Today, Jesus’ gesture goes beyond the scope of simple expulsion of the “vendors”: it is beyond doubt that He foretold the demise of the temple, and precisely its theological, historical-salvific demise. As evidence for this, besides the “Eschatological Discourse”, there is the passage: "behold, your House is being left to you desolate" (Mt 23:38).

Inasmuch as it belonged to the Father, Jesus loved the Temple and taught there gladly. He defended it as a "House of prayer" for all peoples and tried to prepare it for that function. Yet, He knew that the age of this Temple was over and that something new was to come, linked to His Death and Resurrection. There were airs of change of universal scope and unpredictable sense: it would no longer be the "House of God"...

—The temple with its worship is "demolished" with Christ’s crucifixion; Its place is now taken by the living Ark of the Covenant – the crucified and risen Christ.