Guiltless

"The weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness," Matthew 23:23.

Fascinating. Mercy, a weightier matter of law? We get the justice part. Sort of. And faithfulness. More or less. But mercy? As part of the law? Well, Jesus speaks of the whole Torah, all five books of Moses. Still, folks should have gotten mercy as one of the three underpinnings of the law. Should have gotten that God desires mercy over sacrifice. Hosea did. When we get that, says Jesus, then we don't go around condemning the guiltless. (The guiltless?!) Persons who break conventional religious rules developed to show God respect. When we get it, we hang out with sinners and other sick people as agents for God's healing, merciful call on their hearts.

We remember our own sin. We see Jesus hanging out for us. We hear Jesus' mercy talk. Free to us, we take in Jesus' forgiveness. We reach out to others with the same mercy. Together we say, Thank you, merciful Lord.