Matthew 9:9-12 (NIV 2011)

9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Reflection:

This is the parallel passage to Luke 5:27-33. While there is much similarity in the facts of the event, Matthew brings up the aspect of “mercy, not sacrifice” to describe the event of Jesus reaching the outcast, lost, sick, the sinners. Jesus equates the Pharisees with their externally focused, superficial religiosity to a mere “sacrifice”, while true ministry is the ministry of mercy.

How does this help us? While sacrifice is human’s activity directed towards God, mercy is God’s act of forgiveness directed toward human beings, who are in need of redemption. More than just “activity”, mercy is rooted in God’s love and begins by “receiving” and “responding”.

Response:

“But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’” It is often easier to offer a sacrifice in the form of religious acts than to receive and extend mercy. But rather than external actions, God desires for our hearts to be changed by His overwhelming mercy for us. Let’s receive the freedom that God gives us from an empty life of religious acts and thank Him for the mercy He continues to offer us. Let’s pray and ask that we would continually experience the ongoing transformation His mercy brings, and that it would overflow out of our hearts so we may sincerely extend it to others.