in Him also believing, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise, who is the pledge of our inheritance unto the redemption of the acquired possession, to the praise of His glory.” What does it mean to be saved? To be saved is to return to our inheritance, to return to God, to come back to God and enjoy Him anew as our possession. God is our inheritance, and after we are saved, the Spirit of God is in us as the pledge, the guarantee, the proof, and the security of our inheritance. In Greek the word for pledge or guarantee also means “sample.” A sample is a foretaste, guaranteeing the full taste in the future. Today the Holy Spirit is in us as the guarantee, the sample, of God as our enjoyment, giving us a foretaste and guaranteeing our full enjoyment of God in the future. Therefore, to be saved is to gain God. We have not only obtained salvation, but even more we have obtained God. When we have God, we have everything; without God, we have nothing. We are saved only when we have God, and with God we have everything. Therefore, God is our inheritance.
Furthermore, Colossians 1:12 says, “Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you for a share of the allotted portion of the saints in the light.” Today God has become our blessed portion in Christ. Apart from Christ, people live in the world, having no hope and being without God. Outside of Christ, we are without God in the world. We, however, can no longer say that we are apart from Christ. We are in Christ, and we have God. This is not merely a saying but a reality. Perhaps some may ask, “Why is it, then, that some Christians are still unhappy?” We may illustrate this with electric lights. Lights may be installed in a building, and the electricity may be connected, but if we do not use the switch to turn them on, the lights do not shine. There is electricity, but there are no lights; practically, this is the same as having no electricity. This is the situation of many Christians. Even though they have God, they are like lights that do not shine because they do not “turn on the switch” by taking God as their portion.
As Paul says in Ephesians 2:12, we were apart from Christ, having no hope and without God in the world. Today, however, we are no longer apart from Christ. Rather, we are in Christ. We have God, and we “turn on the switch” to enjoy God as our possession. The jubilee is altogether related to our possession, and our possession is God. When we have God, we have the jubilee; when we have God, everything is to our satisfaction. Our preaching of the gospel is our blowing of the trumpet of redemption to proclaim to the world, “Behold, now is the well-acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation,” the year of jubilee (2 Cor. 6:2). Though man has fallen far from God, God is waiting for him, longing for his return.
We may now consider the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32. We are all very familiar with the parable of the prodigal son’s return. Some have even known this story from their childhood. In this story the Lord Jesus spoke of a certain father who had two sons. The younger one, being befuddled, asked the father to give him his share of the inheritance. After he received his inheritance, he went out and lived dissolutely until he spent it all. Then he had no choice but to go and join himself to a citizen of a “distant country,” which signifies the satanic world. This citizen, who may be compared to Satan, was more oppressive than Pharaoh and sent him to feed the hogs. Pharaoh sent the people to build cities, but in this parable a citizen sent the son to feed hogs, which is worse. Building cities is a matter of sweating and making bricks, but in order to feed hogs, one has to associate with them. Eventually, the son desired to eat the carob pods which the hogs ate, yet even then his hunger was not satisfied. As a result, the prodigal son came to his senses and returned to his father’s house.
A Chinese proverb says, “The return of a prodigal son is more precious than gold.” Many people refer to this parable when they preach the gospel. However, this parable is mainly concerned not with the prodigal son’s return but with the father who looks for his son and accepts him with embraces and affectionate kisses. The father’s acceptance of the son was the “year of jubilee” to him. A father’s great fear is that his children might run away from home; this is a very painful thing. Although it is painful for an only son to run away from home, we may think that a father of many children would not care as much about one son. However, a father treasures every one of his children. A father even cannot bear it when a son runs out of the house for a short time. In this parable the father not only looked occasionally for his son, but he must have stood at the door of his house every day, eagerly waiting for his son’s return. Therefore, when the son returned, the father saw him from afar and immediately ran to him to embrace him and kiss him (v. 20). This was his acceptance of the son. The day of the return of the prodigal son was a year of jubilee to him. That was the year of grace, the acceptable year of God. God accepts all fallen and repentant prodigal sons.
According to spiritual significance, this story depicts a fallen man who completely lost his possession in the house of God the Father. He left his own possession and sold himself as a slave. Today all fallen people, regardless of their profession, whether presidents, kings, or poor beggars, are “feeding hogs.” To feed hogs is to engage in unclean business. We may say that a profession in politics is dark, but in reality, which profession is not dark? If politics is the darkest profession, then commerce is the second darkest, but is education not dark? Those who have a Ph.D., medical doctors, and everyone else are also in darkness. Everyone is “feeding hogs.” The most obvious result of feeding hogs is to become unclean; this indicates one’s engagement in unclean things. In today’s society, which profession does not practice giving and receiving bribes? If one does not give bribes, he has no way to succeed. Whose money is earned in an absolutely clean manner? It is no wonder that the Lord Jesus gives money a name, “the mammon of unrighteousness” (Luke 16:9). The very nature of money is unrighteous. Even if a person seems to be righteous, as long as he makes money and acquires a fortune, he is “feeding hogs”; he is engaged in unclean business. Perhaps when some hear this, they may say, “Since this is the case, from now on I will give up my schooling and abandon my job.” This is not what we mean. In this world people have to work lest they become vagrants and loafers. How can one eat without working? Rather, this story is a picture showing us that once a fallen man leaves God, he goes to “feed hogs,” regardless of what profession he is in. We should consider seriously whether we are clean in our work. All fallen people working in society are “wallowing in a pigpen,” although some eat better “carob pods” than others. Everyone is “feeding hogs” and eating “carob pods.”
When the prodigal son considered his situation, he may have asked himself, “Why am I doing this? My father is very rich, so why should I perish here in famine?” This is a sinner’s repentance. However, the concept of a sinner after his repentance is to return home to work. Therefore, the prodigal son went on to say, “I will rise up and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants” (15:18-19). Then he rose up and went to his father to speak according to what he had prepared. However, the father did not want to hear what he had to say, so before the son could finish his speaking, the father interrupted him and told the servants, “Bring out quickly the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fattened calf; slaughter it, and let us eat and be merry” (vv. 22-23). The fattened calf signifies Christ, who is God. God in Christ has become the fattened calf for the enjoyment of the repentant and returning prodigal sons. To us, this is the jubilee.
Therefore, Luke 15:11-32 is an illustration of the jubilee proclaimed in Luke 4:18-19. The prodigal son sold his possession and himself. One day he returned to his possession and his father’s house. That was a jubilee, a liberation, and everything became pleasant and satisfying. In the father’s house there was only enjoyment with eating and drinking; there was no labor. This corresponds to Leviticus 25:11, which says that the people were neither to sow nor reap in the year of the jubilee; they should only eat and enjoy. Furthermore, they could only eat of the produce directly from the field. This means that they ate what God supplied without the need of their own labor. Similarly, the father in Luke 15 did not listen to what the son had to say about being a hired servant. Instead, the father desired to give the son the fattened calf for him to eat and enjoy. No one is unworthy; rather, all are worthy because God says, “I have accepted you.” The jubilee is the age, the time, of God’s acceptance, indicated by the father’s acceptance of the prodigal son in Luke 15.
The jubilee in the Bible is the age of the gospel, which is this age. Once we repent and turn to God by receiving the Lord Jesus, we obtain God within. This is the beginning of our jubilee. From that day onward, our whole life is a jubilee, and we enjoy the jubilee forever. We can continually enjoy God as our possession. We thank and praise the Lord that our jubilee will be richer and richer from now unto eternity. This is the meaning of the possession of the jubilee.
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