Has COVID-19 Exposed our Heart?

Each spring I revel in a simple but meaningful pursuit—planting my garden. It’s a small garden, just a few raised beds filled with soil from my compost pile. But each year I till in the new compost and plant my seeds. The kale, spinach and other greens go in first. They thrive in the cool weather and give me something to do until the threat of frost disappears and I can plant a variety of tomatoes, peppers, squash, zucchini and whatever else suits my fancy. I find great joy in watching the garden grow and in producing the ingredients for my wife’s fresh homemade salsa. Gardening is a great hobby, but it is just that—a hobby. I don’t rely on my crops for survival. If a late frost kills my tomatoes, I don’t suffer. I simply make a trip to the local grocery store where I find plenty to eat.

Amid the debate over reopening the economy, I’ve been thinking about gardens and the book of Leviticus. For some folk, the laws in Leviticus seem ancient and archaic, but I’m finding these wonderful words of God to have a special relevance for our time. I’ve been especially drawn to Leviticus 25, where we find the laws regarding the cessation of agriculture during Sabbath year and Jubilee.

Sabbath year was an extension of Sabbath day, a way to weave eternity into the rhythm of human existence in time and space. The words given to Moses were clear:

“For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest.” Leviticus 25:3-5

Just as no work was done on Sabbath day, the work of planting and harvesting ceased for Sabbath year. We remember of course that for Israel, gardening was no hobby. The survival of her people depended on the fruit of the land and the increase of her flocks and herds. God’s people lived in an agricultural economy. Yet God asked Israel to “shut down” her economy for an entire year. Why?

First, God sought to demonstrate His ownership of the land and remind Israel that she was an appointed caretaker, not the true owner of the land. But asking Israel to cease work for an entire year also invited Israel into a deep reliance on God. At its core Sabbath transcends the cessation of work and ushers us into trusting communion with God. Sabbath demands a kind of faith that seems to fly in the face of common sense. Who in their right mind would voluntarily close their business for a year in order to let creation rest and people engage more deeply with God, one another and their own self? Perhaps those who trust God might dare to do such a thing.

But Sabbath year was just the beginning. Leviticus 25 goes on to give the regulations for the year of Jubilee. After seven cycles of Sabbath years, the fiftieth year was set apart as the year of Jubilee when farming was again prohibited. Thus, Jubilee required two consecutive years of rest from agricultural activity. God anticipated Israel’s reaction to such an absurd demand:

“You may ask, “What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant or harvest our crops?” I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years. While you plant during the eighth year, you will eat from the old crop and will continue to eat from it until the harvest of the ninth year comes in.” Leviticus 25:20-22

God promised to supply abundantly so that during the cessation of farming, Israel could live from and be generous with the overflow. These commands regarding Sabbath come at the end of Leviticus, forming the climax of the law, just the seventh day was the climax of the creation story in Genesis. Both the story and the law teach us that the pinnacle of human existence is found in a deep trusting rest in God.

Throughout her history, Israel’s failures had less to do with believing the wrong things and more to do with their failure to trust God. Immediately following the Sabbath laws chapter 25, Leviticus 26 sets forth the consequences of observing or failing to observe the Sabbath laws. If she obeyed, Israel would be blessed with all they need and more. If she disobeyed, then calamity would come upon her (Leviticus 26:2ff). The sad history of Israel reveals much about Israel’s priorities. In their desire for crops, they worshiped the fertility deities such as Baal. In their desire for national security they built armies and entered into alliances with foreign nations. In their desire for more they forsook generosity and exploited their fellow Israelites. Throughout the Torah God promised that he would bless Israel if they would simply trust in Him and follow His commands. Yet Israel did not trust, and she did not obey.

The well know Jewish scholar Abraham Heschel, put it well; “It is one thing to race or be driven by the vicissitudes that menace life, and another thing to stand still and to embrace the presence of an eternal moment.”[1] Sabbath, Sabbath year and Jubilee were an “eternal moment” for Israel – one they failed to embrace.

Of course the Jubilee regulations extended beyond the cessation of farming. They also allowed for the redemption of property that had been sold, the cancelation of debts, and the liberation of indentured servants. Generosity was to flow during a time when land owners had to rely on the blessings stored from previous years and God’s promise that He would provide in the future. The call to a generous spirit required a faith in God that in the end would usher humanity into a blessed state of freedom. In the words of Heschel,

“The seventh day is the armistice in man’s cruel struggle for existence, a truce in all conflicts, personal and social, peace between man and man, man and nature, peace within man; a day on which handling money is considered a desecration, on which man avows his independence of that which is the world’s chief idol. The seventh day is the exodus from tension, the liberation of man from his own muddiness, the installation of man as a sovereign in the world of time.”[2]

Interestingly there is little biblical evidence that Israel practiced the Jubilee regulations. I wonder if God’s people will fare any better today. We are not bound by the letter of the laws associated with Jubilee, but the principles behind the law are still binding because they reflect the eternal character of God. We, no less than the Israelites, are called to put our trust in God.

I’m not surprised non-Christians idolize production and the pursuit of security in material possessions. The tragedy is that many who profess Christ have fallen into the same idol worship. I fear the COVID-19 crisis has exposed a deep error in some. To close shop for months out of concern for a few at risk souls seems as illogical as letting the land lie fallow for a year. To take time normally given to labor as an opportunity to rest in God makes little sense to a culture driven by the idol of material comfort.

As debates ramp up over opening society and business, I’m less apprehensive about the specific steps our communities adopt as we reopen. I’m more concerned with the motives that drive those decisions. Will selfish desires determine our response? Will rampant materialism and a misplaced trust in a thriving economy prevail over other concerns? While COVID-19 is a terrible tragedy, the crisis has also handed us an opportunity to trust God and enter into a deep reliance on Him. We have an opportunity to practice generosity out of the abundance and surplus God has given many. Many profess “In God we trust”, but I wonder.

With typical pastoral concern Dallas Willard calls us to account; "One of the greatest needs today is for people to really see and really believe the things they already profess to see and believe. Knowing about things … does not mean we actually believe them. When we truly believe what we profess, we are set to act as if it were true. Acting as if things were true means, in turn, that we live as if they were so."[3]

How will we live in these days? As COVID-19 exposes our motivating center, we might do well to reflect on the words of Jesus who embodied the spirit of Sabbath and Jubilee.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

…So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:25-27, 31-33.

[1] Sabbath, pg. 29.

[2] Sabbath, pg. 29

[3] Life Without Lack, XV