In Matthew 9:9-13, Jesus has just called Matthew to follow him. He is then seen reclining at a table with many tax collectors and sinners along with his disciples (Matthew 9:10). In verse 11, the Pharisees question Jesus to his disciples, asking “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” (Matthew 9:11 ESV)
Jesus hears the question and responds that it’s not the well who need a physician but the sick (verse 12). Then Jesus gives the charge, “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous but the sinners.”’ (Matthew 9:13 ESV)
The word used for mercy here in Greek is “eleos” (Strong's G1656). This word is used 27 times in the New Testament. The King James Version translates it as “mercy” each time. According to Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, “eleos” is a “kindness or goodwill toward the miserable and afflicted, joined with a desire to relieve them.”
In Matthew 9, Jesus is being questioned by the Pharisees for who he is hanging around.. Later on, the Pharisees challenge Jesus for his disciples not keeping the Sabbath (Matthew 12:1-8). At this point, Jesus says to the Pharisees, “And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.” (Matthew 12:7 ESV)
The first time, Jesus charges the Pharisees to “go and learn” about mercy over sacrifice, and the second time Jesus says, “if you had known.” There is a progression to learn about mercy or goodwill toward those in need. I appreciate how Thayer’s says that it is “joined with a desire to relieve.” It is not pity, which would say, oh that’s too bad. No, it is recognizing the need and then desiring to meet that specific need.
The greatest example of mercy being shown, or goodwill toward those in need, is how Jesus came to help those in need, which was all of humanity, from Adam to us today. He came down and showed mercy.
In these two texts of Matthew 9 and Mathew 12 above, Jesus is charging the Pharisees to take the time to understand that God desires mercy, not sacrifice. The purpose of sacrifice in the Old Testament was to remind the Israelites about their own sin. It was an annual reminder of it (Hebrews 10:3).
So, the sacrifice was really about the people giving the sacrifice. They had to come to the temple, have the appropriate animal, and have the priest offer the sacrifice. This ultimately was a reminder to them.
It was a way for people to acknowledge their own sins before God. But, Jesus comes and flips the tables. In Matthew 12, the Pharisees are so focused on staying on the “right” side, that they are condemning anyone who is not keeping the letter of the law, which was the case in Matthew 12:1-8.
For the purpose of this discussion today, let’s call a “sacrifice” something we do “for God.” It could be any type of act “for” God. It is you saying, “Here I am God, I am coming to present myself to you with this sacrifice.”
The Pharisees were so precise with their sacrifice that they thought it put them in a category to not spend time with certain groups (Matthew 9) or to condemn those who were innocent (Matthew 12).
Jesus countered both of these actions with the heart of the Father, saying, “I desire mercy not sacrifice.” When we sacrifice or do something “for God,” it can put us in a place to say, “Okay, God. I did this for you, so now I am in a bit of a different category than those who haven’t done the same.”
It is like a child bringing a picture that they drew “for” their parent. Maybe they spent a lot of time on it. They come and present it (typically) with an expectation. It’s (typically) innocent and sweet, and it is basically saying, “I did this for you. Now, show me love and attention.”
When we come to the Father with our sacrifice with the expectation of Him giving us something in return, we are not actually approaching Him in the right way. There is nothing we could ever do for God that would cause God to “owe” us anything. (Job 41:11)
This speaks to the motive of the heart, which of course can be difficult to determine. For the Pharisees, they were so precise in their sacrifices that it caused them to have very clear lines of those who were “in” and “out” of their preferred group.
On the other hand, Jesus came to the world and never sinned. He did not need to offer any sacrifices for his own sin. His actions and attitude looked very different from that of the Pharisees. He spent time with people that they would never spend time with and he refused to condemn the innocent.
So, what does it mean for us to show mercy? How can we go and learn what Jesus said about it in the texts above? We can simply follow what Jesus did while on earth as a place to start.
Back to Matthew 9, Jesus went to people who needed a physician. They were the outcasts from the religious groups. They did not make all the same sacrifices or do the things “for God” as the Pharisees did. Jesus went to those who were in need, not to those who thought they were all set due to the sacrifices they had made and laws they had kept.
