I think today’s message is pretty straight forward. The Pharisees were so concerned with keeping religious rituals, that they missed the whole point of Jesus’ purpose here on earth. They were more concerned with the disruption Jesus caused to their way of thinking and refused to see the good that Jesus brought to the people around them. I know there are times I miss the good that people bring because I get stuck on the method or the fact that I would have done it differently. But I need to accept that ultimately God wants us to serve Him and honor Him by serving and accepting people right where they are and not where I want them to be. In verse 7 where it says, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice”, it jams me right through the heart and reminds me that I fail when I am more concerned with the amount of sacrifice someone does than the amount of mercy they receive. And one final point; the mercy and sacrifice is all from God, He doesn’t really need mine.
2012 Day 19 – Matthew 12:1-21
19 Thursday Jan 2012
Posted in Daily Reading
Daily Devotion 
The one verse that stood out to me today was, “He will not argue or shout, and no one will hear His voice in the streets. (Matthew 12:19 HCSB) It’s amazing to me how Jesus never lost His cool when dealing with the Pharisees. Isaiah prophesied about that we wouldn’t lose His temper with them and Jesus made good on that despite how much they put Him through. I think that goes back to the verse we read yesterday that said, “He didn’t pursue glory from men.” He was interested in their opinions. He was here to fulfill His father’s mission and nothing was going to keep Him from being successful.
After the Pharisees tried to pin Jesus down, He reminded them of a very valuable truth. The letter of the law has only one purpose, to serve the heart of the law. He told them, “There is more at stake here than religion. If you had any idea what this Scripture meant, ‘I prefer a flexible heart to an inflexible ritual,’ you wouldn’t be nitpicking like this.” I love how Jesus gets to the heart of the matter (no pun intended) – He values our obedient hearts more than our self-righteous legalistic actions. We’ve heard this a million times, but it’s not until recently that I’ve begun to grasp the full meaning . If my motivation for doing “good things” isn’t purely out of my passionate love for God, then what is the good deed worth? It’s hollow and lifeless, even if what I did was “good.” I’m really challenged to search my heart on this one. Do I do good things because it makes me look good (and it’s what’s expected of me in this Christian society), or is it because I’m madly in love with Jesus? Ha, to be honest, it’s more the first reason…but I’m working on it!