...But go, learn this, "I desire mercy and not sacrifice."
The Pharisees were a conflicted group. There is much to be learned from their formalism and attitude toward people unlike them. A few verses earlier, Jesus said, “If you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice’ then you would not have condemned the guiltless. “Jesus nor his disciples were involved in sin but they clearly offended the Pharisees.”
The Pharisees are simply terrible at mercy. Judgement is their strength, but its unequally distributed. Take for example the woman “caught” in adultery. The law calls for both man and woman to be stoned to death, but they only bring the woman. Perhaps the man was within the Pharisee family or someone they favored. We have a bank account full of mercy for our family members because we favor them. Pharisees miss the obvious because pride is blinding and our haughtiness is intoxicating.
Pharisees, like many professing Christians, make up their own rules and no one really knows them until they are broken. There is an invisible score card they keep. Their business mind-set was far greater than their ministry mind-set. Mercy was typically reserved when they needed it and stewarded conservatively when others needed it.
The Pharisees’ motive was not love for people, but love for themselves. They loved the rules because they used the rules to feel righteous. See, the problem is the same. Pharisees don’t see themselves as God’s Masterpiece mercifully being restored. They see themselves as muddied people who cleaned themselves up ( or didn’t need restoring). How do you view yourself? Does this view lead you to value “being right” or “knowing truth”, as opposed to showing compassion or mercy to a broken world Jesus came to restore?
Pastor Preston Atkinson
Click edit button to change this text. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit dolor