"For I desired mercy and not _sacrifice_; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings" (Hosea VI:6).
But the Jews had not heeded the admonitions of their prophets, and, in the time of Jesus, their religion, under the dominating influence of those zealous laymen--the scribes and Pharisees--had become permeated with the dry-rot of formalism. Prayers, fastings, rites and ceremonies had become all important, like the "burnt offerings of bullocks," "the blood of bullocks," the "incense" and "vain oblations" of earlier days. "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith" (Matt. XXIII:23). Their conception of the Lord was that of the Mosaic times--a jealous Deity to be placated by sacrifices, and whose favor was to be won by external worship, and not by inward purity of heart. "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also" (Matt. XXIII:25, 26).
The simple, unceremonial religion which Jesus taught, a living force animating each act of one's daily life, nourished by secret prayers in one's chamber, manifesting itself by unobtrusive acts of mercy, not by public prayers, fastings and religious services, was the direct antipodes of the ceremonial formalism then dominant among the Jews. Jesus early recognized this antagonism, and lost no opportunity to combat this, the greatest obstacle to the spreading of His ideas. He can use no words too bitter in denouncing those whom He considers the corrupters of the true worship of God (Matt. XXIII; Mark XII:38-40; Luke XX:46, 47; XI:42-44). To persons deeply imbued with religious feeling, hypocrisy is the cardinal sin. "Ye hypocrites" is His constant term of reproach for the scribes and Pharisees.
Now, the observance of the Sabbath was the keystone in the arch of formalism which the Pharisees had erected. They had filled the day with religious ceremonies. They had surrounded it with minute restrictions and prohibitions, so that even the healing of the sick on that day was considered by them unlawful. Probably their objection to the disciples picking and eating corn was not based so much on that fact, as on the iniquity of Jesus and His disciples taking a pleasant walk through the fields and country on the Sabbath. As Macaulay said of the Puritans, they hated bear baiting, not so much because it gave pain to the bear, as because it gave pleasure to the spectators.