To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!”
“my Father’s house” = a messianic claim by Jesus. In the Old Testament the Temple is often called the “house of God” and Jesus referred to the owner of the Temple as being His Father, a claim to deity. Also, the Messianic prophecy in Zech 14:21 refers to there being no more Canaanites in the house of the LORD, but the Hebrew word translated as “Canaanite” may also be translated as “merchant” or “trader.”
Zech 14:21 Every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to the LORD Almighty, and all who come to sacrifice will take some of the pots and cook in them. And on that day there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the LORD Almighty.
Note that Jesus called the Temple “my Father’s house” and not “our Father’s house.” He never indicates that His Sonship is anything like ours.
Jesus drove out the sheep because their owners would follow, and He overturned the moneychanger’s tables, but they could pick up their coins. However, with the doves, which were the sacrifice of the poor, He told their owners to get them out, because if he had let them go, they would have flown away and caused economic loss to their owners. We must never let our zeal hurt others.
What is the motive of Jesus? As Strachan points out, “His motive was one of reverence for ‘my Father’s house,’ and of deep concern that the spirit of worship should thus be dissipated at its very door.” The Court of the Gentiles, where all of this activity was taking place was the only court on the Temple grounds where the Gentiles could go to pray and meditate and there was certainly no peace for them there to worship. As Wright says, “A place that should have stood as a symbol for the freedom of access of all nations in prayer to God, had become a place associated with sordid pecuniary interests.” (qt’d in Morris 195) Not only that, but the sacrifices themselves were defiled by the motives of the offenders. See (Mal 3:1-4). Jesus was concerned with making offerings which were pleasing to God and not with wealth-seeking religion.
Mal 3:1-4 “See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the LORD Almighty. But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the LORD, as in days gone by, as in former years.
Today the Temple no longer stands; the church has taken its place. And with that substitution, comes the possibility of falling into the same temptation which took hold of the Temple of God in the day of Jesus. In fact, it has happened many times over the centuries, but the church bounces back from its sin and reforms. Why? Because Jesus comes again and again to cleanse the House of God. Maclaren notes that “if Jesus Christ had not thus come, over and over again, to His Church, Christian men would have killed Christianity long ago.” Jesus still comes to cleanse His Temple.