What’s a Jubilee?

Posted on September 4, 2012 Updated on January 12, 2014

Jubilee comes from an ancient Hebrew tradition of clearing debts and returning land to the people after 49 year intervals. They observed The Jubilee Year, where they let the lands go without sowing or harvesting. Part of this tradition that’s hard to understand comes from the fact that the Promised Land belonged to God. Since it was given to the people, it could only be borrowed, never owned. That’s why there’s an impression that the land goes back to the people, and families can to return to their home every fifty years. Hattip – Good News About God.

At this year of jubilee all Israelites who had sold themselves into slavery were set free, and all land that had been sold reverted to its original owner. This meant that no Israelite could ever be in permanent slavery; nor could any Israelite permanently lose his inheritance. – Growth in God

Either through coincidence, divine intervention or fuzzy math, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ fell on the 80th Jubilee, about 4,000 years into the story. Growth in God claims that Christ was aware of this and that the following passage intends to bring about a new Jubilee:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. – Isaiah 61: 1,2 and Luke 4: 18,19

Many more Jubilees have passed. The Queen celebrated her Diamond Jubilee earlier this year, even though England is in a period of austerity and she’d celebrated her Golden Jubilee 10 years earlier. I don’t live in England but I didn’t hear much about debt reduction, just stories of a spinning boat.

What Jubilee Means to Me

The Patio Gardeners, Tiffany Wilson and Arlen Parsa, had the first confirmed sighting of a Jubilee tomato in this video.

I first learned of Jubilee because of some tomato seeds that I planted this year but the more I hear about it, the more I believe there could be some cosmic alarm clock ticking away. I’ve mentioned the Mayans before in this blog. The concept behind the calendar that people fear is much more about rejuvenation or turning over a new leaf than a cataclysmic end to the word.

What Jubilee means to me is a re-assessment of value and a fresh start. The CG Jubilee takes place right when our tomatoes start to ripen, Diana’s producing amazing work and I’m starting a new documentary project. Around us, there are also great people making positive change toward a new, local economy which inspired us to create La Buena Espalda, the community outreach arm of The CG Project. We’re proud to announce our first official sponsors, Mimi’s Garden and Season Produce and Specialty Market! You’ll hear more about this in another post. For now, I leave you with this:

The Jubilee Tomato ripens at the end of an 80 day cycle that’s tied to the 4 season cycle that we pretend to observe in Chicago. The tomato’s cycle ends with the beginning of a 12 month academic calendar that rules the lives of teachers, students and parents. This year we’re also in the midst of a presidential election cycle that will change the course of our nation. The reason this election is so pivotal is that we’re also experiencing the transition into a generational cycle where baby boomers retire and while millennials wait to take over, which effects a larger, supply and demand economic cycle. This is the part where I remind you of the 394 year Mayan baktun, which ends in December, before hoping that this isn’t all part of a larger ecological calendar that we can’t fully read yet.

I’ll ask again. Coincidence, divine intervention or just fuzzy math?