lift the cross of Jesus Christ before us as we study your word, and that we would hold all thoughts captive to the cross of Christ. If we ask this for Jesus' sake, amen. Brothers and sisters of the Lord, it's no accident that our Lord calls our attention this evening to a blessing on mercy in the Beatitudes, only after he gives a blessing to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. For in that blessing that he gives those who hunger and thirst, Jesus says is that they will receive the overabundance of his righteousness. That his poor and spirit disciples, his destitute disciples who have nothing outside of him, have now at their disposal all of the riches of Christ. All of his righteousness placed in and deposited in their bank accounts. And that joy and security of never having to live paycheck to paycheck of good deed after good deed to save up enough spiritual currency before a righteous and holy God provides stability in the knowledge that there is no longer any debt left to pay. No more worrying about how to make ends meet before a righteous God. Because that debt has been paid in full and we have inherited the overabundance of Christ's righteousness. And so as we come to this fifth beatitude here this evening, we realize right away that it has nothing to do with a reciprocal relationship with God. That if I show mercy, that God must also show mercy to me. This isn't a type of works righteousness. Instead, it has everything to do with worship. How does a heart that has been satisfied by God's righteousness worship? What does it give in response to such mercy? And Jesus says that there is something greater than sacrifice, something heavier and weightier, something more central to true worship. And it's no wonder he tells the scribes and the Pharisees, you have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness. And instead you swat at gnats while you swallow camels. And so Jesus says in this passage before us tonight, I desire mercy and not sacrifice. I don't want your gifts. I want a heart that worships with mercy. Mercy means more to God than all of the sacrifices we could bring because it is the very pulse of worship, because we worship a merciful God. The only response to his overabundance is that we freely spend all that he gives. How we view mercy has nothing to do with a reciprocal relationship with God, but it has everything to do and is reciprocal of how we view God himself. It is the vital sign that Jesus checks on his disciples to see if all is well, if their worship is alive or if it is dead. And it's only to the merciful that Jesus says mercy will be given. It's the vital sign that he checks on a healthy disciple here this evening, first noticing the Pharisee's problem with mercy, and second, our physician's proverb of mercy, and finally, the prophet's point about mercy. First notice this Pharisee's problem with mercy. And it's not a problem with mercy per se, but a problem with to whom mercy is given. In fact, in Matthew's gospel in chapter six, the Pharisees have no trouble going throughout the streets announcing with a trumpet, a loud trumpet blast that they are giving tithes to the poor. They were giving to the needy as a religious duty in life and one in which every Pharisee did regularly and took seriously. They were diligent at tithing to the poor. Gifts of mercy in that sense were given often and often in great sums. And yet Jesus calls them hypocrites, not because they say one thing and do another thing, as we often mean when we use that word, but because they do all the right things, yet without a hint of sincerity. They thought that they were merciful. And so did the entire Israelite world, but Jesus says that they are just playing the part. They are hiding behind a mask, believing that this outward religious life was what mattered and what counted before God, when in reality it was only an outward show. And so consequently, Jesus says that they have the reward in that chapter, that they have received the applause and the praise of men, but in secret before God, their hearts are exposed, and he knows their heart. A heart that is not merciful. And so we already begin to see a biblical definition of mercy must have a heart that has been changed and transformed by God's mercy. Not only is it works of compassion, but a heart of compassion. And here lies the Pharisee's problem with Jesus. He is eating and drinking with some of the most uncompassionate people, sinners and tax collectors. Tax collectors, the merciless IRS agents of the ancient world who don't care about mercy or compassion. They only care about money coming into their pockets, not money leaving their pockets. No mercy, not even a whiff of mercy. Extortion was their way of life. And while the Pharisees tithed their money, the tax collectors taxed the money. And even Jesus recognizes this in chapter five when he commands the crowd to love even their enemies. For he says, what good does it do a man that he love even those he already loves? Even the tax collectors do this. And that's not a way of congratulating the tax collectors. It's a way of saying, and they hate everyone else. Self-absorbed sinners, not unlike some of the people we know in our own lives who are focused solely on self, that they invest no time in others unless it's a means to get something out of it for themselves. It's no stretch to say that if you were a tax collector in this ancient world, one would be branded with an indelible mark, a permanent mark, so that even later in life, if they were to repent, it would never be viewed as genuine repentance. And to make matters worse, not every tax collector worked for the Roman government. Many were Jews who had betrayed their religious inheritance in service to Herod and themselves. their lives haunted by unforgivable sins. And so hated were these tax collectors