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Today's Little Lift
by Jim Bullington
We begin by quoting Jesus as He quoted Hosea. “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” (Matthew 9.13). We want to keep this passage foremost before our minds as we continue to search for its significance in our worship activities as believers and in our everyday lives.
To the Pharisees of Jesus' day, ceremonial uncleanness was equal to sin and was to be avoided at almost any cost. Perhaps this was the reason that in the Parable of the Good Samaritan, the Levite and the Priest passed by on the other side and refused to render aid to the man who had been accosted by robbers and left to die (see Luke 10.29-32). In this case, it took a Samaritan who had nothing to guide him except his merciful and compassionate attitude to help the hurting man. The Samaritan was not “enlightened by religious thinking” enough to know that some religious rules are just more important than mercy (sarcasm here just in case you missed it)!
The statement of Jesus and Hosea is akin to God's lament spoken through Amos when He said, “I hate, I despise your feast days, And I do not savor your sacred assemblies. Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them, Nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings. Take away from Me the noise of your songs, For I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. But let justice run down like water, And righteousness like a mighty stream.” (Amos 5.21-24). The principle is the same. Religious ritual is just that; it is ritual! It has symbolic worth, but attitude of heart is inherently worthy of praise apart from the deeds that it births! For this reason, God pleaded that justice and righteousness might be plentiful and until it was, refused to hear or accept the sacrifices that were offered by some in Amos' day.
There is relative worth in religious rituals, and it in no way approaches the absolute worth of right attitudes. That is why mercy, justice, righteousness, faith, love and other such attributes trump the outward show of rituals. The confusion of the worth of such things led the opponents of Jesus to challenge such things as removing wheat from the chaff so it could be eaten on the sabbath. It was this confusion that prompted Jesus to cite Hosea the second time in Matthew 12. “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.” (Matthew 12.3-8).
Human nature is indeed interesting in all generations. Immediately after the encounter just noted, “...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.'” (Matthew 12.9-12).
Old habits die hard, especially old religious habits. Jesus can help us to look beyond the mundane and focus on the sublime. We must have a willing and attentive heart in order for this to occur. (Continued)
Questions:
1. Why did we speak of the relative worth of rituals and the absolute worth of right attitudes? Do you agree with this principle? Why or why not?
2. Was it a sin for David to eat of the showbread? Why or why not?
3. Was it a sin for Jesus to heal on the sabbath? Was it a sin for a man to rescue a lost sheep on the sabbath? What is the line of reasoning that Jesus is following here?
4. Do you agree that old religious habits die hard? Why might they be harder to eliminate than other types of habits?
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