What do you think Jesus meant when he said, "It is mercy I desire, and not sacrifice?"?

Jesus said these words at least twice.

Matthew 9

10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples.

11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"

12 On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.

13 But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

Matthew 12

1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them.

2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, "Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath."

3 He answered, "Haven't you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?

4 He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread--which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests.

5 Or haven't you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent?

6 I tell you that one greater than the temple is here.

7 If you had known what these words mean, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the innocent.

8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath."

9 Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue,

10 and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, they asked him, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"

11 He said to them, "If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out?

12 How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath."

In both instances, he was addressing the Pharisees.

In the first instance, it was because they were being judgmental of Jesus because he was eating with social outcasts and sinners.

In the second instance, it was because they were being judgmental of Jesus' disciples; the disciples were "harvesting" grain on the Sabbath (a day of rest for the Jews) because they were very hungry.

Jesus, just like God the Father, is merciful. And as God said the same words to Israel through the prophet Hosea (Hosea 6:6) years before, Jesus also told the Pharisees that he desires humans to be merciful to one another as He is merciful to them. God desires mercy even more than the sacrifices (offerings of burnt sheep, goats and cows) that they would offer, just so that God will forgive them of their sins.

It's like saying: I'd rather that you avoid sinning against one another by being merciful, than sinning by being merciless and then pleading for forgiveness afterwards through offerings of burnt animals.

I think he meant he desired mercy, and not sacrifice.

He said "obedience" not mercy. Doing His will is more important than dying or giving up something when it's not His will

Mercy for the atrocities that he knew would be committed in his name.