DON'T BE A DOVE SELLER!

...AND THOSE SELLING DOVES

All four gospels recount Jesus clearing the temple in Jerusalem. A provocative act that seemed to seal his fate during the Passover Week.

Three of the four gospels note that Jesus is targeting a particular group when He cleared the temple. The dove sellers.

 Mark 11.15-17
On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”

Matthew 21.12-13
Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”

John 2.13-16
When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” 

Jesus also targeted the money changers. But for this post I want to focus on the dove sellers. Why target these people and these transactions?

As most know, the preferred sacrifice to be offered at the temple was a lamb. But a provision is made in Leviticus for the poor:

 Leviticus 5.7
Anyone who cannot afford a lamb is to bring two doves or two young pigeons to the Lord as a penalty for their sin—one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering.

By going after the dove sellers we see Jesus directly attacking the group who were having economic dealings with the poor. When the poor would go to the temple they would head for the dove sellers.

The point being, while we know that Jesus was upset about economic exploitation going on in the temple, his focus on the dove sellers sharpens the message and priorities. Jesus doesn't, for instance, go after the sellers of lambs. Jesus's anger is stirred at the way the poor -in the temple- are being treated and economically exploited.

What Made Jesus So Angry?

So what made Jesus so angry? The contrast he pointed out was between “my Father’s house” and a marketplace. “My Father’s house” means: This house is about knowing and loving and treasuring a person, my Father. In this temple, my Father has supreme place. He is the supreme treasure here. “A day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere” (Psalm 84:11). “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you” (Psalms 73:25).

But that focus has been replaced by a focus on trade. And there is no reference here to the people who needed the animals—the poor, the pilgrims who were buying the doves and pigeons. The anger is all directed at those who were selling and handling the currency. Jesus could see through the veneer of religious helpfulness to the heart. In fact, in verse 25 John says, “He himself knew what was in man” (John 2:25).

He see's religion used as a front for something else. Empty forms of love for God plastering over the insatiable love for something else. Jesus boils when he sees formal godliness as cover for gain (see 1 Timothy 6:5).  

You can hear the zeal of Jesus burning in Matthew 23:25: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.” You put up a fine display of religious helpfulness in the temple bazaar. But you are driven by the love of money, not the love of God.  And O how sophisticated and subtle it gets! Who but Jesus can ferret out the ways we rationalize covetousness.

What Jesus saw that day in the temple was not an isolated instance of questionable worship support. It was the outworking of greed cloaked with religion. “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me” (Matthew 15:8–9). My Father is not being worshipped. Money is being worshipped—in my Father’s house; by exploiting the poor. 

HE WHO LENDS TO THE POOR, LENDS TO THE LORD!