Through the Eastern Gate - The Road of the Scapegoat
If you are standing on the Mount of Olives, in all likelihood, you are looking at the Temple Mount. It is an incredible view. A lot of things might go through your mind. I�d like to suggest a couple.
Near the southern end of the current version of the ancient walls, you see a gate that has been blocked. It is called the Golden Gate or the Eastern Gate. In ancient times there was a gate that was used for access to the Temple on the eastern side of the city. The current gate seems to be built on top of a more ancient gate. The older gate may actually be the same one used in the time of the New Testament while the second Temple was standing.
Not everyone knows that there is a cemetery just outside the gate. There has been one there for a very long time. The cemetery was initiated by King David and it has grown ever since. There is even an Egyptian Princess buried there and that tomb is from the time of King Solomon. It was probably one of his wives. During the time of both the first and the second Temples, there was a cemetery on the Mount of Olives that also encroached on the access to the eastern gate.
In the bible it says that if you touch a dead person, you are unclean until evening. If you enter a cemetery, you must bathe and you will be unclean until evening. Normally, that is not a serious consideration at all but there are two other items that enter into consideration when thinking about the eastern gate.
There are two sacrifices listed in the Bible that were connected to the Mount of Olives during the time of the Temple. One is called the Ashes of the Red Heifer and the other is the Scapegoat on the Day of Atonement. Let�s ignore the first for now. On the Day of Atonement, there were two goats. The High Priest laid his hands on the first, prayed and asked God to accept the goat as if it carried all of the sins of the nation. That goat was then killed as a sacrifice. The second goat was then brought forward and the priest performed the same ritual except the goat was not killed. Instead, it was taken to the eastern gate and driven out of the Temple. It was not finished with its task until it was standing on the Mount of Olives. Here lies the problem. If the scapegoat is contaminated by the cemetery before it reaches the Mount of Olives, the sacrifice is incomplete. The rabbinic solution was to build a bridge from the gate, over the cemetery to the Mount of Olives.
Do you remember the story of the Last Supper? After the meal, Jesus took the disciples for a walk. They walked through the city to the Temple. They went out the eastern gate. Now, in the time of Jesus, the bridge was not used for everyday purposes. Instead, the religious authorities had built an alternative road along the wall to the north, going around the cemetery. If you follow that road, you will soon come to the Garden of Gethsemane, in the bottom of the valley. That seems to be what Jesus did. When He arrived at Gethsemane they went a little way further and then He turned to the disciples and said, �Stay here, pray a while!� Some of them knelt and began to pray. Three continued on with the master. After a while He turned to the remaining three and again He told them to stay and pray. Jesus continued even a little way further and finally He came to a place where He began to pray. It was an incredible prayer! He felt as if He was accepting the sins of the entire world for all ages. It was true, that is exactly what Jesus accepted that evening. If you had a map, you might be able to see that when the disciples passed the Garden of Gethsemane they were headed for the other end of the bridge. When the three stopped, they were fairly near where the scapegoat touched the Mount of Olives. When Jesus prayed that awesome prayer, He accepted the role of the scapegoat on the Mount of Olives, very close to the place where everyone knew the scapegoat had completed its mission. You see, the mission of the scapegoat was not to carry the sins of mankind but to point us all to the one who truly was able to bear our sins.