The Doctor and Mercy, Not Sacrifice

Matthew 9:12-13
"On hearing this, Jesus said, 'It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: "I desire mercy, not sacrifice." For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.'"

This verse has been puzzling to me for some time. While one can follow the analogy pretty directly between healthy/sick and righteous/sinners, the verse Jesus quotes, a verse which he quotes repeatedly, does not seem to correspond to the rest of the analogy directly. Sacrifice is not something done with things impure, but with things that are pure, so it is not that Jesus is saying the options for sinners are mercy (when he succeeds in acting in the role of the savior), or sacrifice (if he decided not to be a savior, the loss of sinners would not be a "sacrifice" in biblical terms). If one were trying to make the quoted verse fit this analogy, the only possibly "sacrifice" here would be the righteous, for they would be the only entities suitable for sacrifice. This makes the analogy make sense as well, for Jesus came to offer mercy to sinners, healing to those unwell. If viewed this way though, Jesus did not come for the righteous, and if he did, it seems it would be to gather sacrifices.

Considering this now, this is an area I had not yet thought of. I often try to look at reality as logical at its very core, including the spiritual realm, and governed by rules that govern far deeper than we currently see. Perhaps this unusual pairing of phrases is meant to shine a very subtle light on one of these unseen and unexpected rules. The ritual of sacrifice is referenced and repeated constantly in The Old Testament, it would seem this is not some enjoyable thing for God, but a fulfillment of a rule, likely in response to death entering into the equation. Jesus acted as this sacrifice for all, showing that there is a degree of magnitude to the value of a sacrifice, and while in animals there are discreet levels of value represented by features (no blemishes, order of birth, type of animal, etc), it feels like if one man can satisfy the sacrificial requirements for all, then for humans the value of a sacrifice is asymptotic. This is why a "sinner" would likely possess no value as a sacrifice, but Jesus would possess effectively infinite value. What is interesting though, is that if Jesus was sent for the righteous instead of sinners, a topic referenced in this passage, it could be that he would have come as a priest to animals, picking out those suitable as sacrifices (the righteous) to allow the underlying system to continue longer, satisfying whatever deep unseen rule requires sacrifice.

This feels foreign to the God I love, but then again so does animal sacrifice, and I do not claim to understand everything yet. While I had never considered this before, it does seem like Jesus is hinting at mechanisms of reality here by quoting this verse, mechanisms that are largely hidden because they are likely very difficult to understand. But it does remind me that God "made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them" (Gen 3:21). Additionally, the sacrifice of Jesus reminds me of the strange law in Leviticus 27:9-10 "If what they vowed is an animal that is acceptable as an offering to the LORD, such an animal given to the LORD becomes holy. They must not exchange it or substitute a good one for a bad one, or a bad one for a good one; if they should substitute one animal for another, both it and the substitute become holy."

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