I Will Have Mercy and Not Sacrifice

The parable of the Good Samaritan has been interpreted many ways, but in reality it is a portrait of God's command, "I will have mercy, and not sacrifice!"

The meaning of that commandment is simply, that God is not satisfied with ceremonial obedience, or rituals, or the sacrificial parts of the law. He demands that we keep the entire law, including love of God and of our neighbor.

Over and over in the Old Testament, God expresses disdain for offerings and feasts and rituals, and demands that His people stop the injustice, the hardness against the poor and the widow, the corruption of the courts, and innocent blood-shedding.

Thus, God is more concerned that we treat our neighbor mercifully than that we carry out the outward ceremony of worship and sacrifice.

But the Pharisees, and indeed most legalist religions, will set aside the requirement for mercy toward our fellow man, and focus on pious acts of worship and ritual and list-keeping in order to simulate obedience to God's law.

We love to shear off the "less important" demands of God, which just so happen to be the hard parts to keep - loving our neighbors as ourselves!

The Samaritan had abandoned true worship at the temple, but he showed mercy. The priest and Levite were the epitome of worship and sacrifice, but they left off mercy.

No wonder righteousness by lawkeeping is hopeless: nobody can love his neighbor like himself! It costs too much!

But in the Lord Jesus, mercy and sacrifice meet at Calvary! He had no need for a sacrifice, but His people were lost without it. So He showed mercy by being made a sacrifice for us! He satisfied the law's demand for sacrifice and mercy all at once for us!