CHARISSA CHEONG reflects on Jesus’ desire for mercy, not perfection…
London, UK
PICTURE: Edwin Andrade/Unsplash
‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” – Matthew 9:12
I grew up in a Christian home, where I was constantly reminded and taught that Jesus loves me, and that God is loving, forgiving and kind.
I’m so grateful to have had these truths instilled into my heart from an early age, and now, as an adult, I’ve continued to know and love God for who He is.
“In this passage in Matthew, Jesus specifically says that He has come to be with people who know they are imperfect. This is His response to the Pharisees, who asked why He sat and ate with tax collectors and sinners. He specifically chose to associate Himself with them. “
But I do have to admit, that even though I’ve been told what God is like over and over again, I all to easily forget the truth and fall into the trap of believing ideas about God that are completely wrong – and I don’t think I’m alone in that.
Although I know that God is love and His intentions are pure, the longer I journey through life and see how holy and perfect He is, the more my eyes become opened to how imperfect I am, and how my life does not match up to the spotless and righteous way that Jesus lived on earth.
Without realising, I then start to live as though I’m required to do a bunch of things that will make me ‘more worthy’ of entering His presence. Subconsciously, I believe that I need to go away and sort out some of my bad habits before I can feel clean and confident enough to come close to Him.
In this passage in Matthew, Jesus specifically says that He has come to be with people who know they are imperfect. This is His response to the Pharisees, who asked why He sat and ate with tax collectors and sinners. He specifically chose to associate Himself with them.
In the same way, He says that He chooses mercy. He desires to show kindness to us as we are, instead of asking us to clean ourselves up before He can come into our lives. In Mattthew, Jesus quotes this exact phrase a second time in chapter 12, when the Pharisees questioned Him on why the disciples picked grain to eat on the Sabbath given that Jewish customs required that they do no work on that day.
Jesus was trying to show them that He isn’t legalistic, nor does He desire to hold people to an impossible standard. His desire is mercy. It is the very thing that makes His heart glad and that He loves to bestow on us.
To come close to us when we’re at our worst, to lovingly wash away the dirt and mess of our lives, to give Himself away instead of making us atone for our own sins – that was His desire. That is what He chose when He went to the cross in our place.
What He specifically says He does not desire is sacrifice. He does not want us to try and make ourselves presentable before Him, thinking that we can perform a certain number of acts that will make us more fit to stand before His throne. These actions simply do not gladden His heart.
We rely on our readers to fund Sight's work - become a financial supporter today!
For more information, head to our Subscriber's page.
I recently read some great commentary about this verse, which said that oftentimes, we think of God as desiring mercy AND sacrifice, instead of mercy NOT sacrifice. We think of Him as a loving God offering forgiveness with one hand, but still holding out the other hand, asking us to give Him something back in return.
Despite having known the truth of the gospel my entire life, I’m still constantly having to remind myself that God’s love is unconditional. There is nothing I can do to increase or decrease the amount of love He feels towards me.
What God really wants is for each of us to come to Him knowing and accepting that we are broken and in need of mercy, and that there is nothing we can do in our own strength that will make us clean. The word of God tells us that the true sacrifice God wants us to bring is a broken and contrite heart, which He will never despise or reject (Psalm 57:17).
Of course, this does not mean that God just wants us to keep on sinning, or that He leaves us in a perpetually imperfect state. Instead, he gave us His Holy Spirit, who joins with us to make us more and more like Jesus. This is one of the biggest displays of His mercy towards us, and shows that His desire has always been to be with us, dwelling inside of us, while He makes us holy as He is holy.
For anyone who can relate to this feeling of forgetfulness, of failing to remember that God is indeed good and loving, be assured that God is not sitting afar off from us on His throne, shaking His head in disapproval of all the mistakes you have made. Instead, He sent His Son Jesus who became the ultimate display of mercy on the cross, paying off all your debts so that you wouldn’t have to do a thing to atone for yourself. That was His desire, His choice, and He chose it gladly.
