This post is part of a 40-Day Prayer Journey through the season of Lent. Click here to learn more and read other posts in the series.
“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matthew 9:12-13).
Before the verses above, Jesus had just heard the Pharisees—religious leaders of God’s people—ask his disciples why Jesus was eating with tax collectors and sinners.
Jesus himself answers, reminding them that the Messiah’s purpose was to call sinners to repentance, to heal sin-sick souls with the words of God’s faithful love for his people. Jesus even gave the Pharisees a pretty harsh rebuke, telling the religious leaders who studied God’s Word so diligently to go and learn what it actually meant.
“I desire mercy, not sacrifice” (Hosea 6:6).
So what does that actually mean? What does mercy look like?
In his commentary in The People’s Bible® series on Hosea, Joel, and Amos, Professor Paul Eickmann explained it like this:
[God’s] people will show their loyalty to Israel’s faithful God by worshiping him in their daily lives. They will look out for the spiritual and physical needs of their fellow Israelites. In their love for their fellowmen, they will reflect the love of their own forgiving God. They will defend the powerless, clothe the naked, and feed the hungry, showing mercy to others as their God has shown mercy to them. (p. 59)
The Pharisees had it all wrong. They were so focused on fulfilling the letter of God’s law that they failed to apply the heart of God’s law to their lives. They sacrificed and honored God with their lips . . . but their hearts were far from their merciful God. They considered themselves better than sinners and tax collectors and shunned them.
The religious leaders of Israel ignored the spiritual and physical needs of the very people God called them to lead. They failed to see that they too were sin-sick souls in need of the Savior who was calling them to repentance, just as he was calling the people they considered to be sinners.
Is there a rebuke in Jesus’ words for us as well?
Sometimes I fail to show mercy to others—the people in my life, friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers. With my thoughts, words, and actions, I fail to show them the same mercy, grace, and faithful love that God has shown to me.
Thank God for Jesus. He always showed mercy and love to his neighbor—and to those who considered themselves his enemies, even though he did not. He came to live, die, and rise again for us, self-proclaimed enemies of God. He came to make us dearly loved children of God. And now he calls us to reflect his love to others.
Today, as you pray, ask that God would guide you and all of his people to have compassion on one another and share his love with them. Ask for his strength to show his incredible mercy and faithful love to others.
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Alex Brown is the marketing and content copywriter at Northwestern Publishing House. He has his Master of Divinity degree from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary and enjoys reading, writing, and spending time in God’s creation.
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