mercy, not sacrifices

Jesus Calls Matthew

9 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector's booth. "Follow me and be my disciple," Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him.
10 Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners.11 But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with such scum?s"
12 When Jesus heard this, he said, "Healthy people don't need a doctor—sick people do."13 Then he added, "Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: `I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.'s For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners."

matthew 9

this is a very big passage. a lot of us know it. Jesus came to heal the sick, not the healthy. and the simple truth is, everybody's sick and everybody needs Jesus, it's just some of us don't admit it. some of us think that following Jesus is enough, as long as we don't truly let Him in and open ourselves up to Him. some people think that as long as they go to church and pray and read their bibles, that they're "healthy." maybe some of us think that if we just accept Him one time, then we'll be good forever and we won't have to do anything afterwards. well, the reality is that we have to continually open ourselves up to be changed by Him. it's not a one time thing. it's not a shallow thing. i think we'll always need Jesus to be our healer, i don't know if we're ever just fully "healthy" enough to live this life on our own. i don't think we were meant to. and i see a lot of people who think they're fine just because they call themselves christians and still have plenty of hurts bottled up inside of them that still affect them deeply. these people aren't dependent on Jesus, they're dependent on themselves. i think we've all been there and some of us still are, where we think we're self-sufficient. where we think we finally have it all figured out and we stop depending on God. and i think that's where it gets dangerous. when we stop depending on God and depending on ourselves again because we think we're "healed" up. that's when pride and sin come creeping right back in, when we stop leaning on Jesus. i know that it's happened to me before, and that's when i transformed from a sick patient who was in desperate need of a savior to a pharisee.

some of us may not think it, or we're so oblivious to it, but we might be pharisees. i think there's a lot of us out there who think we know more about God than a lot of people and act like we're better than people who don't go to church. there's a lot of self-righteous people out there, and i'll admit, i'm still struggling to get out of that mindset and attitude. for some reason, i get the feeling that i'm a lot less "sinful" than others so that makes me better. man, am i wrong. my righteousness and good deeds, compared to God's righteousness and goodness, are like dirty rags. i get proud of my accomplishments, i start boasting in myself instead of Jesus Christ. and i start looking down on people who don't do as much as me and that's straight up evil. it hardens my heart. bitterness and resentment build up. so when i come across this verse, my heart breaks, "i want you to show mercy, not sacrifices." sacrifices. deeds. routines. duties. i do a lot of this good stuff that should make me a good Christian, right? i mean, i go to church and sacrifice my sunday, or i go to wednesday bible study or prayer meeting, i do devotionals, i do all this good stuff! that's what He wants, right?? nope. He wants to see me show true, genuine mercy and compassion to people who need it. He doesn't want to see passing judgment on every single person. He wants me to be Christ-like. and what did Jesus do? He ate and fellowshipped with the sinners and the outcasts of society.

Jesus finishes out with saying that He came to call not the people who call themselves righteous, but those who KNOW they are sinners. so here are the questions. do you remember that you're a sinner, someone who just misses the mark? do you remember what that humble attitude was like? saying, "God, i'm not worthy to be forgiven or to receive your free grace." or have you turned into a pharisee, who overlooks his or her own sin and only points out others' flaws? do you think that you're "healed" up enough? have you stopped depending on Jesus? what are your sacrifices, routines, duties that you think "qualify" you or make you "good" enough for His love? have you been showing MERCY? have you been, instead of just doing things for God, letting Him change you from the inside out so you actually truly live out love?