I Will Have Mercy, And Not Sacrifice
Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin ArticlesOne day when the Pharisees saw Jesus eating with publicans and sinners, they asked Jesus’ disciples, “Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?” (Matthew 9:10-11). When Jesus heard what they said, He replied to them, “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick” (Matthew 9:12). His reply provided them with a response suitable to their kind of “holier than thou” reasoning. They imagined themselves to be spiritually healthy, while the publicans and sinners were hopelessly ill. By their own logic, Jesus’ course of action in eating with sinners was justified, because a physician is for the sick, not for the healthy. A physician must associate with the sick in order to heal them.
But Jesus’ answer was not the end of the matter, for He then said, “But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice ….” (Matthew 9:13 – KJV). His quotation is from Hosea 6:6, where God found fault with both Ephraim and Judah, not because they were offering sacrifices, but because they were offering sacrifices without a godly character, conducive to a moral lifestyle (Hosea 6:8-11; cf. Hosea 4:12-19). They thought that offering their sacrifices without goodness and knowledge of God would suffice.
It is incorrect to conclude from Jesus’ quotation from Hosea 6:6, that God did not require sacrifices. God made very specific requirements about sacrifices and commanded them to be offered exactly as He wanted (see Leviticus 1-7-NKJV). In the setting of Hosea 6:6- KJV, the comparative word “more” sets two things against each other and shows that one is of greater value than the other. Both comparisons in the verse are not designed to be mutually exclusive, but rather are to be understood as illustrations of the superiority of offering sacrifices from a sincere, God-like heart over physical acts.
Jesus was telling the self-righteous Pharisees (cf. Matthew 23:1-7; Luke 18:9-12) that they were indeed diseased, because their character was deficient in one of the most fundamental qualities of Divine nature — mercy (Psalm 86:15; cf. Psalm 103:8; Exodus 34:6-7) .
External acts of service to God do not make the heart right, and true mercy is expressed in a tireless and compelling desire to bring sin sick souls to the Great Physician (James 5:20; cf. Proverbs 11:30). Sacrifice? Yes, but more importantly, a character reflecting God’s holy character (1 Peter 1:15-16; cf. Leviticus 11:44-45; Leviticus 19:2; Leviticus 20:7).