Mercy Not Sacrifice, Matthew 9:9-13
Introduction
There is the story of the man who came down from the North Carolina Mountains. He was all dressed up and carrying his Bible. A friend saw him and asked, "Joe, what’s happening? Where are you going all dressed up like that?" Joe said, "I’ve been hearing about New Orleans.
I hear that there is a lot of free-runnin� liquor and a lot of gamblin� and a lot of real good naughty shows.� The friend looked him over and said, �But Joe, why are you carrying your Bible under your arm?� And Joe replied, �Well, if it�s as good as they say it is, I might stay over until Sunday.�
Transition
Our Scripture reading this morning focuses on the calling of Mathew the tax collector as a disciple of Jesus. In this text we see clearly illustrated the heart of the Pharisees who watched and judged and the heart of Jesus who called and loved.
This morning we will focus our attention on the contrast between the heart of the Pharisee and the heart of Jesus as we examine Christ teaching that God desires mercy and not sacrifice.
We will take a look at the difference between obedience to the letter of the law and heartfelt love for the law giver; the difference between bringing a Bible along for the Sunday service after the weekend of sin and the placing of God�s word inside of the heart and living for Christ not out of obligation but of godly affection.
Historical Background
Mathew was a tax collector and to get at why the Pharisees were so critical on Jesus having called Mathew to be a disciple we need a little background on the development of New Testament era Jewish life and the role of the tax collector.
By the time of Jesus earthly ministry the Jewish people had been under Roman occupation for nearly 100 years and had known foreign occupation in one form another for more than 600 years!
In fact it was only from 164 B.C. to 63 B.C., a grand period in Jewish history knows as the Maccabean period, that the Nation of Israel was a sovereign people. The Nation of Israel had been conquered by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. when Jerusalem was captured and they were exiled from their homeland.
The Babylonians had a practice of deporting captives of conquered lands. When they would capture a land they would deport the majority of the citizens into other nearby lands. Some have suggested that this was in an effort to assimilate them into their culture. It seems more likely though, that the Babylonian policy of deporting captives was intended to break up the sense of oneness of a people and in destroying their unity, make it far less likely that they would rebel.
King Cyrus of Persia conquered the Babylonians and he allowed the Israelites to return to their homeland under the rule of the Persians. Then Alexander the Great conquered most of the known world then died at only 33 years old.
His generals fought for control of the lands he had conquered and eventually the Jewish people found themselves right in the middle of the trade routes of four kingdoms in what had been Alexander�s empire. Alexander�s generals and their descendants would spend the next century and a half fighting over control of Jerusalem and the surrounding areas.
It was during this time that Rome was becoming a world power and threatening the control that Alexander�s generals had on the region. The Jews were caught between all of these warring generals largely because of geography. The Promised Land is right in the middle of the trade routes between Rome, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Far East. The Nation of Israel suffered great atrocities at the hands of many of their occupiers.
In 168 B.C. Antiochus Epiphanes, a descendant of one of Alexander�s generals occupied Jerusalem, entered the Holy of Holies, desecrated the sanctuary by offering unclean animals upon the alter of burnt offerings, polluted the whole building by sprinkling it with water in which flesh had been boiled, and then dedicated the Temple to Zeus and plundering the temple treasures.
This prompted the Maccabean revolt which led to 100 years of self rule by the Jewish people. Three years after this abomination, and after a successful revolt, the temple was cleansed and rededicated for worship. This event is celebrated right up to this very day each December as Hanukkah, the Feast of Lights.
After 100 years of self rule the Jews came under the rule of the Roman Empire by way of local procurators (governors) and regional kings � the Herod mentioned in the Gospel accounts � it was into this conquered land that we find Jesus conducting his earthly ministry.
I give you all of that background to say this; The Jewish people had survived captivity and exile in Babylon for 70 years. They had maintained their national identity through Persian, Grecian, and Roman rule. They had even driven out occupiers and been self governed for 100 years in the midst of their entire struggle.
When we consider the way that the Pharisees looked at Jesus when he called Mathew, a tax collector, a Jew who collected taxes for a foreign occupier, it is only possible to fully grasp the depth of their disdain for Mathew and what he represented if we also understand that the Pharisees had been a major part of maintaining the Jewish national identity in the midst of all we have described.
Each one of these ruling cultures had made great attempts to change the thinking of the Jews, to bring their thoughts into alignment with theirs in an effort to change them and avoid future rebellion. They tried to make them think like themselves so that why would they rebel against their own kind of people?
The Jews have much to thank the Pharisees for in having maintained their religion but Jesus came to teach them � and us � the meaning of that religion.
Exposition
Listen to sneer in their words, �Why does your teacher eat with sinners and tax collectors?� (Mathew 9:11) The Pharisees saw themselves as the keepers of the Law of Moses and the guardians of the Jewish faith. Their intentions and deeds were very good but their hearts were in the wrong place.
In an effort to keep and protect the Law, they had forgotten its primary purpose; to bring God�s people into relationship with Him and to bring glory to God. In an effort to protect Jewish society from disintegration by way of integration with foreign occupiers, they had enslaved the people with the yoke of legalism.
