This statement illustrates the service relationship that exists - and was customary in ancient times - between God's representative - the spiritual teacher - and his students.
Jesus said this to his disciples after they asked him: "Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?" (Matt. 26:17)
So it was important that these dedicated students arrange somewhere for their Teacher to eat, on the Passover. This statement, followed by Jesus' statement confirms several key points about the relationship between Jesus and his students:
1) His students accepted him as their spiritual teacher - as they called him "teacher" and Jesus addressed himself as "teacher."
This indicates the central role that Jesus played in their lives, and in the lives of others. Jesus was a teacher, and his mission was to teach his students about God. As teacher, Jesus was representing God. He was teaching what God told him to teach:
"When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the One who sent me." (John 12:44)
Jesus is clearly stating that God sent him, and he is representing God. Therefore, to believe Jesus' teachings means to believe God's teachings. We find that Jesus referred to his position as being sent by God a number of times.
This should be clear because many ecclesiastical Christians misconstrue Jesus' role and position. Many claim that Jesus was God, and that his role was to die for our sins.
This is a ridiculous assumption. Why would God - the Supreme Being and Controller of everything - have to come to the earth as a man and die in order to forgive our sins? Does God not already possess this power to forgive our sins? And did not Jesus teach us to ask God to forgive us for our sins in his prayer ("Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us." (Luke 11:4). So we know God can forgive our sins. He doesn't need to come to the earth and "die for our sins."
Plus, God does not, and did not, die.
2) Jesus' students were subservient to their teacher. The relationship was clear. Jesus gave the instructions and his students obeyed those instructions.
Why is this important? Because this was the ancient method used to train those who were serious about spiritual life. The teacher mentored the student, personally answering questions and taught the student about how to apply the teachings of scripture and previous spiritual teachers in the current society and culture. And then the teacher engaged the student into his own service to God by allowing the student to help him - thereby allowing the student to serve God.
We see this relationship occurring time and again throughout the ancient books of the Old Testament. We saw this relationship between Abraham and Isaac, Isaac and Jacob, Jethro and Moses, Moses and Joshua, Eli and Samuel, Samuel and David, David and Solomon and others. While many of these relationships appear (or are construed) to be between a son and father, this was not always the case - such as Moses and Joshua and Eli and Samuel - as many of these were not related. And beyond that, most of these teachers also had many other students, some of whom continued the tradition by becoming a teacher.
The boy Samuel ministered before the LORD under Eli. (1 Sam 3:11)
This illustrates the relationship between the student and the teacher. The teacher mentors the student, and the student begins to serve God under the tutelage of the teacher - God's representative.
And this relationship was also seen between John the Baptist and Jesus, as John initiated Jesus (though he saw Jesus as superior in his relationship with God); and we see it between Jesus and his students, as he sent his students out to teach others.
But these teachers are not like many of today's teachers, some of whom want us to believe that they are God or Jesus incarnated or that they have some new interpretation of the scriptures; taking advantage of and abusing their students. It is also not the same as attending seminary school, where students learn from elected teachers fulfilling professional "professorial" positions.
Rather, it is a personal, one-on-one mentorship. This is the process of being introduced to God. It is a personal process, not an official, ecclesiastical one.
The ancient teachers of scripture directed the student to worship God, and they humbled themselves before God in the presence of their students. This was the process. Not that the teacher felt superior. The teacher saw himself as God's servant and the servant of others. This is why Jesus referred to himself as the servant of humanity (not "son of man" as has been mistranslated.)
And it was this very humble position that endeared the student to the teacher, and made the student respectful of the teacher. And this position also confirmed to the student that the teacher was God's representative - along with their own spiritual vision of the teacher.
Being God's representative means being God's humble servant. It means having been a student of one of God's representatives. It means acting on behalf of God and His representative. It is not a superfluous thing. The person must have themselves taken a teacher, and have become empowered by God after applying those teachings and developing their own personal relationship with God. But it is not as though the student ever leaves the teacher. The bonafide teacher is always a student of his teacher.
The process begins by developing a relationship with the teacher, and serving the teacher. As the teacher brings along the student, and the student applies the teachings of the teacher seriously, God sees this. Because the teachings of the teacher come from God, as the student applies those teachings, the student becomes closer and closer to God. As the student's relationship with God gets closer, they may or may not become empowered by God to also teach.
This process is being illustrated here with Jesus' requests to his students to perform certain tasks, which they did. They did not get paid for these tasks. It was not a job. Jesus did not say, "good students, now you get paid." No, the reward for serving the teacher was their coming closer to God, because they had become part of the teacher's mission to please God.
This link never changes for the bonafide student. Even should the student become empowered to teach, they always see themselves as the servant of their teacher. And because they see their teacher as God's representative and God's servant, their continued service to their teacher maintains the link of love and humble loving service to God. This is called being the servant of the servant.
This was communicated by Joshua, Moses' student:
"But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, to obey His commands, to hold fast to Him and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul." (Joshua 22:5)
The bonafide teacher never feels that their teachings are their own teachings. It is not like so many charlatan teachers today who make up their own interpretation of scripture. The bonafide teacher is always feeling that they are merely a student of a bonafide teacher, and passing on the teachings of that bonafide teacher. The bonafide teacher never teaches - as do many of today's ecclesiastical teachers - that they did not need a teacher, but we need them to be our teacher (because they are teaching to us).
Furthermore, teaching that we don't need a teacher is a contradiction in itself.
The bonafide process of teachers and students has been honored for thousands of years among the scriptures. Yes, there are splinter groups who have created their own interpretations and deviated from the teachings of their teacher - like ecclesiastical Christianity has deviated from the teachings of Jesus. But the pure teachings as handed down from teacher to student are still accessible, should we find such a bonafide teacher, empowered by God, who is always the humble student of a bonafide teacher, passing on the same message of Moses, Joshua, Jesus and all the bonafide teachers:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment." (Matt. 22:37-38)
