Proper 5 Year A 2026: Matthew 9:9-13,18-25

When my brother and I were tweens, we had an uncanny knack of getting grounded over stupid choices. We weren’t dangerous, just dumb. After a day or two of our sentence, sometimes my mom would approach us and offer clemency. She wanted to show us that although we made mistakes, she believed in our ability to be better.

In verse 13 of today's lesson from Matthew, Jesus tells the Pharisees to “go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ This instruction was so important to Jesus that in chapter 12 he tells the pharisees they would have behaved differently “if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’” Jesus is throwing shade at the Pharisees. Telling Pharisees to learn what the Prophets mean is like when an eight year old corrects their teacher. They know. So what point is Jesus making?

We are reading in English what Matthew wrote in Greek. Jesus probably spoke Aramaic, day to day, but this quote from the prophet Hosea, which is where “I desire mercy, not sacrifice” comes from, Jesus would have said in Hebrew. So, in order to learn what Jesus is talking about, we need to first look linguistically before looking spiritually. We need to know what he said before we can ask what he meant. I went to the book of Hosea, which is in Hebrew, since Jesus would have been quoting Hebrew, to look at the words translated from the Greek in Matthew as “desire”, “mercy”, and “sacrifice”.

“Desire” and “sacrifice” are fairly 1:1. The Hebrew word rendered “desire” is a fair translation, it could also mean “delight in”, so there’s that implication as opposed to just wanting something to want it. Likewise, “sacrifice” is a fair translation, especially when we remember that during the Prophet Hosea’s time, and still at the time of Jesus, animal sacrifices were the norm in Judaism. So this isn’t a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, this is literally referring to an animal or grain offering sacrificed to the Lord. It is important for us to note that this use of sacrifice isn't metaphoric or emotional. It is a physical act. Again, a fair translation that doesn’t change a lot of how we may already interpret this passage.

I saved the coolest one for last. The Greek translation of “mercy” in Matthew is the equivalent of what we today think of as “mercy”, a reprieve from a deserved punishment. But in Hosea the Hebrew word chesed is different than that reprieve from a deserved punishment. In Hosea, chesed translates to “loving kindness”. More importantly is the prominence of chesed in the entirety of the Hebrew Bible.

Chesed saturates the Hebrew Bible as the hallmark of God’s covenantal character and the standard for covenantal response among God’s people. It combines steadfast loyalty, mercy, kindness, and relational faithfulness, which is how we end up with “loving kindness” as a translation that somewhat mushes them all together. Of its more than 240 uses in the Hebrew Bible, over half lie in the Psalms; songs and poems of the nature of God and our relationship with God, yet even beyond that, chesed shapes every major section of the Old Testament, from the Torah to the Post-Exilic books.

In Exodus, God defines His own nature by chesed - abounding in chesed and truth (Exodus 34:6). Throughout the Hebrew Bible, chesed secures promises to the patriarchs (Genesis 24:12), safeguards Israel from annihilation after the golden calf incident (Exodus 34:9), and preserves the Davidic throne (2 Samuel 7:15). 

The Prophets indict Israel’s absence of chesed (Hosea 6:4) while promising future restoration. Micah anchors final salvation in God’s unalterable pledge: “You will show chesed to Abraham, as You swore to our fathers” (Micah 7:20). Chesed becomes the bridge between judgment and renewal.

Knowing all this, it changes how we interpret the text. If we think we are reading about God's withholding punishment the scene is one where Jesus is telling the Pharisees how God actually judges the sinners with whom Jesus eats but withholds their deserved punishments. But, if we know Hosea was talking to and about religious and political leaders who cared more for the rules than the poor, and we know mercy is love, then today’s scene is one in which the Pharisees ask Jesus why he is with sinners, with those who live in deviation from God’s will, and Jesus turns it back on them with a commentary on God's warning from the prophet Hosea. The Pharisees are presenting the ancient equivalent of being so concerned about people getting food from the foodbank that they don't need that they would rather close the food bank for all, to remove the risk of someone taking advantage of it.

The Pharisees are missing the point in focusing on following the letter of the Law while ignoring the Spirit of the Law. That’s not to say the letter of the Law wasn’t, and isn’t, important. But the Pharisees were so bogged down following the Law that they forgot why they followed the Law: to show their covenantal bond to the one true God whose character is to show chesed. Jesus’ quote from Hosea is part of a soliloquy from the Lord, where, although it reflects an inner heartbreak, the Lord rejects Israel’s attempt at reconciliation because the people’s penitence does not pass the tests of authenticity and constancy; they do not maintain a devoted chesed for God. It isn’t enough to do the right things if our heart is not in the right place. 

Jesus tells the Pharisees to “go and learn”. The New Testament portrays learning as an ever-deepening communion with God that then manifests in steadfast doctrine, in transformed character, and in fervent service. So if those Pharisees truly learn what it means to desire chesed, their conduct will mirror that of God.

How do we go and learn what it means to desire loving kindness over sacrifice? The Pharisees couldn’t figure it out. We oftentimes set up the Pharisees as straw man fools, but they weren’t. They may have been misguided, but Pharisees - like Saul who became Paul - were religiously zealous. They knew their Scripture. So how did they get off the rails? 

It isn’t as hard as you’d think. Because the letter of the law is a lot easier than the spirit. It’s so much easier to look things up than it is to look into our hearts. To stop and listen for the Spirit. To ask for God’s guidance. Whenever I do the ceremonial hand washing before I celebrate the Eucharist, I pray for my hands, head, and heart to be cleansed. It reminds me that it is through God that everything here happens, and it is God that makes us as a church worthy to take, bless, break, and give the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have the privilege of being the body of Christ given to the world. To show the chesed we have received from God in how we interact with those around us. God's chesed is constant, even when we aren't. We have the privilege of living with that knowledge, bolstering our confidence and our fearlessness by how we are living proclamations of the Gospel in God's beloved world. Amen.