Imagine the difficulty of maintaining national identity during the Babylonian exile. It was there that the book of Daniel was written. This is how strong the Jewish national identity was � still is; Daniel had actually gained prominence in Babylon and at one point the King of Babylon declared that all should revere Yahweh.
Daniel 2:47-48 says, �The king answered Daniel, and said, "Truly your God is the God of gods, the Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, since you could reveal this secret." Then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts; and he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief administrator over all the wise men of Babylon.� (NKJV)
Daniel 6:26-28 says, �I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom men must tremble and fear before the God of Daniel. For He is the living God, And steadfast forever; His kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed, And His dominion shall endure to the end. He delivers and rescues, And He works signs and wonders In heaven and on earth, Who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions. So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.� (NKJV)
It was during the Babylonian exile that the seeds of the Pharisees were planted. Jewish religious leaders had been made to strive to keep the Law. During the time that would follow, during the times of occupation, the Pharisees would remind the people of the importance of the Law and teach them to follow it strictly.
By the times of Jesus the Pharisees were well established and were the largest religious body within the Judaism. They were the conservatives who took the Law seriously and interpreted it literally. The Sadducees, on the other hand, were the liberal branch of Judaic thought.
When they saw Jesus eating with tax collectors and heard him call Mathew, the tax collector, as a disciple, they would have been disgusted. A tax collector was seen as a traitor to his own people. Mathew was a Jew who collected taxes for the Roman occupiers. What was worse is that the tax collectors were known to be corrupt. There was little control over how much they collected and since they had the authority of the Roman legions, the average citizen dared not disobey them.
The Romans had brought with them many good things which were expensive and required taxation of their citizens. The trouble was not that the tax collectors collected, but they were seen as a hand of foreign occupation and were corrupt.
Mathew probably did not see himself as corrupt but as a part of a necessary system. He would have been very skilled in writing and record keeping as a tax collector and would have been considered an educated man in his day since he could no doubt read and write.
The tax collector who was honest with himself found that he was in a moral quandary. �How do I live honestly as a part of an unjust taxation system?�
In the 18th chapter of Luke�s Gospel he records the words of Jesus which really catch the full depth of the conflict between the Pharisees who saw Mathew called and the plight of the tax collector and the heart of today�s Scripture.
�Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, �God, I thank You that I am not like other men � extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.� And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, �God, be merciful to me a sinner!� I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.�
(Luke 18:9-14 NKJV)
The Pharisees, in striving to keep the Law, in pursuing the very admirable goal of maintaining Jewish National identity in the midst of captivity and foreign rule, had forgotten the intent of the Law. They kept the Law perfectly but forgot to love perfectly. They loved the Law but did not fulfill the Law�s primary intention; to teach the people to love God completely and one another as themselves.
Illustration
A New Zealand preacher described a Pharisee as being like a bag tied in the middle. Anything put into the top will not reach the bottom. The Pharisee opens his mouth wide when he prays, but his heart is tightly shut. With his lips he asks for things that his heart does not really desire. If God were to give him the spiritual blessings he asks for, it would only be a waste of good gifts, for they could not get to the bottom of the bag. His pride would choke them off, and they would never touch his heart.
Application
When the Pharisees asked Jesus disciples why he ate with tax collectors and sinners he said to them, �A doctor comes to those who are sick. I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I have come not to call the righteous but sinners.� Praises be to God; Jesus came into this world not seeking those who had kept His law perfectly or those who had done the most for Him! He came seeking us, just as we are.
It is not our perfection that He is concerned with. It is His perfecting us that is His concern. Jesus is not like a jeweler looking for a perfect diamond. He is much more like a potter looking for clay which is moldable and able to be shaped!
Listen to what God says of His people. �O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?� says the LORD. �Look, as the clay is in the potter�s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel! (Jeremiah 18:6 NKJV)
Conclusion
Today, we have a decision to make. Will we be like the Pharisee with his good intentions, good works, and lack of understanding for the purpose of either? Or will we be like Mathew who followed after Jesus with his talents and his sin, who followed after Christ on the basis of Christ righteousness and not his own?
The Pharisees were incredibly fanatic. They observed ritual upon ritual in an effort to please God and be faithful to the Law. Jesus, on the other hand, has told us to seek Him first. Rather than clothing ourselves in our own righteousness, our fanatic adherence to the Law, we ought to cloth ourselves in Christ righteousness.
I recently read the following definition of a fanatic. �A fanatic is a person who, having lost sight of his goal, redoubles his effort to get there.� The fanatic runs around frantically getting nowhere. He is a basketball player without a basket, a tennis player without a net, a golfer without a green. For a Christian to make progress in� learning to please God, he must have a clear idea of what his goal is� Jesus stated it this way: �Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.� (R.C. Sproul)
Good works are good but they are more rightly the product of Christ in us than a product of our trying to please God. Good deeds are good but they ought to flow from a life lived like the tax collector on the roof top who prayed, �God, be merciful to me a sinner!�
Matthew 5:7 says, �Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy.� (NKJV) Today, let us be reminded by the words of Jesus, �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 9:13 NKJV)
