Matthew 9:13 "But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice.' For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance"Matthew 12:7 "But if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless"
Jesus is quoting Hosea 6:6
The religious leaders of the time focused on sacrifice. If you read the passages around these verses the the Pharisees are telling Jesus that he and is followers are not following the "rules." They were not making "sacrifices". The were using condemning Jesus because he healed on the sabbath, because his disciples threshed wheat and eat it on the sabbath. This can be translated into how we quickly point out all the areas where other people are not following God. Who would you say is not following Jesus and why?
Jesus offers this radically different idea where the greatest commandment is to love God. The rules are not our salvation but they become important to the person or community as we learn to love, and as we are lead by the holy spirit. I think this is what Hosea is saying, he is crying out for to God because he wants mercy and not rules to set straight wrongs. Hosea feels the weight because no one can live according to the rules that God has set in place. This is exactly why Jesus came to offer us mercy instead of sacrifices.
This leads me to think about what we teach people, are we teaching people to follow rules or to love God? I think many times we teach people rules because it is so much easier to do.
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