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| Image by Koshy Koshy |
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A GREETING
Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the clouds.
(Psalm 36:5)
A READING
Then they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves, and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. He was teaching and saying, “Is it not written,
‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’?
But you have made it a den of robbers.”
And when the chief priests and the scribes heard it, they kept looking for a way to kill him, for they were afraid of him because the whole crowd was spellbound by his teaching. And when evening came, Jesus and his disciples[a] went out of the city.
(Mark 11:15-19)
MUSIC
A MEDITATIVE VERSE
And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw God’s Spirit descending like a dove and alighting on him.
(Matthew 3:16)
A POEM
Ah, world, what lessons you prepare for us,
even in the leafless winter,
even in the ashy city.
I am thinking now
of grief, and of getting past it;
I feel my boots
trying to leave the ground,
I feel my heart
pumping hard. I want
to think again of dangerous and noble things.
I want to be light and frolicsome.
I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing,
as though I had wings.
- from "Starlings in Winter," by Mary Oliver
VERSE OF THE DAY
Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild animals;
do not forget the life of your poor forever.
(Psalm 74:19)
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| "Christ au bougies," by Marc Chagall (1954-1960) Chagall, a French-Russian Jewish painter depicted Jesus in Jewish contexts for many years before, during and after the second world war. Faithful to the events of Jesus' life, his works also separate Jesus (whom he thought of as a great "poet") from contemporary Christian iconography to help illuminate the suffering of the Jewish people in the Europe of the Shoah. In this painting, Chagall picks up on Jesus' scriptural pattern of preaching during Jewish festivals drenched in light (Chanukah John 10; and Sukkot John 7 as examples) by combining the candles in the foreground, with a Jesus who is grieving the corruption of the temple. The presence of a non-specific animal behind Jesus is most likely a sacrificial temple animal. |
After days of composure and enduring compassion amid throngs of suffering people, something in Jesus seems to break down when he and his friends enter the temple. Reading the temple accounts across the four gospels, a picture emerges of a man deeply impacted by human emotion. In all four accounts, Jesus routs out the money changers and dovesellers with forceful language (in John this includes an action with a whip). He mourns over Jerusalem, expressing grief and tender sorrow. He despairs over hypocrises, using the language of curses ("woe to you").
In John 2 he compares himself to the temple that will be torn down and rebuilt in three days. Here he is referring to his own body which will be crucified, and his resurrected self which will return. He is the temple that will be rebirthed, anew. As volatile as he becomes, he also has calmer moments. He teaches, tells parables, is cool under questioning by the temple authorities.
While he is in the temple, Jesus is confronted by the activity of sacrifice, the slaughter of animals that was prescribed as the way to maintain right relationship with God. The temple would have been full of the sounds and cries of animals. It was both an abattoir and a place of ritual cleanliness - a challenging tension of opposites. As Jesus moves around, he is confronted by the corruption that is everywhere around him. The activity of the temple represents how he himself will be treaed -- what will become of him. His physical body has begun to be impacted by his diminishing authority. The temple is perhaps one last place where he exercises agency before submitting to what is before him.
Why the dovesellers, more than any other merchant? Doves and pigeons were the sacrificial offering of the poor -- the most affordable option for paying dues and being on the right side of the authorities. Dovesellers exploited their position by exacting exorbitant fees from people who had nothing. In other accounts the dovesellers are instructed to take the birds away. The mercy of Jesus is on the doves as well as the people.
Doves are referenced more times in Scripture than any other bird. The dove marks some of the most significant moments in Jesus' life. A dove appears at his baptism by John the Baptist (Matthew 3). The 'spirit from heaven' descending like a dove that is named in John 1 becomes the image of the Holy Spirit. Elsewhere in scriptural story, the dove that Noah sends out from the ark to look for land brings back a piece of greenery, and in so doing, ushers in new life.
To be confronted with injustice is exhausting to the body. When have you felt depleted by the ways in which the world seems to have lost its way? How can the Jesus who is hungry for justice meet you in your anguish?
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| Image by Koshy Koshy |
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Scripture passages are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition.
For those who may wish to pursue an imagined narrative of the events of Holy Week as told through the eyes of Mary Magdalene, this blog was created in 2009 by Deacon Sherry and then republished in 2020 during the pandemic. The first few days can be found here:
Palm Sunday.
Holy Monday.
Holy Tuesday.
Holy Wednesday.
(A new day will be made visible here each day.)
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LC† From Dust, Still Holy is a devotional series of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help support the ongoing work.
Thank you and peace be with you!