Why would the Pharisees not have condemned the guiltless if they knew the meaning of the phrase “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice?”
The Pharisees misunderstood the law (Matthew 12:3–4) and Jesus’ identity (Matthew 12:6), but also lacked merciful love. As in Matthew 9:13, Jesus refers to Hosea 6:6, about God valuing merciful love more than ceremonies—in contrast to the Pharisees, who thus condemned the innocent disciples, and ultimately condemned the innocent Jesus. Condemning the innocent rejects love, the law’s chief demand (Luke 11:42; John 5:42; Romans 13:10).
The Pharisees lacked not only a right interpretation of the law (Matthew 12:3–4) and a proper understanding of the person of Jesus as the Messiah (Matthew 12:6), but they also lacked merciful love. Just as in Matthew 9:13, Jesus here again refers to Hosea 6:6, where it is said that God values merciful love (true ethics) more highly than ceremonies (rituals). With the Pharisees it was exactly the other way around. This led them to condemn the disciples, though innocent, and this distorted perspective would later also lead them to condemn the Innocent One himself.1
Sacrifices in the ceremonial sense of the word, when unaccompanied by love, have no value in the sight of God—and so the Old Testament law already taught. Condemning the innocent (which, as Jesus has already shown in the preceding verses, was indeed the case here) neglects love, the chief demand of the law (Luke 11:42; John 5:42; Romans 13:10). Sacrifice in the temple is outward form; love is essence. By failing to see this, the Pharisees came to a merciless judgment and thus sinned against the demand God first of all makes: Hosea 6:6.2
7 Si vous saviez ce que signifie: Je prends plaisir à la miséricorde, et non aux sacrifices, vous n'auriez pas condamné des innocents.