My Favorite Verses - Vol V (Feb 17 to Jun 17)

Matthew 9:12-13 … Mercy over sacrifice
(03/18/2017)
“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but instead those who are
ill. Go and learn what this means: I desire Mercy, not sacrifice -- for I have come
to call not the righteous but those who sin.” ~ Jesus (Matthew 9:12-13)
First & foremost, it is critical for those wishing to deeply understand this
passage that Jesus is speaking not about sacrifice in general, but rather directly
referencing the animal sacrifices still demanded by the barbaric religious customs
of his day …
Jesus was a prophet of Love & Justice, and as such he knew that persecution
of the innocent in the name of a supposedly Just & Merciful God (Luke 6:36 &
Matthew 8:21-22 et al) was flagrantly hypocritical. And Jesus despised hypocrisy
almost as much as he despised injustice (see Matthew 23). And so he preached
against them both, and he did so by openly and flagrantly turning the Old
Testament‟s 613 laws (called mitzvoth) on their heads – making some more
lenient (e.g. harshly constraining Exodus 21:23-24, Leviticus 24:19-20 & Deuteronomy
19:21 with Matthew 5:38-41, harshly constraining Leviticus 4:27, Numbers 5:7, &
Leviticus 19:17 with Matthew 6:14-15, and harshly constraining Exodus 23:12 &
Exodus 23:32 with Matthew 12:9-12 et al), … making others more strict (e.g.
dramatically intensifying Exodus 20:13 & Deuteronomy 5:17 with Matthew 5:21-22a,
dramatically intensifying Exodus 20:14, Deuteronomy 5:18, & Leviticus 18:20 with
Matthew 5:27-28, and dramatically intensifying Exodus 23:19, Deuteronomy 18:4, &
Deuteronomy 18:26 with Matthew 6:1-4 et al), … and even taking some of those
laws and abolishing them completely (e.g. dismantling much of Leviticus 11 &
Deuteronomy 14 with Matthew 6:25-26 & Matthew 26:31-33, denouncing Leviticus
13:44-45 & Numbers 5:1-4 with Matthew 8:3, and discarding Numbers 28:3, Exodus
30:7-9, Exodus 12:6-10, & Exodus 13:2 with Matthew 9:12-13 & Matthew 12:7 et al).
Indeed, this explains why Hebrews 8:11-13 said what it said later in the New
Testament (“And they shall not teach one another or say to each other, „Know the
Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest -- for I will be
merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more. In speaking of
„a new covenant‟, he has made the first one obsolete. And what is obsolete and growing
old must soon disappear”), and this explains as well why it is actually a form of
blasphemy for anyone professing to be a Christian to use any Old Testament
verse or passage to attack or condemn or judge anyone else.
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