Sabbath and Jubilee Economics
The Forgiveness of Debts
Sunday, February 1, 2026
Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven those who are in debt to us. —Matthew 6:11–12
Father Richard Rohr points to the economic emphasis present in the prayer of Jesus:
These phrases in the prayer of Jesus or the “Our Father” on bread and debts are clearly a prayer given to the poor. Bread and debt are the preoccupations of the peasant class. How do I have food for tomorrow and how do I pay my bills? In the Old English of the King James Bible, the word “debts” was rendered as “trespasses.” It seems unchangeable now because we’ve said it for so long, but without doubt, the word in the original text is clearly an economic word.
We have spiritualized this petition, as we did most of the gospel. We made this petition refer to private, individual forgiveness—you trespassing against me. Surely it does have that meaning, but on the first level this petition really refers to economic indebtedness. The power of this petition lies in the Jubilee year, described in Leviticus 25.
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. That fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee for you: you shall not sow or reap the aftergrowth or harvest the unpruned vines. For it is a Jubilee; it shall be holy to you: you shall eat only what the field itself produces. In this year of Jubilee you shall return, every one of you, to your property…. You shall not cheat one another, but you shall fear your God, for I am the Lord your God. You shall observe my statutes and faithfully keep my ordinances, so that you may live on the land securely. The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live on it securely.
—Leviticus 25:10–13; 17–19
In ancient Israel, in the fiftieth year, everything went back to its original owner. Ideally, all debts were forgiven. It was the great equalizer, a sign of the largess and magnanimity of God. This is the teaching Jesus is drawing upon when he quotes from Isaiah in his inaugural address and throughout his ministry (Luke 4:18–19, 21).
If people had lived by the law of Jubilee, communism would never have been necessary, and capitalism would have never been possible. The spirit behind this jubilee thinking lasted for the first 1,000 years of Christianity, when one could be excommunicated for taking an interest on a loan. (They called it the sin of usury.) The prayer of petition Jesus teaches still raises questions about economics: How does the burden of debt—the personal debt people carry in our consumer society, the national debt carried, particularly by Global South countries—keep people imprisoned in their own history?
Justice Requires Rest for All
Monday, February 2, 2026
Observe the sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God.
—Deuteronomy 5:12–14
Theologian Cindy Lee explains how Moses and the Israelites practiced Sabbath as a liberating rhythm of life:
Work and rest are justice issues that affect our everyday spiritual formation…. We cannot rest well unless we unform our distorted practices of work. We also cannot truly find rest as individuals until all in the community can also find rest. In the Old Testament Scriptures, the commandment to keep the Sabbath was not just an order to rest. Rather, the Sabbath establishes a liberative spiritual practice to address our unjust and unethical systems of work….
The Sabbath laws establish a new rhythm of life for the Israelites after they are freed from Egypt. The Sabbath laws counteract the unjust and abusive economic system of slavery. The way of Sabbath is detailed in the fourth commandment in Deuteronomy 5:12–15….
In this passage, Moses explains to the Israelites that they can rest now because they’ve been saved from the economic oppression of slavery. They no longer have to live according to that violent rhythm of production. Sabbath breaks the nonstop, violent cycle of production and consumption. It breaks our greed by forcing us to stop continually trying to do more and gain more. The Sabbath system is a just and equal system because all—animals, land, landowners, servants, and foreigners—enjoy the same rest. None of us has ever truly experienced a Sabbath, however, because we still live in a world where foreigners, servants, land, and animals do not get sufficient rest. Imagine a world where we all had equal rest.
The healing power of the Sabbath comes when we embrace it as a collective practice:
The Western church has taught Sabbath keeping as an individual practice of taking a day off and missed the understanding of Sabbath as a collective posture that orients us toward a just society where all can find rest. Therefore, even as our individual rest is important, we also need to help others in our communities to rest. Keeping the Sabbath rhythm requires everyone in the community, including those with privilege and power, to participate so that all can rest. The practice of communal rest is meant to train us into a way of living as a society. As someone who is privileged to take days off and go on retreats, I need to look at my community. These are questions I’ve found helpful to ask myself: Who can I free to rest? Who is exhausted? Who is not getting enough rest? And what little part can I do to help lessen their load so they can rest too?