that they were not even allowed to testify to the truth in a Jewish court. And here we see Jesus now calling one of these tax collectors to be his disciple, an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ and his church, to testify to the mercy of God. Jesus comes to Matthew and says, follow me. And Matthew, the writer of this gospel, in a humble way of identifying himself, he lets the reader know who he is, that he is Matthew, the tax collector, letting us fill in the blanks about the kind of life that he lived. And now we read that Jesus and his disciples were invited as guests to his house, as guests of honor, and were inside his home. Luke's account tells us that they were preparing for a great feast in honor of Jesus, whom he was now willing to leave everything behind and follow. And on this guest list, we're told that many tax collectors and sinners have come to meet Jesus, perhaps wondering what kind of man this must be to make Matthew leave all of his money. And so in the customary way of sharing one's life with friends and family, Jesus reclines at table with them. He eats with them. He listens to them. He shares himself with them. Jesus' mercy begins with intimacy and intention. The final words of our text can be taken as a descriptive general picture of Jesus' earthly ministry, but they also tell us the specific intention he has for going to Matthew's house. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. The intention of his contact with such undesirable people is because he recognizes that mercy must meet misery. That mercy must meet misery. And in that way, mercy is different than grace, though it's not separated from it. Grace shows love when love is undeserved, but mercy, prompted by a compassionate heart for misery that it sees, extends its healing hand and help. not unrelated to the second beatitude of mourning over sin, especially the consequences of sin in someone else's life, that in order to be merciful, we must be close to those who are miserable. Think of the good Samaritan who saw that poor man left to die by the band of thieves on his way to Jericho from Jerusalem. The priests, the Levite, both men of God, ran into him, but they ran to the other side of the road, inconvenienced by his misery. But when the Samaritans saw him, he had compassion. He bound his wounds. He poured oil on them. He set him on his own animal. He took him to the nearest inn and was willing to pay whatever cost it would take for him to be restored and revived upon his own two feet. And so Jesus asks the lawyer who put him to the test and asks him, who was this man's neighbor? The man who showed him mercy. Mercy is costly. It requires that out of the overabundance that we have received from Christ, that we pour out our time and our effort, even perhaps our money, to help with compassionate hearts. It doesn't sit idly by with compassion, but it enters into a world of misery with compassion. That whatever it would cost to ourselves, we desire to pay the price because we see the misery that sin has caused. And I hope as this beatitude challenges us this evening that you share some of the same thoughts that I have myself, that I'm not good at this. I often don't desire this kind of mercy, that there's too much cost involved, there's too much commitment involved, there's too much cost placed upon myself, that if I were to put myself into other people's, my time and my effort into other people, then there's less time for myself. Or even the doubt that if I showed this kind of mercy, would that same kind of mercy be shown to me? Well, brothers and sisters, I'm convicted that what will shape our view of mercy is the pair of eyes by which we see, first, our relationship with God. What is that relationship? And secondly, the pair of eyes by which we see the world around us. Because you see, while there are many differences between these two groups of offenders, one group, the Pharisees, love God's law. And the other, the tax collectors, bend the law. One group ties, the other taxes. One group is held in honor, the other in disrepute. But at the end of the day, the tax collectors and the Pharisees really are very similar. Both are unmerciful bunch of sinners. The only difference is that one group is unmerciful with God's law, and the other is unmerciful with no regard to the law. See, the real striking difference is the way in which, and the set of eyes by which Jesus and the Pharisees view the tax collectors and the sinners. And that brings us to our second point this evening, the physician's proverb of mercy. Matthew says that when the Pharisees saw Jesus eating with these tax collectors and sinners, perhaps after the feast was done and Jesus was leaving with his disciples, the Pharisees who were prone to following Jesus from a distance, looking for some way to trap him or to accuse him, now see him and his disciples leaving a house filled with tax collectors and sinners. And they take their opportunity to mock Jesus' disciples. Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? And you can hear the sarcasm in their comment. They don't think he's a teacher of the law and so they say to his disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? In not missing a moment to correct such a foolish comment, Jesus overhears them speaking to his disciples, and he responds with this proverb, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. And with this proverb, he reveals the set of eyes by which he sees a sinful world, which is strikingly different from the vantage point of the Pharisees. The reason the Pharisees' feathers are so ruffled is because Jesus is eating with lawbreakers. They view the world through the lens of reciprocity of God's law. They view the world like lawyers and prosecutors, counting up transgressions and adding up failures. Even according to rabbinical tradition, it would be impossible for a tax collector to repent until he had paid back every penny that he had stolen from the hands of others. And that way, it was almost impossible for a tax collector to be forgiven. They were stuck as sinners. And in the Pharisees' world, it was tit for tat, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, you get what you deserve. That if you walk righteously, then you'll receive blessing from the Lord, but if you fail him, if you fail to keep his law, then you'll receive his wrath. And so they take out their clipboards and they walk around and they make their marks. God will get you for that. God will get you for that. You failed over here. You didn't do this. You missed a spot over there. A kind of pharisaical worldview that prays, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get. I have followed your law. I've done what you've required of me. unlike this wretched sinner. But where's the compassion in that? Where's the forgiveness in that? Where is the mercy in that? What good is it to know that someone is going to get what they deserve? Doesn't James say that mercy triumphs over judgment? And he also says that judgment will be without mercy to those who have shown no mercy. Brothers and sisters, if this is the measure by which we view the world, then Jesus says that same measure will be used against us. Is this how we view the world and our relationships with others? A place to settle scores in our homes, in our marriages? Unwilling to show mercy until we get back what is owed? Whether that be money or time or respect or anything else? Are we like the unmerciful servant who will squeeze every penny out of the one who owes him so little? See, thank the Lord, that's not how Jesus views the world. He doesn't view the world as a place to settle score, but as a place to deal with disease. He sees the world through a doctor's eyes. in which he doesn't keep a record of wrongs or rights. He knows that all who would be his disciples are infected with the same disease of sin. And a doctor isn't concerned of compiling a list of wrongs and rights. He's concerned about administering mercy and healing. He wants to cure the disease. And Jesus says that disease is sin. I have come for sinners, not for the supposed righteous. but for the tax collector who cannot even lift his eyes to heaven, who simply beats his breasts and says, Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. And to see a world as a diseased place is to see a world in need of mercy. And then the church no longer becomes a place for keeping scores, but a hospital for sinners, a place where healing can be found in the blood of Christ. But when the church loses its knowledge of the disease of sin, it loses its desire to administer mercy. It can do a lot of external things that appear to be merciful, and many churches do. And they'll say, come one and all, come, we don't judge. We accept you as you are, with no need to change, no need for mercy. You are fine as you are. In some ways, some of that's commendable. and the invitation of others. But they might as well also say that we aren't here to help. Mercy isn't just a compassionate heart. It recognizes need for healing and it does all that it can to help. This proverb that Jesus speaks might be translated or modernized as mercy rolls up its sleeves and it gets its hands dirty because the physician comes into contact with his patient. He becomes familiar with their sicknesses. He works hard and diligently to heal whatever ails this man. And so it is with Jesus' disciples. They spend their time. They become familiar with burdens. They check for signs of progress. They give people second chances and third chances and fourths. They're merciful. They wish the very best because they pray for God's mercy. They show mercy to the extent that they have received mercy. And they delight in mercy in the extent that they have tasted mercy. For they know their own sickness. And they also know how God has shown them mercy. as the Apostle Paul says, that you were at one time dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our own flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, made us alive. And you see, Jesus is the smile of God's mercy to a diseased world, who as the great physician, perfectly healthy in himself, became sin. He became diseased to provide the cure, the double cure, cleansed from sin's guilt and from its power, to make his people healthy, healed, alive. And when we have received such mercy from the Lord, and when we have seen what he has extended for us in Christ for this mercy, How then should we serve God? What kind of sacrifice, what kind of worship is due to him? And this is the point that Jesus leaves with the Pharisees, their final point this evening. And to make it, Jesus puts it in words that they would not misunderstand, that if a proverb wasn't enough to make them understand his love for tax collectors and sinners and his compassion for them, then perhaps the prophet is the authority that answers their objection. And so as they depart to go their separate ways, Jesus gives them a lesson for the road. He says, go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice. Take it with you, study it, think about it. Why on earth would the prophet Hosea, which we read from Hosea 6, why would he tell God's people in the Old Testament that he doesn't desire sacrifice? If you're dedicating your entire life to the temple and the sacrificial system, you could surely at least answer this. God says he desires mercy and not sacrifice. What's the problem with sacrifice? And really what Jesus is asking, what was the problem with the Israelites' worship? And as we have read from chapter six in Hosea, you would see in that context, Hosea is crying out for God's people that they might repent. The sin of Ephraim, the northern