Serving...who?
And they brought [the colt] to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. And as He rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. As He was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of His disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”
Coming Sunday is Palm Sunday, and it's remembering Jesus' march into Jerusalem for the last time. Before I continue, please first watch this video:
In Luke's account of Jesus' journey, it was not the whole city lining up the road leading into Jerusalem shouting "Hosanna!", but mostly just His disciples. Maybe the amazing fact that they walked away with a colt by simply dropping Jesus' name, in a sense.
These people who have been following Jesus for various length of time, suddenly just burst out with declarations that are reserved for a king. It was an action that is as bold as the Declaration of Independent the American founding fathers made. It was the same as a declaration of war to the Roman Empire.
In the past, Jesus would have told them to keep quiet, but not this time. When the Pharisees, who wanted no trouble with the Romans, told Jesus to shut them up, Jesus didn't.
Here is the thing. While these disciples were not wrong with their statements, every words they uttered were true and Jesus was worthy of every letter, they have absolutely no idea they were talking about.
If we keep reading, we will find these same disciples stunt as Jesus clearing out the mess out of the Temple, need to be reminded of the emptiness of the teachings of the teachers of the law, asking the wrong questions, one of them decided to betray Jesus, fought over who is the greatest amongst them, failed in their promise to be with Jesus even to jail but disappeared the moment Jesus was arrested, and so on and so forth.
They completely missed Jesus point of "follow me" is not so that they can tell people "Jesus was my Rabbi" to awe people. Or even "I'm with King Jesus" like they were crying as Jesus head down toward Mount Olive.
"Follow Him" is to lose their identity in Jesus. "Follow Him" is to be His representative on earth. Not as some superior being lording over the ignorant, but as a Servant of God serving those who are lost. If those who are lost have never or can never see God through us, are we actually with Him? Who are we serving? Us? or God?