Daily Word Of God
Matthew 12:1-4, 6-8
Jesus took a walk one sabbath day through the cornfields. His disciples were hungry and began to pick ears of corn and eat them. The Pharisees noticed it and said to him, ‘Look, your disciples are doing something that is forbidden on the sabbath.’ But he said to them, ‘Have you not read what David did when he and his followers were hungry – how he went into the house of God and how they ate the loaves of the offering which neither he nor his followers were allowed to eat, but which were for the priests alone?
‘Now here, I tell you, is something greater than the Temple. And if you had understood the meaning of the words: What I want is Mercy, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the blameless. For the Son of man is master of the sabbath.’
Today's Pointers on God's Word
As you read the passage what words, phases or meanings caught your attention?
- We can recall incidents of someone doing something disallowed by the law/rules which earned our disapproval.
- The truth is: we are ignorant of the circumstances that motivated that person to act the way she/he did and so we cannot judge.
- The lesson Jesus was trying to teach was mercy. A merciful person is slow to condemn but empathizes with others who are in need. Let us pray for the grace to be as merciful as God is merciful to us.