I. INTRODUCTION
A. On two different occasions, Jesus answered the accusations of the Pharisees by quoting the word of God and saying, "I desire compassion and not sacrifice.”
B. Let us study these words quoted by Christ so that we may obey the commandment of Jesus, who said, "Go and learn what this means.”
II. I DESIRE COMPASSION AND NOT SACRIFICE
A. In the Lord’s answers to the Pharisees, He quoted from Hosea 6:6.
1. In the context of Hosea, God had rebuked Israel for their refusal to repent. Israel thought their sacrifices should be enough to please God, so they continued to offer sacrifices while refusing to obey God’s will.
2. Some translations of Hosea 6:6 say, "I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice.”
a. "Loyalty” is not a bad translation, but a better translation is "mercy” or "compassion,” for the original Hebrew word checed means goodness, kindness, or faithfulness.
b. Mercy, compassion, goodness, kindness, and faithfulness were traits that Israel lacked. God wanted these things from Israel rather than their meaningless sacrifices.
B. The first time Jesus quoted Hosea 6:6 to the Pharisees, they had criticized Him for eating with tax-gatherers and sinners (Matt. 9:10-13).
1. Jesus had called Matthew, a tax-gatherer, to be His disciple, and Matthew had given a reception for Him with the tax-gatherers and sinners in his house (Luke 5:27-29).
2. When the Pharisees questioned Jesus for associating with the tax-gatherers and sinners, He answered, "It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire compassion, and not sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
a. In the Lord’s analogy, He was the physician who compassionately sought to bring healing to the spiritually sick, who were the tax-gatherers and sinners.
b. Because the Pharisees did not have compassion, they could not understand how associating with the tax-gatherers and sinners could please God. This is the reason Jesus said, "Go and learn what this means.”
C. The next time Jesus quoted Hosea 6:6 to the Pharisees, they had criticized Him because His disciples had picked grain to eat on a Sabbath (Matt. 12:1-8).
1. The Lord answered by relating two precedents from Israel’s history and Law.
a. One precedent was when David and his men had violated the Law by entering the tabernacle and eating the showbread (1Sam. 21:1-6). On that day, the ceremonial Law had given way to mercy for David’s hungry men, so they were counted as innocent.
b. The other precedent was the regular practice of the priests, who killed and burned sacrificial animals on the Sabbath. Such activity on the Sabbath for any other reason would have been a violation of the Law, but God had required the priests to work on the Sabbath.
2. Jesus completed His answer by making three points from these precedents to the Pharisees.
a. He said that something greater than the temple was there – namely, Christ. If God’s temple was great enough to vindicate its servants who worked on the Sabbath, then God’s Son was great enough to vindicate His servants who worked on the Sabbath.
b. He also said, "But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.” The compassionate feeding of Christ’s men was more pleasing to God than the sacrifice of their wellbeing for the sake of the Sabbath rest.
c. Finally, He said, that "the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” In other words, the Sabbath law was Christ’s to enforce, alter, or discard.
III. LEARN WHAT THIS MEANS
A. Let us understand the meaning of compassion so that we may know exactly what God desires.
1. In Matthew 9:13 and 12:7, the word "compassion” (Gr. eleos) means mercy, kindness, or good will towards those who are miserable and afflicted.
2. In Matthew 9:36, a different sense of the word "compassion” is given when Jesus saw the multitudes and "felt compassion for them because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd.”
a. In this verse, "compassion” (Gr. splagchnizomai) literally means to be moved in the internal organs, which were thought to be the center of love and pity.
b. In this sense, compassion is almost a physical feeling that is provoked by seeing the suffering of others. It is a genuine sympathy that causes one to give help.
3. These two senses of compassion are demonstrated by the good Samaritan, who first felt compassion (Luke 10:33 – splagchnizomai) and then acted in compassion (Luke 10:37 – eleos) for the man he saw wounded.
B. So then, let us "learn what this means” when God says, "I desire compassion and not sacrifice.”
1. This means that God has told us what He wants and that we should listen to Him.
a. When God says "I desire” something, it should be our ambition to give Him exactly what He desires. We are "trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord” (Eph. 5:10).
b. It is not our prerogative to choose what should please God, but it is our responsibility to obey His word. "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice” (1Sam. 15:22).
2. This means that God desires us to have mercy on those who are suffering both physically and spiritually.
a. God desires for us to compassionately fulfill the physical needs of others (especially our brethren) when we see them suffering (Matt. 25:31-46; Luke 10:29-37; Gal. 6:10; Jas. 1:27; 2:15-16; 1John 3:17).
b. Even more so, God desires us to compassionately supply the spiritual needs of those who are lost without Christ (Matt. 9:36-38; 28:18-20; Gal. 6:1-2; 1Tim. 2:1-4; 2Pet. 3:9).
3. This means that sacrifices cannot compensate for a lack of compassion.
a. Consider the words of Micah 6:6-8 – "With what shall I come to the LORD and bow myself before the God on high? Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings, with yearling calves? Does the LORD take delight in thousands of rams, in ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
b. Compassion is not the opposite of sacrifice, but it is a quality that makes sacrifices acceptable and pleasing to God.
i. Sacrifice without compassion is of no value to God or to the one who sacrifices. It is not God’s desire for us to thoughtlessly give away something or even waste something in His name.
ii. Paul said, "And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing” (1Cor.13:3).
4. This means that the tax-gathers and sinners were closer to the kingdom of God than the Pharisees.
a. The Pharisees were hypocrites who made a grand show of their sacrifices in order to be seen by men (Matt. 6:1-4; 23:1-7).
b. However, their sacrifices failed to fulfill the desire of God. Jesus said to them, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others” (Matt. 23:23).
c. Therefore, Jesus said to such unfaithful men, "Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you” (Matt. 21:31).
IV. CONCLUSION
A. Now we have gone to the Scriptures and learned what this means, "I desire compassion and not sacrifice.”
B. The question that remains is: will we give God what He desires, which is compassion for others, or will we try to cover our shortcomings with loveless sacrifices?
1. It is easy to spend an hour in the assembly of the church each week and give a little of our money. Spending time and giving money may be noble sacrifices, but is this all that God desires?
2. It is much harder to have genuine compassion for others and work to help them. This requires for us to be transformed into the image of Christ, to become selfless, and to involve our hearts in caring for others. That is what God desires, and that is what we must give.