The Gospels tell us that Jesus spent a lot of time alone with God, listening to God and being strengthened by the Spirit. The final surrender came only days after the Palm Sunday entry: Gethsemane. "Father, if it possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will." Such suffering in Gethsemane could only be endured by one who understood that a greater purpose was involved — one who understood that through his suffering would come the redemption of his people. The one who sustains the weary with a word is himself sustained by the Word of God.
Jesus “set his face toward Jerusalem” and comes clopping through one of the city’s eastern gates because he knew he had to confront the principalities and powers, and because he knew his suffering and death was somehow the necessary sacrifice for his people.
In going to the cross, Jesus demonstrated the ultimate lesson about God’s sacrificial love for God’s people. Jesus’ whole life, his hours of instruction with God, had prepared him for this.
He was a great teacher.
We should be great students.
Were those who hailed Jesus on that Palm Sunday thousands of years ago great students?
Not so much.
As Jesus was sent by God, so he sends us. As he was taught by God, so he teaches us. In some of his last words, Jesus tells his disciples to go into the world and become teachers themselves!
So who was the greatest teacher of all time?
Jesus.
And he’s still teaching today.
