I Desire Mercy Not Sacrifice

I Desire Mercy Not Sacrifice: Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26, Romans 3:23-24

Jesus shows us that mercy is at the very heart of God and challenges us to make it at our very heart as well.

ME

I’m rubber you’re glue. Whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you.

I must have consoled myself with this a million times.

We say this because we like to hurt each other with our words…and deeds.

Girl Kicking Me In the Shin

7th grade.

Language arts class.

I said something hurtful.

Whether we are aware of it or not, we hurt each other in a myriad of ways.

WE

I bet you have your own “hurt their feelings story.”

Spouse

Other relative

Friend

Person checking you out at the grocery store

Work colleague

We say and do things to make sure people know we are IN and they are OUT.

Rex: The war to end all wars

We are really good at fighting each other.

The tribe means our survival.

It’s in our DNA.

Mirror Neurons…reading emotions and connecting with them.

IN and OUT. Jesus’ followers were no different.

GOD

Matthew 9:9–13 (NLT)

9 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him.

10 Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners.

11 But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?”

12 When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.”

13 Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning [Rabbi, teaching his followers] of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy [LXX version, Loyal Love..Hessed], not offer sacrifices.’ [Hosea 6:6] For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

Matthew 9:18–26 (NLT)

18 As Jesus was saying this, the leader of a synagogue [Tax Collectors were often banned from the synagogue. Could Jesus be challenging Matthew to show the same compassion he was shown?] came and knelt before him. “My daughter has just died,” he said, “but you can bring her back to life again if you just come and lay your hand on her.”

19 So Jesus and his disciples got up and went with him.

20 Just then a woman who had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding [making her unclean, Lev. 15:25-30, Her problem is physical, social, and religious] came up behind him. She touched the fringe of his robe, 21 for she thought, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.” [She must have been desperate]

22 Jesus turned around, and when he saw her he said, “Daughter, be encouraged! Your faith has made you well.” And the woman was healed at that moment.

23 When Jesus arrived at the official’s home, he saw the noisy crowd and heard the funeral music. [Funeral ceremony starts soon after death…before the sun goes down] 24 “Get out!” he told them. “The girl isn’t dead; she’s only asleep.” But the crowd laughed at him. 25 After the crowd was put outside, however, Jesus went in and took the girl by the hand [making him unclean, Num. 19:11], and she stood up!

26 The report of this miracle swept through the entire countryside.

Jesus is made ceremonially unclean by being touched and touching two unclean people.

He is concretely demonstrating what it means to show mercy.

Religious purity demanded one thing, God’s compassion another.

YOU

Do you extend mercy to others? By…

Meeting concrete needs

Seeing beyond what others see

Not letting your religion get in the way of God’s compassion?

WE

Knowing People vs. Knowing Nameless

When writer Denise Loock and her husband moved to North Carolina, she began volunteering at a local soup kitchen.

She writes that she did it because she thought it would make her more compassionate.

It would make her more grateful for her comforts.

But she soon realized that she was doing her volunteer work with the wrong attitude.

As the months passed, she developed real relationships with the people she served at the soup kitchen.

Instead of seeing them as nameless recipients, she saw them as friends, people she cared about and knew by name.

She began praying for her new friends, which only deepened her relationship with them.

She writes, “I made sure Billy got a can of the Mountain Dew he preferred, and I reminisced with Barbara who grew up in my hometown.

I chatted with Donnie when I cut his meat because he couldn’t do it with his misshapen right hand.

The so-glad-to-see-yous and the hugs multiplied.

“What happened? I developed relationships. These folks became dear to me.

Going to the soup kitchen wasn’t an act of sacrifice; it was a place where I hung out with people I cared about.

“In Matthew 9, the Pharisees looked around Matthew’s house and saw nameless ‘tax collectors’ and ‘sinners.’

Jesus saw people he cared about, people he wanted to hang out with.

“And he knew their names.” 

The Pharisees let their religion get in the way of God’s mercy.

Jesus shows us that mercy is at the very heart of God and challenges us to make it at our very heart as well.

Hosea puts it well,

“I desire Mercy not Sacrifice.”