LEARNING DAILY

 

Matthew 26:36, Then Jesus came to a place called Gethsemane, and said to His disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.”

 

Happy New Year everyone!

 

The Garden of Gethsemane is situated at the foot of the Mount of Olives and faces the Eastern and Shepherd’s gates. It is not a particularly large area; it still contains olive trees which still are producing olives. Like every place we visited, there is debate about this being the exact location where Jesus prayed. Debate over the age of the trees and whether these were the exact trees of 2,000 years ago is ongoing. But, without doubt, theses amazing trees are offshoots from the same ones that Jesus prayed next to. Again, on the grounds of the Garden is the Church of all Nations. Within this church an area is marked off that is supposedly the exact spot where Jesus prayed drops of blood, submitting to the will of the Father.

 

There was a reverence there. As we listened to teaching and looked out upon Jerusalem it was amazing to be where Jesus and the disciples spent their time before Jesus was arrested. It was said that Jesus would spend time praying in the Garden of Gethsemane besides the time when He was arrested; that is why Judas knew where He would be when he took the soldiers there to arrest Him.

 

The teaching in the Garden included Jesus praying, the disciples sleeping, the arrest and some teaching about the two gates mentioned above. The Eastern Gate or King’s Gate is where royalty would enter into Jerusalem. It was also the gate the people expected the Messiah to enter when He came. Jesus knew that if he entered this gate, the people would want to make Him their king. Remember their expectation was the Messiah would come and relieve them from their subjection to the Romans. The other gate was the Sheep Gate. This is the gate where the shepherds who were guarding the sacrificial lambs would enter with the lambs brought to be sacrificed for the sins of the people – you remember the shepherd’s story right!

 

The road that Jesus took while riding the donkey would come to a “Y” with one direction going to the King’s Gate and the other to the Sheep’s Gate. Jesus chose to go through the latter because He knew the people’s heart and He knew the will of the Father. He was the Father’s Sacrificial Lamb for all who would believe in Him.

 

There is more to the King’s Gate in prophecy. You need to read Ezekiel 43:1-4 because Ezekiel “saw” “the glory of the God of Israel return from the way of the east” – that is the East or King’s Gate. That is significant because God is finally done with the disobedience of Israel and now, He has returned to dwell with His people once more. In other words, Jesus is going to come to dwell with His people and He is going to enter into Jerusalem through the East Gate, the King’s Gate. Do you see the significance?!

 

It is interesting that the Muslims know this prophecy as well. In order to prevent that from happening, they have blocked up the entrance so He cannot enter the gate (silly guys!!). They have also placed their cemetery in front of the gate because of the Jewish law about the priests being near the dead. Why is that significant? It is because Jesus Christ is our High Priest before the Father and they believe He will not go near their burial ground.

 

 It was pretty amazing to be given the time to meditate and pray for some time after the teaching had concluded. Again, my imagination caused me to wonder if where we prayed was where any of the disciples had spent their time while Jesus went through His agony. It was also fun to visualize the return of the King of kings and Lord of Lords return; there was nothing – not even a blocked-up gate or a cemetery to stop Him!