kingdom, the sin of Judah, the southern kingdom is described as a severe sickness that plagues the temple worship of Israel. And if they would but repent, God would heal them as the great physician. as he desires to heal an unfaithful people. And in compassion he says to them in that place, what shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love, your mercy is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early in the morning. You are faithless and you refuse my healing because you refuse to repent. What I desire is love and mercy and faithfulness, not your sacrifices, a heart that worships through its mercy. Without mercy, worship is wasted. And still worse, though the temple still stood in the hours of calm before God's judgment, it was not a place of worship, rather a place filled with rampant abuse, full of cheaters and liars and extortioners who trampled upon the poor, who waited for the Sabbath to end so they could open their shops and take advantage of the impoverished. Jesus is saying to the Pharisees that they are no different in many ways. They're ancestors and they themselves are no different to these tax collectors. Their lives offered little evidence that they ever understood what it meant to make a sacrifice. The temple wasn't for show. It wasn't a place to make money or even a source of national pride. It was a place to plead for God's mercy. And the sacrifice was but an instrument by which the offerer could receive God's mercy. And every ritual about the animal's health and purity was just another pressing reminder of the offerer's own sin and sickness and need for his mercy. And by faith, the priest would take the blood of that animal and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat, expecting in faith that though he is sick, though he is faithless, God would be faithful and merciful to heal him of all the sins. And so Jesus says to the Pharisees, don't you get it? I haven't come for the righteous, but for sinners. I haven't come for healthy people, but for sick people. I am their sacrifice that they might believe on me in faith and be healed. That's astounding mercy shown to unmerciful people. Where even now we worship not because we assemble here but because he is there at the mercy seat as the faithful and merciful high priest of the house of God whose blood is sprinkled upon once for all on the mercy seat. whose sacrifice heals us from all of our sins. And therefore, brothers and sisters, what does God require from us? Isn't it remarkable that the Apostle Paul in the book of Romans speaks for 11 chapters on how God has healed us in Christ, how he has become the gift of God's righteousness as the answer to the disease of sin's transmission in Adam. How he has died to sin that we might live to God and be raised with him in glory to an inheritance of glory with which our present sufferings cannot compare. How he has done all of this by his electing in sovereign grace. And what does Paul say when he comes to the response of God's people in chapter 12? Therefore, in view of God's mercy, Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, for this is your reasonable worship. Not our tithes, our offerings, but ourselves. We offer ourselves as the instruments of mercy. For he promises mercy to the merciful, not because they've earned it, but because they have received it. And how much mercy we show reflects how much we think we have received. And as we think at how we might better live out this calling as Christ's disciples, we must admit that we are often unmerciful. If not in our actions, it's lodged in our thoughts. We hold people to standards that we wouldn't want placed upon ourselves. We set limitations to how far we're willing to spend and extend mercy. We calculate what is deserved and what is owed. And perhaps it's this kind of thinking that inhibits us from showing mercy. But the Lord has not treated us this way. He hasn't treated you this way. He doesn't keep count of every failure or sum up all that you owe. He forgives as far as the east is from the west. Or perhaps what inhibits us from being merciful is the way in which we view others. Rather than a physician's eyes, we view the world with the eyes of a lawyer and a prosecutor. We're not interested in seeing need because it's easier to keep score. It's easier to say I've done enough or to hide behind the scruples of my Christian faith. Or perhaps we're afraid of the contact that it requires or the cost that it will bring to ourselves, the time it will take, the effort that needs to be put in, the fear of receiving nothing in return. But brothers and sisters, a living sacrifice is not a pretty sight. It's messy. Mercy is messy. because it gets involved with sinners, and it gets involved with misery, and it desires to help. And see, with this beatitude, Jesus challenges us here this evening. He asks us, how much mercy have we received? And how much are you willing to spend? For this service, Jesus says, I desire. And he also comforts us with mercy's reward. Blessed are the merciful. for they shall receive mercy, God's mercy. They will be paid in full by the mercy of God. Therefore, what does God require from us? What does he desire from us? That we act justly, righteously, that we love mercy, and that we walk humbly with our God. Amen. Heavenly Father, we come thanking you for the sacrifice that you have put forward in Jesus Christ. By your overflowing mercy, you have sent forward your only begotten son, who has come as the perfect one, the healthy one for sick, for the lost, for sinners such as ourselves. We pray, Father, that you would fill us with the mercy that he has extended towards us. And this we would spend upon others, our brothers and sisters in the faith, those who need us, our neighbors, that we would become a merciful people. For we ask this for Jesus' sake, amen.