“He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” (Matthew 12:3-8 ESV)

There is a fine line to walk between living under Christ’s sovereignty and living for the rules. And what we should desire is that we would step away from that struggle that plagued the heart of the Pharisees and to move more centrally into living under Christ’s reign. The more we struggle with the mindset of ‘I have to do this to make God happy and so my life will look right,’ the more off track our hearts become.

When Jesus quotes Hosea 6:6 (“I desire mercy…”) He again shows us the heart of God. Meaningless repetition does not come across as love. A quickly fired off prayer, memorized and regurgitated, does not show love. Put your heart and mind in the moment, be present with God. If the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath, a law handed down from Moses’ encounter with YHWH at Mt. Sinai, isn’t He Lord over everything else that God has laid out? Isn’t He the One to show us what pleases the heart of God, and the One to show us what worship, love and devotion really looks like?

He told the Pharisees pretty directly here, from a passage they had memorized, that it isn’t the rule that shows love, but the obedient heart. Don’t presume to correct Jesus. Don’t tell Him He’s doing it wrong.
He is Soverign-over-all. He is Lord. In love, in thanksgiving, in appreciation for the saving work He accomplishes in us, we live each day under His Lordship and within His awesome grace. Thankfully, our salvation does not depend on how well we follow the rules, but rather on how well our God forgives.

Our desire should be to please Him in every aspect of our heart, our mind and our daily character, but as always, that is because He first loved us.
#GoLove as you have been loved and share the freedom that comes with following Jesus each day.