Matthew 12:7 (NKJV): if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. Jesus. Matthew 12:7
Hey, I’m Nathan, and this is Day 14 of 30 Days Watching Jesus. In this simple
passage, Jesus illuminates his own way of operating toward others: he was after goodness, not religious performance, or ritual faithfulness.
Unfortunately, it seems like we—religious folk—tend to have a higher value for ritual faithfulness than we do for people. In other words, we like to count the things that are easy to count: who’s showing up in church? What are they eating? What do they do on Sabbath? What are they listening to? Did they watch that movie? Do those things matter? Well, I think so. But there’s something that matters more: the person. A person is not a mere list of good or bad actions. A long list of good deeds could as easily be mistaken for righteousness as a long list of bad deeds mistaken for godlessness. At the bottom of it, we all need mercy—good, deep change, happens in that context. We’re all right here because we’ve received mercy. Period.
