Why is this Gate closed on the Eastern Wall of the Temple Mount?

The great thing about walking along the Mount of Olives is that there is an incredible view no matter where you look—and so many amazing things to see!

If you can tear your gaze away from the Garden of Gethsemane, the Jewish cemetery, and everything else that's going on and look to your left, you'll see something amazing:

The Eastern Wall of the Temple Mount and the Golden Gate.

But that's not all.

In the past year, some vines have started growing out of openings in the city walls, which date almost 500 years.... and they are forming an interesting design. Naturally, my friends and I had to get closer. That's when you discovered that you can walk through the Muslim cemetery directly in front of the wall as well. I'd had no idea! 

Anyway... can you see it?

That's right, directly across the Mount of Olives, on the Eastern Wall, vines are growing that—almost—spell out the Hebrew name of God: yod, hei, vav.... It's only missing 1 letter.

Wow.

The cemetery is interesting, as it is so different from the one on the Mount of Olives directly across from it.

But my favorite part is halfway across: the closed-in Golden Gate.

Why is this important?

The Golden Gate (Eastern Gate) of the Temple complex is where Jesus entered in John 12 and Luke 19. He left Bethany, asked His disciples to bring Him a young, unbroken donkey, and entered the city riding down the Mount of Olives with the crowd yelling, singing praises, and placing their cloaks and palm branches on the road before Him. He was welcomed as a king.

Within the next week, He would be crucified and raised back to life.

But that's not all.

In prophecy in Zechariah 14 says the Messiah will return to the Mount of Olives. The mountain will split in two and water will run to the east and west. He, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, will enter Jerusalem on a white horse.

Being aware of this prophecy, whenever Muslims were in power during Jerusalem's history, the gate was sealed, most recently in 1541 under Ottoman Emperor Suleiman the Magnificent. For good measure, a cemetery was posted as well in front of the gate, because, according to Jewish Law, for the Jewish Messiah to enter a cemetery on the way to the (not currently present) Temple would make Him unclean. Both these things together should make it impossible, according to man's logic.

And yet, there's something incredible at sitting there, tracing the path of Palm Sunday Road on the Mount of Olives, visualizing Jesus' procession into the city, and then imagining it again, this time in His second coming. Something tells me that no plan, design, or trap of man will be able to stop the Messiah. Right now, we are in the waiting. 

I have to say, sitting right below that gate is an incredible place to sit with God, read your Bible, and pray. 

And then, if you keep walking past the Golden Gate and turn left to enter into the city, you'll pass the Pool of Bethesda at St. Anne's Church and start down the Via Dolorosa. I highly recommend it!

Pool of Bethesda: Where Jesus healed the lame man!

When I first went to the Pool of Bethesda on my trip in 2017, we weren't there very long. It was like a pit stop on a cloudy day, and we didn't walk around it. I don't even know if I got pictures! Wow, that's unthinkable.

Since then, I've tried to go twice, but because of covid, the hours changed and it was always closed when I went (it was hard to find the hours online). 

But finally, in the spring I got to go!

As I've learned since being back in Israel, there is SO MUCH MORE to every place we went to on the tour. There just wasn't enough time to do it all.

And, just like every place associated with Jesus, there's a church.

But that wasn't the first church built there, because the brochure the place gave me says that in 422-458 AD, a church was built to commemorate the healing of the paralytic. It extended over the medicinal baths and part of the pools. Some of that basilica still remains today.

So all these ruins inside the pool weren't there in Jesus' day. Last night I watched this message from Gary Hamrick of Cornerstone Chapel in Leesburg, Virginia, and it was SO GOOD! I 100% recommend watching it. 

In it, he says that the pool was bigger than an Olympic pool and at places was 42 feet deep! He also pointed out that John 5 uses the word "multitude" to describe the amount of the people around it, and while that isn't a definite number, the world "multitude" was also used in Mark and Luke to describe the 4,000+ and 5,000+ (respectively) that Jesus fed by multiplying bread and fish. So, it's fair to picture this GIGANTIC pool with thousands lying beside it, waiting for the water to stir so they can be healed. 

Which brings up the idea of Jesus walking through the multitude to find that one man and heal him. Seriously, if you like watching theologically-sound messages, please take the time to watch this one!

By the time of the Persian invasion, around 614, everything was destroyed and left mostly abandoned through the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphs. It wasn't until the Crusades in 1140 that a small monastery was built on the ruins of the 7th century chapel.

Then, the property changed hands again in 1192 after the conquest of Saladin. It became a school for Islamic law until it was abandoned under Ottoman rule and then given as a gift to France after the Crimean War (as Napoleon III helped the Ottomans). And it was given to the Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers) founded in 1878... and has remained in that ownership until this day. 

So that's a lot of history, and most of it, I don't care about a lot... but I do care about 1 thing: Jesus was here, and He healed here! There is where He healed the paralytic in John 5!!!

As I've talked about before, I am a BIG fan of The Chosen, and I love that this show featured this story in Season 2! It's extra cool watching the episode after having been here... you can literally 'see' it! If you haven't watched the episode, go do it now! And the rest of the show because it is AWESOME!