A Scripture Jesus quoted
I Will Have Mercy, and Not Sacrifice
Twice Jesus sent His critics back to a line from Hosea: God desires mercy, not sacrifice. When they scorned Him for eating with sinners and for His disciples plucking grain on the Sabbath, He told them to go and learn what that verse means. God prizes compassion above ritual, and they had missed it.
“For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.”Hosea 6:6
“But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”Matthew 9:13
The Scripture in its own place
Hosea prophesied to a northern kingdom whose devotion was fickle, quick to offer sacrifices yet quick to abandon God. The verse comes as God's lament and appeal: their loyalty was like morning mist that soon vanished, and their religion had become hollow performance. God declares He desires steadfast love and the knowledge of Himself more than burnt offerings, mercy more than the machinery of the altar. He was not abolishing sacrifice but exposing its emptiness when severed from a heart of covenant faithfulness and compassion. The people multiplied offerings while their character stayed cruel and unfaithful. Hosea's word cuts to the truth that God reads the heart behind the ritual and treasures mercy above every outward act of worship.
How and when Jesus used it
Jesus quoted this verse against the Pharisees on two occasions. First, when they sneered at Him for dining with tax collectors and sinners, He said the sick need a physician and told them to learn what mercy over sacrifice means. Second, when they condemned His hungry disciples for plucking grain on the Sabbath, He argued that had they understood this verse, they would not condemn the guiltless. In both cases their zeal for ritual purity had hardened into contempt for people. Jesus wielded Hosea to expose a religion that guarded rules while neglecting compassion, insisting that God's own priority is mercy toward the needy and the fallen.
What it reveals about Jesus
Jesus reads Scripture as the revelation of God's heart, and He aligns Himself entirely with what that heart desires. He does not set mercy against the law; He shows mercy as the law's truest aim, the thing the ritual always pointed toward. This reveals a Lord who interprets the Sabbath and the sacrifices by their purpose, freeing them to serve people rather than crush them. It also unveils who He is: the Physician who comes for the sick, the merciful God of Hosea now present in flesh, eating with sinners. In quoting this verse He speaks as one who knows and shares the very desire of God.
Questions people ask
What does I desire mercy and not sacrifice mean?
It means God treasures compassion and covenant faithfulness above ritual offerings. Hosea spoke it to a people whose devotion was hollow performance, quick to sacrifice yet quick to abandon God. The line does not abolish worship but exposes its emptiness without a merciful heart. Jesus used it to show that God's priority is mercy toward the needy over rigid ceremony.
When did Jesus quote Hosea about mercy?
Jesus quoted Hosea 6:6 twice. First when Pharisees scorned Him for eating with tax collectors and sinners, He told them to learn what mercy over sacrifice means. Second when they condemned His disciples for plucking grain on the Sabbath, He said understanding this verse would have kept them from condemning the guiltless. Both times He exposed compassionless religion.