Mercy, Not Sacrifice

Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath

Mathew  12: 1-8

12 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. ² When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”

³ He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? ⁴ He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. ⁵ Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? ⁶ I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. ⁷ If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. ⁸ For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

Jesus sets the tone, makes the rules, and in the contest between mercy and sacrifice, MERCY wins.  Common sense and the needs of others take precedence over the rules, which are really meant to be guidelines, helping us to keep focused on goals, but not ends in themselves.  The Law of Charity takes precedence over the Law.. May our prayer and daily meditation open our eyes and hearts to see  and respond to NEEDS rather than to strict adherence to the "letter of the law."  Then we will be following the spirit of the law of love.

Bro Rene.