Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” Matthew 9:13
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. Matthew 23:23
What does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul? Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. Deuteronomy 10:14-19
He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8
Thus says the Lord of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another. Zechariah 7:9
Learn to do good;
seek justice,
correct oppression;
bring justice to the fatherless,
plead the widow's cause. Isaiah 1:17
The Law and the Prophets have a vibrant thread woven throughout the centuries, tying together the voice, the circumstances, and the audience. And even if I don’t understand all the cultural implications, the marching orders are clear, clear about the heart of God. God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God,
And really this is the ultimate What Would Jesus Do? rubber band bound around my forearm, because He was about His Father’s business.
Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. You shall bind them as a sign on your forearm, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
The measure of every thought, of every movement, of every word of my mouth. Love and faithfulness. Demonstrated as justice and mercy. Oh the explications I have heard over the years, twisting justice and mercy to be distant parameters on a spectrum, measurable factors that define a particular system, painting a dark line between Them and Us. God is Just towards Them, and Merciful to Us. Rather than being something that one brings to the Fatherless. Rather than being one breath of the God of gods: justice and mercy, faithfully executed in kindly love. Calling all sinners to come home.
Jesus Christ, the manifestation, the fulfillment, the completion of the Law and the Prophets. With His arms lifted up.
