"I want mercy, not sacrifice"

under_believer

It's not a new thought, but it bears occasional repetition. Repetition, you might say, for emphasis.
Why is blood forbidden JW's? Why are there laws and regulations that can cause a person, a child, a lover, a husband, a wife, a mother, a father, to die?
Why was there a sabbath?
The answers, according to the Witnesses, are the same: they are symbols. They are symbols of something sacred.
What did Jesus, the perfect man, God's son according to the Witnesses, and a human who lived the law perfectly think about this subject? I draw your attention to Matthew 12:
1 At that season Jesus went through the grainfields on the sabbath. His disciples got hungry and started to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2 At seeing this the Pharisees said to him: “Look! Your disciples are doing what it is not lawful to do on the sabbath.” 3 He said to them: “Have YOU not read what David did when he and the men with him got hungry? 4 How he entered into the house of God and they ate the loaves of presentation, something that it was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those with him, but for the priests only? 5 Or, have YOU not read in the Law that on the sabbaths the priests in the temple treat the sabbath as not sacred and continue guiltless? 6 But I tell YOU that something greater than the temple is here. 7 However, if YOU had understood what this means, ‘I want mercy, and not sacrifice,’ YOU would not have condemned the guiltless ones. 8 For Lord of the sabbath is what the Son of man is.”
9 After departing from that place he went into their synagogue; 10 and, look! a man with a withered hand! So they asked him, “Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath?” that they might get an accusation against him. 11 He said to them: “Who will be the man among YOU that has one sheep and, if this falls into a pit on the sabbath, will not get hold of it and lift it out? 12 All considered, of how much more worth is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do a fine thing on the sabbath.” 13 Then he said to the man: “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and it was restored sound like the other hand. 14 But the Pharisees went out and took counsel against him that they might destroy him.
What do you think? Jesus is recorded as telling his disciples, and in fact the authority figures of the day, that the spirit of the Law was mercy, not sacrifice. That the observation of the Sabbath was secondary to human needs and concerns. That when push comes to shove, he and his Father care more about the people following the law than the law itself.
If you are a Witness reading this, let me ask you a question. Maybe you believe that Acts contains a "biblical command to abstain from blood," and that this absention applies to you in the 21st century, and that this injunction extends to blood transfusions and not just eating blood. This is already an astonishing view to take of that scripture, since there are many other ways that have as much or more merit to interpret those words. But even if you believe that, when reading the above, do you really think that Jesus would approve of letting somebody die because of failure to administer a blood transfusion?
Can you imagine Jesus essentially violating the Sabbath in the 1st century, just so his disciples could glean... healing people to make their lives more comfortable, on the Sabbath, when he could easily have waited til the next day... Can you imagine him doing all that, because He and his Father want mercy, not sacrifice... and then approving of the sacrifice of dead little children, who died because they believed that they were to abstain from blood? Whose full, long, promise-filled lives were cut short?
Is dying for want of a blood transfusion...
Mercy?
or Sacrifice?

serendipity

I seldom recall that scripture used by JWs.

NowImFree

Excellent post. I noticed these scriptures too when I was doing bible research before I left the JWs. I came to the conclusion that the JWs were so wrong and that based on what Jesus did in these cases, I could not picture him standing next to a hospital bed expecting a parent to let their child die because of refusing to take a blood transfusion. That was not him and I finally understood the saying about wanting mercy, not sacrifice.

Thanks,

NowImFree

under_believer

Serendipity, when it is used, it is used to highlight Jesus' moral battle with the Pharisees and to (correctly) call out Pharasaical behavior, primarily consisting of unbending adherence to rules that they either made up or interpreted too harshly. They even like to talk about how people who incurred the Pharisees' wrath risked expulsion from the synagogue, discussing what this meant for a person's life and saying how horrible it was.
Strangely, no sense of irony is ever present when these topics are aired.

SirNose586

Sadly, no dubs will apply this to the blood situation. They will sacrifice the child to the Borg. Perhaps they may score more brownie points with the leadership.

Neo

under_believer,

Simple and obvious. Thanks.

The parallel passage in Mark adds a phrase in the grainfields account that emphasizes your point:

Mark 2:23-27 23

Now it happened that he was proceeding through the grainfields on the sabbath, and his disciples started to make their way plucking the heads of grain. 24 So the Pharisees went saying to him: "Look here! Why are they doing on the sabbath what is not lawful?" 25 But he said to them: "Have YOU never once read what David did when he fell in need and got hungry, he and the men with him? 26 How he entered into the house of God, in the account about A·bi´a·thar the chief priest, and ate the loaves of presentation, which it is not lawful for anybody to eat except the priests, and he gave some also to the men who were with him?" 27 So he went on to say to them: "The sabbath came into existence for the sake of man, and not man for the sake of the sabbath;

Neo

lovelylil

Excellent scripture and comments. This is one of the scriptures that really opened up my eyes about the FDS. There is absolutely no mercy shown to anyone and all they want is more sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice! They are a works oriented religion just like the Jewish religion in Jesus' day. By performing works and rituals of sacrifice, the pharisees had forgotten that the laws were put in place A) as a protection for the good of the people B) to show them that they needed a relationship with God thru his son as no man is perfect and cannot approach God on his own merit.

God knew that NO ONE could follow the law perfectly and never expected them to do so.

It is obvious that the FDS and the elders are just like the Pharisees in putting works and obeying the letter of the law above showing mercy to fellow humans. Jesus clearly had the view that the People were more important than any rules and regulations and showing mercy and love to others far outwieghed wether they kept every law perfectly or not.

Arthur

Hey under_believer,

Excellent post. Those scriptures about sacrafice and mercy are excellent points to make for this issue as well as others. Kudos to you !

under_believer

Neo, thanks for your contribution. Reading that phrase - "The sabbath came into existence for the sake of man, and not man for the sake of the sabbath" - really does emphasize the point. What was more fundamental to Judaism than the sabbath? And yet Jesus says that the sabbath was for the sake of man, making this point at the same time when he was essentially violating the sabbath in the minds of the religious leaders of his day.
The ban on lifesaving blood transfusions is indefensible even if the Witnesses have their interpretation of Acts 15:28,29 correct.

"I want mercy, not sacrifice"

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