One time my wife was handing off our newborn son to her mom to hold. In the transfer, my wife began to explain to her mom ‘how to hold an infant’… as if some new technique had emerged since her mom held her. It was a bit of irony. In the same way, the teachers of the Law (Pharisees) wanted to scold Jesus about what He could do or not do on the Sabbath. The Lord of the Sabbath (Jesus) had to summarily correct them. I love how If King David and the Priests could violate the rules of the Sabbath and be innocent, certainly Jesus who gave us the Sabbath can inform us about picking grains in hunger. God desires compassion over sacrifice.
At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat. Now when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath!” But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he became hungry, he and his companions— how he entered the house of God, and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat nor for those with him, but for the priests alone? Or have you not read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple violate the Sabbath, and yet are innocent? But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means: ‘I desire compassion, rather than sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. Matthew 12:1-7 NASB
What expressions of compassion accompany my life? Am I trying to make up for a poor heart condition with sacrifices as an offset to appease God?
God, as this day begins- I am reminded again of the wisdom from above and just how amazing Jesus is. I do not want to ignore any compassion that You desire in me or any lack I may find. Fill my heart with love for people. How wonderful it is to be found innocent in Your eyes.
