예수의 복음은 ‘하나님 나라’의 도래로 집약된다. 그것은 ‘온 백성에 미칠 큰 기쁨의 좋은 소식’으로써, 특히 1세기 이스라엘의 역사현실에서 억압받던 ‘가난한 이’들에게 미치는 자유와 해방의 소식이었다. 그는 하나님 나라가 임해왔음을 선언하며, 이사야의 예고를 들어 고래로부터 이스라엘의 사회적 이상이 되어왔던 희년 실천을 자신의 메시아적 사명의 핵심으로 제시한다. 그는 희년 실천의 틀 안에서 하나님 나라의 실현이 구체화 될 것을 기대한다.
예수가 선포하고 기대한 희년에는 전통적인 이해를 뛰어 넘는 여러 특징들이 있다. 예수는 그의 희년 선포에서 하나님 나라의 분배적 정의에 초점을 두었고, 전통적인 50년 희년주기를 넘어 즉각적이고 상시적인 실천을 기대했다. 그럼에도 그는 국가의 전면적 실천보다는 상황적 실천을 의도했다. 그는 자선 차원을 넘는 총체적인 회복으로써의 희년을 기대하고, 유대적 특수주의를 넘어선 보편 명령으로 확대했다. 선제적인 은혜의 선순환의 지속을 기대하며, 그것을 영생의 길로써 제시했다. 그것은 예수를 따르는 제자도의 전제였고, 희년실천 거부에 대해서는 지속적인 비판이 따랐다. 마침내 희년 명령은 지상명령으로써 제시되었다.
예수의 지상적 몸이요 제자공동체인 교회는 희년실천으로 구체화되는 하나님 나라의 복음을 회복해야 한다. 그 복음을 재확인하고 구체적인 실천 방향을 모색해야 하는 것은 무엇보다 그것이 교회의 정체성과 존재목적의 문제이기 때문이다.
The gospel of Jesus is summed up in the coming of the Kingdom of God. As “good news of great joy for all the people,” it was the news of freedom and deliverance especially for the poor who, as a matter of historic reality, were under the oppression in the first century Israel. Jesus proclaimed that the kingdom of God had come and by quoting Isaiah’s prophecy presented the practice of the Jubilee that had been the social ideal of Israel from old days as the core of his Messianic mission. And it was within the framework of practicing the Jubilee that he expected the reality of the Kingdom of God to be materialized. The Jubilee that Jesus proclaimed and expected has many characteristics that went beyond the conventional understanding. In proclaiming the Jubilee, he focused on distributive justice in the Kingdom of God and expected an immediate and continuing practice beyond the traditional fifty-year-cycle. At the same time, he intended Jubilee to be practiced depending on the circumstances rather than in a nation-wide scale by the state. He expected Jubilee as overall restoration that is more than acts of charity and expanded it beyond Jewish particularism as a universal command. He looked forward to the continuing good cycle of preemptive grace and showed the practice of Jubilee as the way of eternal life. As it was a precondition for the discipleship to follow Jesus, those who fail to practice Jubilee has been subjected to perennial criticism. The command to practice Jubilee presented itself finally as the great commission. The church, which is the earthly body of Jesus and the community of his disciples, ought to restore the gospel of the Kingdom of God that is to be realized in the practice of Jubilee. Reaffirming that gospel and seeking for specific methods of practice is called for because first and foremost this matter concerns the very identity of the church and purpose of its being.
The gospel of Jesus is summed up in the coming of the Kingdom of God. As “good news of great joy for all the people,” it was the news of freedom and deliverance especially for the poor who, as a matter of historic reality, were under the oppression in the first century Israel. Jesus proclaimed that the kingdom of God had come and by quoting Isaiah’s prophecy presented the practice of the Jubilee that had been the social ideal of Israel from old days as the core of his Messianic mission. And it was within the framework of practicing the Jubilee that he expected the reality of the Kingdom of God to be materialized. The Jubilee that Jesus proclaimed and expected has many characteristics that went beyond the conventional understanding. In proclaiming the Jubilee, he focused on distributive justice in the Kingdom of God and expected an immediate and continuing practice beyond the traditional fifty-year-cycle. At the same time, he intended Jubilee to be practiced depending on the circumstances rather than in a nation-wide scale by the state. He expected Jubilee as overall restoration that is more than acts of charity and expanded it beyond Jewish particularism as a universal command. He looked forward to the continuing good cycle of preemptive grace and showed the practice of Jubilee as the way of eternal life. As it was a precondition for the discipleship to follow Jesus, those who fail to practice Jubilee has been subjected to perennial criticism. The command to practice Jubilee presented itself finally as the great commission. The church, which is the earthly body of Jesus and the community of his disciples, ought to restore the gospel of the Kingdom of God that is to be realized in the practice of Jubilee. Reaffirming that gospel and seeking for specific methods of practice is called for because first and foremost this matter concerns the very identity of the church and purpose of its being.
