(This sermon is based loosely on the facts and stories found in the "Living Lent" sermon series written by Donald Neidigk.)
Living Lent II, “The Dove Reveals an Angry Savior”
We are in the midst of Lent… the period before Easter where we focus on Christ and prepare for his passion and sacrifice on the cross. As a church, we are spending this time hearing from… of all things… animals to teach us lessons and help us learn more (or hear once again) about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So far, we heard from a fox on Ash Wednesday… and we heard from a donkey last week. We have a few donkey fans in this church. I did not know that. This week we will be learning a little something from a dove.
What do we think when we think of doves? [Peace. Weddings. Purity.] But how about this… closely related to doves are pigeons. They have similar habits and diet. They even seem to be used interchangeably in the Bible, though there’s a different word for each. What do we think of when we think of pigeons? [Flying Rat. Dirty. Nuisance. What a mess.] Pigeons are everywhere… especially in larger cities. Did you know that you can find pigeons on every single continent except Antarctica! So… it shouldn’t be shocking that doves and pigeons were very common and plentiful back in Jesus day. Much like the guy who is responsible for cleaning the statue’s in a New York park… people in Jesus’ day viewed pigeons as nuisances. They were a danger to farmer’s crops and often quite messy. Being so plentiful… and viewed as such a nuisance… they were very common and extremely cheap animals that people could buy to offer as sacrifice to the Lord at temple.
This becomes our lead in to Jesus… So it was… that right after Jesus was born… Mary and Joseph took Jesus to the temple to perform the standard sacrificial rights. Normally, the sacrifices after a child was born usually had to be a lamb, but if someone couldn’t afford a lamb, pigeons or doves were accepted. Of all the animals that Mary and Joseph could have purchased… Mary and Joseph purchased a dove… showing how extremely poor they were.
It must have been humbling being unable to afford a real sacrifice… especially after such an important event as the first son being born… and yet… would anything else better represent our Christ who came for us and humbled himself for us? Our Christ who was humbly born in a stable… would humbly be brought to temple as a baby with nothing more than a dove to sacrifice. This dove, much like the stable that he was born in… declared that Jesus’ life would be marked by humble service.
This would not be the last time that a dove would play an important part in the life of Christ… the dove has yet more to teach us… this little animal would mark special moments in Christ’s life: beginning… middle… and end.
Can anyone tell me the second time that a dove makes an appearance in reference to Christ? His baptism:
Matthew 3:16 - 4:1 6 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."
Here, the dove has something else important to teach us. This humble man from such humble beginnings was about to begin his ministry… about to begin his 3 year journey to the cross… and it is here that the dove sets Christ completely apart from every other servant… every other prophet… every other man. This Jesus… was the son of God! The Christ… the Savior! He would be able to do what no other man could do. He would heal those no other man could heal. He would reconcile those that no one else could reconcile. He would save those who could not save themselves. He is our TRUE Lord!
The dove has one final lesson to teach us today. Can any of you tell me the last reference we have to Christ and doves in the scriptures? Good Friday in the Temple:
John 2:14-17
14 In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!" 17 His disciples remembered that it is written: "Zeal for your house will consume me."
Jews had only one temple in the whole world, so they all had to come to Jerusalem to worship. There was a trick… only specially minted coins were acceptable as offerings, so out-of-town visitors had to exchange their foreign coins for the correct coins. The money changers provided this service… at a good profit, of course.
And most visitors and even city dwellers didn’t own pigeons, goats, lambs or even doves, so if they wanted to offer a sacrifice, they had to buy the animal. So the merchants had turned the temple porch into a livestock auction.
And besides all the greed and profiteering at the expense of the worshipers, they were denying the Gentiles their rightful place to pray.
Only Jews were allowed inside the temple. God-fearing Gentiles were welcome to pray outside on the porch, but all the money changers, animals, birdcages and customers kept them away. Even if they could find a place for their devotions, who could pray with all of that racket? So… essentially, they were shutting people out of the worship place just to make more room to sell things! Perhaps now we can understand why Jesus was angry and why he drove those people out.
I bet that was something to see: Coins going everywhere, merchants shouting and scrambling to pick up their money, goats bleating, cages crashing to the ground, doves and pigeons flying around!
It might even seem laughable, but it was no laughing matter. Jesus was coming to his Father’s house as an angry Savior. All those loose goats and flying feathers and birds! The doves that day could tell us all exactly how angry Jesus was.
I know we often think of Jesus as meek and mild… and usually he is, but sometimes there are just some things that even HE wouldn’t stand for! In the book of Mark we get another glimpse of Christ’s righteous anger:
Mark 3:4-6 4
Then Jesus asked them, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" But they remained silent. 5 He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. 6 Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.
Whenever Christ came into contact with people who were distorting the truth or keeping people away from the grace of God… he reacted this strongly. I know we often think of Jesus as the Lord of Love, filled with compassion, and mountains and mountains of patience and grace… but the doves on that fateful day at the temple can tell us directly about his wrath and anger. They could tell us… that Christ… was most certainly… human: able to know what we are feeling and what we are going through, able to relate to us and say “I’ve been there… I know.” While being fully God… the dove’s could tell us the he was most certainly fully human… with our fears… with our feelings… with our anger and temper sometimes too. All of this made our humble servant something so much more… it made him a suffering servant… for US!
1) Christ’s first dove represents humble service… we need to remember we are humble servants
2) Christ was divine… we need to remember who our Lord is…
3) Christ was human… we need to remember the price he actually paid…