One way to change our approach to showing mercy is to change our mindset of how we approach God. Instead of doing things “for God,” which is a sacrifice, we can learn to do things “with God.” Jesus did everything “with” His heavenly Father. He spoke what He heard the Father say (John 12:49) and did what He saw the Father do (John 5:19). He was not doing anything on His own. He was perfect and did everything “with” His Father.
God desires that we love mercy (Micah 6:8). This is His heart toward us and He wants us to extend His heart to others.
How do we do that? We learn to do things “with” God and not “for” God. This means we have to be close to God. We have to spend time with Him. We want to hear His heart. We have to be willing to walk as Jesus did and hold our tongue when God isn’t speaking in a situation. We have to keep our hands from working in areas that God isn’t working. Our aim becomes to please Him in all we say and do and that it comes from a place of alignment with what we see Him saying and doing.
It’s a paradigm shift.
It is no longer about the list of things I am doing “for God.” That was the trap of the Pharisees. It became about what they were doing “for God,” which became a religious competition of sorts.
We are not competing. We are leaning into what God the Father is doing. We are working to be close enough to Jesus to hear Him. We are attentive to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
The challenge is this. If we have a list of things to do or not do, a list of places to go or not go, we could be missing what the Father is doing outside of our predetermined scope. I am not talking about anything blatantly unbiblical. Jesus didn’t use, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice” in that type of context. He used it in spending time and not condemning the innocent.
If I have things in my head already about who deserves my time and who is “the most qualified,” which was what the Pharisees were doing, I am in the realm of offering sacrifices over showing mercy. I may also not be in a place where God could use me to show His mercy.
God the Father desires to show His mercy to a hurting world. He sent His Son to show it. Jesus came to show mercy. He became the ultimate sacrifice so that we might know the Father. That we might have access to the Father and that the continual sacrifices could stop.
His sacrifice is the only one that counts. The shedding of His blood for our sin and even the cleansing of our conscience (Hebrews 10:19-22) allows me to no longer be in pursuit of a sacrifice to atone for my own shortcomings.i
Ultimately, until we perceive what His mercy means for us, we will not be in a place to give it fully to others. In the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant (Matthew 18:21-35), the unforgiving servant failed to grasp the magnitude of what his master had done for him. So, he was not full of mercy when he left his master’s presence. This led him to not showing mercy and ultimately losing the mercy he had received.
Until we realize the magnitude of God’s mercy for us and allow the blood of Jesus to cleanse our very conscience, we will be limited on how we understand mercy. That limitation will also extend into how we can show it.
Jude 1:22-23 (ESV) charges us to “have mercy on those who doubt” and to “show mercy with fear, hating even the garments stained by the flesh.”
The first charge is to have mercy on those who are doubting, on those that do not yet believe as you believe. I believe what I believe because God helped me believe it. Doubt is part of the pathway toward learning to believe. You can’t fully believe if you haven’t at some point questioned it. You had to become convinced. Jude is saying have mercy on folks still working on it.
Secondly, the next use of mercy in Jude 1 is to “show mercy with fear” in verse 23. What does that mean? Well, we fear God. Fearing God is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10). You may be in a situation where you are not fully sure what to do. Showing mercy is what to do and having the fear of the Lord provides a guardrail for you as you do it.
The last part of verse 23 concludes “hating even the garments stained by the flesh.” Jesus didn’t come, die, and deliver us from death so we could turn and be steeped in sin. That is simply putting us in bondage or allowing others to live in it as well.
Jesus came to heal the sick, to bind up the brokenhearted, to help those in need. It is through the forgiveness and freedom from sin that He does that. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free, not to indulge the flesh (Galatians 5:13).
His desire is for us to be with those that need His mercy. To wait on Him, speak what He is speaking, and do what He is doing.
We become His agents of mercy here on earth. We show His love in situations He could never physically be present in today.
That is the marvel of mercy, to be where He has called us to be when He has called us to be there and then to show His love and mercy to those that would otherwise never receive it, as we work “with God” and not “for Him.”
To God be all the glory.
Amen and amen.
i Pursuing our own sacrifices is a trap. It will lead us to do things “for God” that could be rooted in an evil conscience. Jesus died and shed His blood so that it would pay the price for our sins and that it would sprinkle our hearts, cleansing us of an evil conscience (Hebrews 10:22). If I am operating out of some guilt or feeling like God needs me to do something for Him. I am out of touch with His mercy. Turn to Him and receive the cleansing of your conscience in that area.
