Read: Matthew 12; Mark 3; Luke 6
Marked: Matthew 12:2, And when the Pharisees saw [it,] they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!”
At its base, religion is about do’s and don’t’s. But relationship is about love, grace, and mercy. The religious are looking for what you haven’t done to tell you what you must do. But Jesus set the example and pointed to what David did and even what the priests of the temple did, and then to emphasize what He said, healed a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath.
Jesus taught that the highest law was to love God and the second highest was to love your neighbour. The Sabbath was never intended to keep us from loving God or loving our neighbour.
God desires mercy and not sacrifice and we never err when we are merciful. Even if we do err, Jesus said in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:7), “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”
Lord, as You have been merciful to me, help me to be merciful to others.
The Bible Blog 