But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Matthew 9:13
Jesus twice quotes Hosea 6:6 here and in Matthew 12:7. The message of Hosea is that God does not desire sacrifices, even though many believed that sacrifices were God’s chief concern.
Israel too often thought that their relationship with God could be established through proper sacrifices, when in fact Hosea says that God wants hesed. This Hebrew word that Hosea usedis rich in meaningand can be translated mercy, compassion, steadfast love, or lovingkindness.
When Jesus quotes Hosea in this passage, he links it explicitly to the treatment of sinners. The question is how to respond to sin, and the answer is with mercy. The religious leaders are questioning why Jesus welcomes and associates with obviously sinful people. Jesus replies that mercy is what God desires, not sacrifice.
Sharing in God is not through offering particular sacrifices in a certain manner, but in treating our neighbors with mercy. This is particularly evident in our posture toward those who obviously need mercy and forgiveness.
Jesus again cites Hosea in Matthew 12:7 where he says, once more to religious leaders, that if they had understood Hosea they “would not have condemned the innocent.” The choice is mercy or condemnation. The treatment of people who are doing wrong is governed not by the logic of sacrifice, but mercy.
Jesus agrees with Hosea in contrasting sacrifice and mercy. The choice is between two paths. Sacrifice is offering animal blood for sin, while mercy, the path Hosea and Jesus say is God’s desire, involves forgiveness out of lovingkindness. God’s desire is not for the ancient sacrificial system but embraces simple compassion.
Reflecting on this statement, “I desire mercy not sacrifice”, is poignant during Passion Week because I was taught there is no mercy without sacrifice. Sacrifice, a death, bloodshed, must happen before mercy is possible. Sacrifice is first, and mercy comes out of a sacred killing.
I was told that God desires sacrifice, specifically the death of Jesus, so that he may then have mercy on me. No sacrifice, no mercy. Does that sound like Jesus or Hosea? Is that what they were saying?
In essence, we had changed what Hosea said, and Jesus quoted, to “I desire mercy through sacrifice”, or “I desire sacrifice by which I can be merciful.” This is nothing less than the complete inversion of what Jesus taught. This is the human logic of necessary violence as the means to grace.
The cross of Christ is God’s repudiation of violence, not his demand for it. By submitting to our violence, God reveals it to be impotent, and triumphs over our human lust for bloodshed with forgiveness, mercy, and love, as made apparent in the resurrection of Jesus.
In his cross, Jesus is not the lamb of God offered to God’s need for sacrifice, as if God desired that, but an innocent and harmless lamb offered to humanity, upon whom we bring our violence. We turned Jesus into a blood sacrifice, but in mercy, God forgives us. The blood Jesus shed was love for us, and by it God declares an end to all bloodshed.