Jesus was crucified for blasphemy and not because he said anything about the temple. A Jewish man under the Law may not claim to be God and live according to the Old Testamant. When Caiaphas the high priest asked Jesus “Are you the Christ, the Son of the blessed?” and Jesus said “I am”, his fate was sealed. Jesus knew his time had come and it was time to be open about his identity.
Leviticus 24:16 – He who blasphemes the name of the LORD shall be put to death.
There is confusion about the statement Jesus made on the cross shortly before his death where he said “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Critics argue that statement means Jesus wasn’t divine after all or that Jesus somehow had a crisis of faith. Actually, it was just the opposite. If you look at that statement in the context of ancient Jewish culture you would realize Jesus was quoting the first line from Old Testament Scripture, the book of Psalms, chapter 22. In the Jewish tradition when you quote the first line of a Psalm you invoke the entire Psalm.
Psalm 22 is a prophecy about the coming of the Messiah. Jesus was referencing the fulfillment of this Scripture when he was near death. Jesus was actually saying to us that although he appears to be forsaken by God in his suffering and death, in the end, God will hear him and save him. The key to understanding what Jesus said is in the following two verses:
Psalm 22:23-24 – You who fear the Lord, praise Him! All you descendants of Jacob, glorify Him, and fear Him, all you offspring of Israel! For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; nor has He hidden His face from Him; but when He cried to Him, He heard.
We would all profit from reading all of Psalm 22 on a regular basis. In the Psalm Jesus is also predicting that by His death the gentile nations (which is us Christians) will come to worship the one God of Israel. The rapid growth of Christianity is his confirmation. One last thing I want to mention. Our bodies are the temple of God. When Jesus was on the earth it was before God poured out His Holy Spirit to indwell us. The body of Jesus was the temple of God then. Jesus was sacrificed during the feast of the Passover as required by the Law. Instead of a lamb without blemish God sacrificed His Son so that our sins might be forgiven and not just covered over.
Remission of our sins required a sinless human blood sacrifice which is why Jesus came. When the Roman soldier thrust his spear into the side of Jesus it pierced his heart and the blood that flowed out from the wound was the precious shed blood of Christ that allowed God to forgive our sins. The Passover sacrifice by Law also had to be in Jerusalem and at the temple of God and since Jesus was God’s temple He met both criteria.