The Cleaning Temple and its meaning

Throughout Jesus amazing public ministry he did things no one thought the Messiah would do, when he publicly announced on the streets the forgiveness of peoples sins, an assurance that many did not understand. Before God sent his son to save the world people who be forgiven of sins by going to the temple and offer sacrifice to the Lord. Usually their would be some kind of celebration after, however with Jesus the Sins were forgiven without any intermediate steps, because he is God in the flesh and people celebrated right on the spot.

Then questions arouse who does he think he is, does he think he is God? The miracles and other such events that Jesus were preforming were undermining the temples authorities. However when he healed the Leaper he told him to go to the temple to show himself as clean. The Leaper needed to do that so he could be re integrated into society. Jesus was fulfilling the purpose of the temple, basically replacing its purpose.

The newest questions where asking was Jesus or the temple representing the will of God and the coming Kingdom. Their is evidence that the poor felt at the time the temple was an oppressive regime more interested in following a set of rules and making a profit than glorify God. However Jesus isn't saying the temple was an evil thing, but was a thing of the past. Simply put he is saying God the Father is doing a new thing.

When Jesus overthrew the tables of the money changers he stopped the flow of sacrifices being bought at the temple for a while (as they had to be blemish free and essentially perfect). What this says is that this whole system in under judgment and not before to long the system will stop completely because the temple will be destroyed completely.

Ultimately what our Lord was saying is that through me you have God with you, as Jesus is God, therefore you now have in reality what the temple was pointing towards. Does this mean the temple or law was a bad thing, no it doesn't. What it does mean is that the temple was a good sign post that pointed to a future reality, forgiveness of sin through the Messiah and is now its purpose has been fulfilled and now it is time for its destruction. He is not saying it destroyed because it was a bad thing, what he is saying is that the temple pointed to God's future plan and that if they are only looking to the thing that points to the Jesus and not Jesus they have missed the point which is idolatry and not true worship of God.

When Jesus came people were so focused on the temple that they failed to see that it pointed to him as the savior of the world, therefore it has worn out its use. Now our bodies are a temple unto the Lord. God Bless.