Matthew 12 - I desire mercy & not sacrifice
The Pharisees as recorded were fixated with only laws & rules which they fell into self-righteousness, so they judged the disciples of Jesus Christ for not following the Sabbath law but Jesus Christ used this chance to tell them that God desire mercy and not sacrifice as proclaimed by Hosea as well. Jesus Christ spoke in their language as they were well versed in the Torah by mentioning the history of David & his companion eating the food that was reserved for the priest of the temple, and how the priests of the temple break the Sabbath by performing offerings & sacrificial rituals for the people of God but all of them were guiltless. This again brings out the trait of mercy in God, mercy overrules the rigid rituals & laws. They did not stop there & continue to find fault by asking question that intended to trap Jesus Christ, so He answered them wisely in order that they may see that life is more valuable then the rules & rituals but the Pharisees went out and conspired against Him to destroy Him.
With that in context, Jesus Christ healed all those who followed Him in contrast where the Pharisees accused Jesus Christ of casting out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons, so He asked a question to counter back in a way to try to shock them into seeing how illogical they sounded. Sadly they did not repent but continue to be impenitent so Jesus Christ told them people will be forgiven for every sin and blasphemy, but those who experienced the Holy Spirit thru miracles, healing, casting out demons, or even after seeing the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit chose to be impenitent will not be forgiven. It was simply because they did not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is in the context of they have seen so much of the work of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Then the scribes and Pharisees asked to see a sign, He told them a sign that were familiar in the Jewish history that is the sign of the prophet Jonah, which they shall also see in the coming future in their era which point to the death of Jesus Christ & the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day. The illustration of this evil generation & the true family of Jesus Christ was to bring out a deeper level of revelation so that they may see that those who believe, follow Jesus Christ & do His will, but those who do not believe will only become worse in their evil deeds.
This doesn’t mean that they have no choice, for we all know that our Lord Jesus Christ will come again but it seems that it’s been so long and sometimes as believers of Christ, we face the challenges of being questioned because Jesus Christ has yet to return after 2000 years accusing the new testament as false teachings. However our Father in heaven is patient & merciful as mentioned in
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.
May our Lord Jesus Christ strengthen our inner beings to keep our eyes on Him & be filled with the love of God in order to glorify Him no matter in suffering or tribulations.