Friday 10 August 2012

I desire mercy, not sacrifice.

"The crucial point here is that, in general, religiously observant people were offended by Jesus, but those estranged from religious and moral observance were intrigued and attracted to him. We see this throughout the New Testament accounts of Jesus’s life. In every case where Jesus meets a religious person and a sexual outcast (as in Luke 7) or a religious person and a racial outcast (as in John 3-4) or a religious person and a political outcast (as in Luke 19), the outcast is the one who connects with Jesus and the elder-brother type does not. Jesus says to the respectable religious leaders ‘the tax collectors and the prostitutes enter the kingdom before you’ (Matthew 21:31)." ~ Tim Keller

The more I learn about Jesus the more his life makes me consider my walk with God and how I view the world and church-life.  It fits in with the verse from Hosea quoted by Jesus in Matt 9:13 and Matt 12:7, which has been in my mind a great deal recently: "I desire mercy not sacrifice".

From: Keller Quotes
Hat tip to this post: Christianity and Respectability

4 comments:

Melissa said...

I read those same verses in Hosea just this past week. I am reading a devotional called "Finding Jesus in the Old Testament."

Sarah said...

Sounds a fascinating book, who's it by?

Sarah said...

p.s. I got your letter, did I already tell you that? lol

Melissa said...

Nancy Guthrie and yes you did. :)