In the passage for this week Jesus says that he wants people to show mercy and not sacrifice (Matthew 9:13). The sacrificial living, to which he refers, is when people give of themselves to a situation but hope eventually for something in return. The sacrificial cult, in Jesus' time, was an attempt to address the cycle of violence by ritualizing it and making it sacred. People tried to hide their own culpability for the violence in the world by ascribing it to God. They sacrificed to God and he was expected to act in return. It was this logic of sacred violence that put Jesus on the cross, a victim of people's need to find a scapegoat for things that they could not control. There is no such hidden agenda to mercy. It is quite simple what we have to do: be fair and just to our neighbour, be compassionate and loyal in our love, and don't take ourselves too seriously (cf Micah 6:8).

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