What is wrong with the cartoon picture? Answer: The doves are loose, flying around, inside the Temple. That did not happen. And the lesson learned is rich with meaning about the nature of God.
What did take place is that Jesus drove out the profaners of the Temple who were merchandising in the oxen and sheep. When they fled the Temple, if their animals scattered they could chase them down and retrieve their possessions. In this, Jesus' FIERCE RIGHTEOUSNES was on full display.
But, with respect to the doves who could fly away and be lost forever, He told them to get the birds out of the Temple. They were not released from their cages. In this we see His THOUGHTFUL MERCY.
Do read the Scripture: "The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; and to those who were selling the doves He said, 'Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business'” (John 2:13-16).
Jesus is the perfect Son of Man. Everything He did was with exacting proportion and just the right measurement of expression. Like the fine flower of the Old Testament Meal Offering Jesus was smoothly operative in all He did.
Indeed, the more we think about Jesus, the more we think of Him. "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). Surely, He perfectly lived what He perfectly taught. In the arousing story of Jesus cleansing the Temple we see His FIERCE RIGHTEOUSNESS coupled with His THOUGHTFUL MERCY. It has been said, "Jesus Christ is both the most absolute grace and the most perfect law; so that to believe in Him is to embrace at once both law and grace."
- dc
