1536) I need to confess that sometimes I read a passage in the Bible, I get really confused. I know! That’s coming from someone who majored in Bible, taught it for almost two decades and writes professionally about many parts of Scripture. I found one such confusing place in Matthew 12:1-8   

The Pharisees, the respected religious leaders of Jesus’ day, confront his “unlawful” behavior here. This criticism arose because Jesus gave the okay for him and his disciples to pick some grain and eat it on the Sabbath. The pharisaical law forbids this kind of “work” as an infringement of God’s holy day of rest.

This is not the confusing part for me. I have no problem understanding what Jesus was doing and why, but what is confusing is what he says in verses 7-8.

In these verses, Jesus speaks to the pharisees and tells them he “desires mercy, not sacrifice” and he has a right to say this because he is “the Lord of the Sabbath.”

Again, I’m not confused by Jesus saying he’s Lord of the Sabbath, but when he said, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice,” it stops me in my mental tracks. I’m not sure I fully understand this, so when these types of confusions pop up, I dig in deeper.

In the Old Testament, the way to God was only through the obedience of sacrifice (blood for blood) done by the men in the family and the priests. In the New Testament, this way to God was shifted. Yes, he still requires a sacrifice, (blood for blood) but now we do not need to sacrifice because Jesus is our sacrifice, if we ask God to accept it in our place.

Because of this, it’s easier to understand that mercy is very important. Without mercy, there would be no sacrifice and mercy is what we need to pass on to others (which is hard) and to ourselves (which can often be harder.)

When you come across a portion of the Bible that seems confusing, that’s just the time to dig deeper and see what the Holy Spirit will reveal.