I desire mercy and not sacrifice

 

 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath.  And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.  And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, "Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!"  But He said to them, "Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him:  how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests?  Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless?  Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple.  But if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless.  For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."

Now when He had departed from there, He went into their synagogue.  And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand.  And they asked Him, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?" -- that they might accuse Him.  Then He said to them, "What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out?  Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep?  Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath."  Then He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand."  And he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the other.  Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him.

 

- Matthew 12:1-14 

 

In yesterday's reading, Jesus said, "I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.  Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.  All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.  Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

 

  At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath.  And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.  And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, "Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!"  My study Bible explains that the Pharisees are rigid in their legalism.  While the Law allowed plucking a few heads of grain in a neighbor's field (Deuteronomy 23:25), they consider it "reaping" and therefore to be unlawful on the Sabbath.

But He said to them, "Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him:  how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests?  Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless?"  Here Christ provides Old Testament examples of blameless "violations" of the Sabbath, and thereby demonstrates that the law is not absolute over human need or service to God, as my study Bible frames it.  As David and his men partook of the showbread (1 Samuel 21:4-6), it is a prefiguring of the Eucharist.  In the Old Testament the showbread was forbidden to anyone but the priests, but in Christ this heavenly bread is given to all the faithful.

"Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple.  But if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless.  For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."  My study Bible comments that Christ, as the Author of the Law, is Lord over all of it.  So therefore, as Lord, He teaches that mercy takes precedence over regulations, ordinances, and ritualistic observances.  

Now when He had departed from there, He went into their synagogue.  And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand.  And they asked Him, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?" -- that they might accuse Him.  Then He said to them, "What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out?  Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep?  Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath."  Then He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand."  And he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the other.  Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him.  Here Christ puts into action the things He has just taught in His confrontation with the Pharisees.  In this case, He challenges their understanding of the rigidity of the Law by suggesting that the purpose of the Sabbath is to heal and make whole, to enrich and support human life.  Even to save an animal was considered lawful, so how much more value is there in healing a human being?  To do good therefore is not profaning the Sabbath, but lawful.  The Pharisees respond with indignance at this vivid open challenge to their authority.

The Pharisees do not seem to understand that the intent of the Law is every bit as important as the minute and precise following of its details.  These details include their own proscriptions and secondary commentaries on the Law, the product of their endless debates about the commands in the Law.  Jesus will comment regarding their hypocrisy in chapter 15, by quoting from Isaiah:  "These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.  And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men" (from Isaiah 29:13).  He will elaborate specifically regarding their blindness to greater matters and their detailed practices in the whole of Matthew 23.  But today's reading illustrates for us with a memorable example their clear blindness to the greater priorities of the Law.  They don't care about healing, as if it were irrelevant to consider in the context of the aim of the Law.  They care for the observance of details, and their own interpretation of the Law.  In a commentary on Genesis, Fr. Stephen De Young points out in his podcast (found here) that God's priorities which we can read in the story of creation are to take chaos and emptiness ("The earth was without form and void," Genesis 1:2), and to set everything in proper order and fill it with life.  God then gives a similar mission to Adam and Eve, and to humankind by extension.  Jesus demonstrates this principle by healing the man with the withered hand, and therefore shows His own "God-likeness," but the Pharisees are blind to it.  They don't understand the aims of God from the Scriptures because they are so focused on their own particular legalisms, and so Christ's behavior simply makes them incensed.  Jesus sets things in order by prioritizing healing and doing good on the Sabbath, and returns life to the man with the withered hand.  But, as He says in Matthew 23, these men "pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith" (Matthew 23:23).  What they cannot recognize is the true action of Christ, and how it is reflective of the actions of God in the Scriptures which they hold dear, and in which they are the experts.  They are focused too much on legalism, and "cannot see the forest for the trees," so to speak.  As the Gospels tell us, their hearts are hardened in this sense, and Christ's compassion, in defense of life, is only reckoned to them as a challenge to their authority.  It's not the only time in the Gospels in which a healing goes unvalued and undesired.  After Christ's healing of the Gergesene demoniacs, the people there also begged Him to leave them.  In today's reading, Jesus quotes from Isaiah's prophecy:  "I desire mercy and not sacrifice."   This is not a statement against sacrifices, but rather one that clearly gives priorities; for without mercy, sacrifice or hospitality is meaningless.  Let us consider the things that remain the purview and priority of God, as witnessed throughout the Scriptures:  putting things into "right order" and right relationship (or righteousness), and filling with life (creation).  For these are the hallmarks of God and God's work.  Christ's compassion always works on behalf of these priorities.  Let us endeavor to embrace the same.