I desire mercy, not sacrifice - Jesus

Matthew 9:9-13

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.  While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples.  When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”  On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

 

 

At first I'm thinking, wow this is how he meets Matthew. As I read further, I find he comes back with what is the age old problem, defining the healthy and the sick. Sip some coffee, I read and think. "I desire mercy, not sacrifice" sticks out. What is sacrifice? the act of giving up something that you want to keep especially in order to get or do something else or to help someone. Yet Christ wanted mercy. Christ didn't have anything to keep. He wasn't looking for perfect people, he was looking for passionate people, the people who were considered outcasts. How many times have I pointed fingers and judged others for there bad decisions. What a bad decision I made. What is Mercy?
compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm. I have to look at others as though I'm no different. I am no different, I'm as much a sinner as they are. We're all sick, in need of a savior.

Hits me, if its a sacrifice to help the sick? I'm not thinking right. I'm also sick, in need of a savior.