Mercy, not Sacrifice

Forgiveness links the call of the tax collector to the healing of the paralytic – Christ’s authority to discharge sin and restore men – Mark 2:13-17.

When Jesus pronounced the paralytic’s sins forgiven, he offended the Scribes and Pharisees, and he alienated them further by showing mercy to “sinners,” those individuals considered especially unacceptable by the more religiously observant Jews. Seeing the Nazarene eating with “tax collectors” and other sinners, the Scribes and Pharisees insinuated that Jesus was also a notorious sinner – (Mark 2:1-17).

Jesus summons his disciples to emulate this same attitude and behavior, to value and pursue mercy rather than hatred and vengeance, and especially mercy shown to enemies and those who are marginalized and rejected by society.

[Mercy - Photo by NADER AYMAN (Egypt) on Unsplash]

Tax collectors were despised in Jewish society. Their occupation required them to handle currencies from pagan and Jewish sources, and they interacted with men from all walks of life. Contact with pagan symbols and Gentiles meant they were ritually unclean, and patriotic Jews viewed tax collectors as collaborators with Rome.

• (Mark 2:13-17) - “And he went forth again by the sea, and all the multitude was coming to him, and he began teaching them. And passing by, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting over by the tax office, and he said to him: Follow me! And arising, he followed him. And it came to pass that he was reclining in his house, and many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many, and they began following him. And the Scribes and Pharisees, seeing that he was eating with the sinners and the tax collectors, began saying to his disciples: He is eating with the tax collectors and sinners! And hearing it, Jesus said to them: The strong have no need of a physician, but they who are sick. I came not to call the righteous but sinners” – (Parallel passages: Matthew 9:9-13, Luke 5:27-32).

As a tax collector, this man was in the service of Herod Antipas. The Roman government collected land taxes directly. Taxes on transported goods were contracted to local tax collectors who bid on contracts with the Romans to collect set amounts of revenue. Whatever sums they collected over the contracted amount became their profit.

Religiously scrupulous Jews avoided employment of this kind since it required them to engage in transactions with Gentiles, putting their ritual purity at risk. The actions of Jesus were doubly scandalous because he associated with politically objectionable and ceremonially unclean men, and he compounded his offense by eating with tax collectors and others viewed as intolerably sinful by the critics of Jesus.

Table fellowship was important in Jewish society, especially to the Pharisees, and eating with less observant Jews infringed on their ritual purity. The category of “sinner” could include immoral individuals, but in this case, it was applied to Jewish men simply considered ritually impure, regardless of any greater moral failures.

The sect of the Pharisees adhered strictly to the Mosaic Law and its body of oral traditions for interpreting the regulations of the Torah, the so-called ‘Tradition of the Elders’. Many of these traditions concerned ritual purity, such as dietary regulations.

The concluding statement of Jesus emphasized that his Messianic mission was concerned with redemption, not condemnation or destruction. The version in the Gospel of Matthew adds the following:

• “Go and learn what this means, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance!” – (Matthew 9:9-13).

• “For I desire goodness and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings” – (Hosea 6:6-7).

God did not reject animal sacrifices in the passage from the Book of Hosea, but He preferred righteous deeds from His people over religious rituals.

MERCY TRIUMPHS

Jesus is more specific. Acts of mercy are superior to the Levitical rituals valued above all else by his opponents. Jesus expressed the same idea in his ‘Sermon on the Mount’, and later, in his denunciation of the Scribes and Pharisees:

• “Blessed are the merciful, for they will obtain mercy” – (Matthew 5:7).

• “Alas for you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you tithe the mint and the anise and the cummin, and have dismissed the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faith. It was necessary to do these, but those not to dismiss” - (Matthew 23:23).

By calling sinners to repent and turn from their sins, Jesus was fulfilling his role as the ‘Servant of Yahweh’ sent by God to restore Israel and bring salvation to the nations:

• “And now declares Yahweh, who formed me from the womb to be his Servant, to bring Jacob again to him, and that Israel be gathered for him. For I am honourable in the eyes of Yahweh, and my God is my strength. Yes, He declares, is it too light a thing that you should be my Servant to lift the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel. I will also give you for a light to the Nations, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth” - (Isaiah 49:5-6).

Whether forgiving sins or healing the sick, Jesus came to redeem the lost and restore men and women to all that God originally intended for humanity. On this day, Jesus showed mercy by healing the paralytic, forgiving the tax collector, and welcoming him into his fellowship. He thus restored a son of Israel to the Covenant Community.

The mercy granted to Levi that day, one of the hated tax collectors, provides us with a real-life demonstration of what it means to have “mercy rather than sacrifice,” and thereby to emulate the God who made all men:

• “You have heard that it was said, You will love your neighbour and hate your enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?  And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more than others? Do not even the Gentiles the same? You, therefore, will be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” – (Matthew 5:43-48).

• “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without variance, without hypocrisy” – (James 3:17).

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SEE ALSO:

• Overflowing Righteousness - (Mercy and love are the defining characteristics of the followers of Jesus, and they reflect the nature of his Father – Matthew 5:43-48)

• The Son's Authority - (Jesus is the ‘Son of Man’ foreseen by Daniel, the Messiah with absolute authority over the peoples and nations of the Earth)

• Forgiving Sin - (Jesus healed a paralytic, and by doing so, he demonstrated the authority of the Son of Man to discharge sins – Mark 2:1-12)

• La Miséricorde, pas le Sacrifice - (Le pardon relie l'appel du publicain à la guérison du paralytique-l'autorité de Christ pour pardonner les péchés et restaurer les hommes - Marc 2:13-17)