Why Did Jesus Command Others to Be Silent About Him?
He leads me …
When we read through the Gospels, we see that on several occasions Jesus tells those who He was ministering to, to be quiet about Him. Our likely response is to be along the lines of, ‘Hold on, Jesus has a public ministry where He taught and undertook miracles, and He wanted the news about what He is doing to be kept quiet? It was not going to happen. He was so different to anyone else that it would be inevitable that the word would spread, because people would want to see and hear what He is doing and saying.’
We would remember too Jesus words at the end of Matthews gospel, generally known as the Great Commission (Matthew 29:18-20). Here Jesus says to the disciples -
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (NIV)
‘Making disciples of all nations’ means that the disciples were to tell everyone about what Jesus had done and had said. So why would He initially want His actions and words that were the basis of His ministry to be kept quiet?
This seems strange that Jesus did not want everybody to know of the miracles He performed. Let us look into it further to find the answer.
There are several examples where Jesus told people to keep quiet about their healing. Almost in every situation Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened –
· Jesus warned two blind men to ‘See that no one knows about this!’ (NASB) in Matthew 9:27-31.
· Jesus warned some people with various illnesses, ‘not to reveal who he was’ (NLT) in Matthew 12:15-16
· Jairus and his wife, whose daughter was raised from the dead were told by Jesus, ‘very earnestly not to tell what had happened’ (TLB) in Mark 5:41-43.
· Jesus told the people watching a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment be healed, ‘not to tell anyone. But the more He did so, the more they kept talking about it’ (NIV) in Mark 7:35-36.
· Jesus told a blind man to, ‘Neither go into the town, nor tell anyone in the town.’ (NKJV) Mark 8:22-26.
On some other occasions, Jesus insisted that His disciples do not disclose that He was the Christ –
· Jesus ‘sternly warned the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah’ (NLT) in Matthew 16:20; Mark 8:29-30
· When Peter, James and John had seen Jesus in His Heavenly glory with Moses and Elijah, they were not allowed to share this before His He had risen from the dead (Matthew 17:1-9; Mark 9:1-9).
In a similar way, demons were not allowed to tell who Jesus was -
· ‘And He strongly warned them not to reveal who He was’ (Mark 3:11-12 NASB).
One of the issues was that Jesus’ main ministry was not as a healer. If His miracles attracted too much attention, it could hinder His preaching ministry.
An example of this happened after Jesus had healed a leper in Mark 1:40-45. Jesus gave a strong warning to the leper to go show himself to the priest for inspection which provided unbiased proof that Jesus’ healing had occurred. The healed leper could then be part of the general public again (as ordained in Leviticus 14:2-31), but instead of being silent he went out and spread the news If the healed man had done what Jesus had asked, the miracles would have supported Jesus’ message about the coming Kingdom of God (as described in John 2:23). As a result, a lot of people only came to see the miracles in the same way as going to a circus performance. Many did not believe Jesus to be the Messiah, but instead just wanted to see the signs for themselves (John 6:1-2; 12:36-37).
Jesus miracles clearly showed Him to be the Messiah as prophesied in Isaiah 26:19; 29:18; 35:4-6. Based on these prophecies, Jewish religious leaders had stated four signs that would prove the identity of the Messiah, since these were things only God Himself could do –
· Cleansing a leper (fulfilled in Mark 1:40-44)
· Casting out a deaf and dumb spirit (fulfilled in Mark 7:33-36)
· The healing of birth defects (fulfilled in John 9:1-12)
· Raising the dead after three days (that is on the fourth day) (fulfilled in John 11:1-44)
Jesus wanted the disciples to have a clear understanding of His identity and mission. The necessity of this becomes clear from Matthew 16:21-22 (compare with Mark 8:31-32), immediately after Jesus forbade His disciples to tell that He was the Christ:
“From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”[1]
There are many prophecies about the Messiah’s role in the Old Testament, but the full details of Jesus’ death and resurrection were not completely clear. Even throughout Jesus’ life, the people around Him did not understand the purpose of His mission on Earth.
The crowds: When Jesus told them that He would be ‘lifted up’ on the Cross, the people said, ‘We have heard from the Law that the Christ is to remain forever; so how can You say, “The Son of Man must be lifted up”? Who is this Son of Man?’ (John 12:34).
The disciples: The disciples did not understand about Jesus’ death and resurrection (Luke 18:31-34).
John the Baptist: While John the Baptist was the one who prepared the way for Jesus, he was still unable to fully comprehend Jesus’ identity and questioned if He was even the Messiah at all (Matthew 11:2-3).
It is interesting that no commentators prior to Jesus ministry in Israel can be found who believed that Isaiah 53 referred to the death and resurrection of the Messiah. While the passages about the Suffering Servant are very clear after the Jesus resurrection, they were not obvious before Jesus rose from the dead. The reason is that the Suffering Servant is unidentified, and they are never specifically called the Messiah. To anyone reading Isaiah 53 before the time of Jesus, this link was never made.
Probably the most important point is that while Jesus makes clear three times that His messianic mission would involve rejection, death, and resurrection (Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:33–34). the biggest disclosure was that He came to die for the sin of the world. This point was not made known until it was too late for satan to do anything about it.
Satan would never have expected that God would go to such great lengths to love humans. Satan is completely self-centred. He is absorbed in his own glory, and he expects everyone else to be too. It would never occur to him that God would glorify Himself by hanging as a bloody mess from a cross (John 17:1).
The reason for Jesus’ death on the cross must have completely overwhelmed satan, because he never believed that God could be so sacrificial or loving. We could almost see satan thinking, ‘You, the God of the Universe, died for these inferior, unimportant, immoral liabilities! What was in it for you?’[2]
After reading the book of Revelation we see that when our Lord returns, the kingdom of satan will be replaced by the kingdom of Christ who will rule on the earth. It is important to see that the extent of Christ’s victory will be the same as what was previously satan’s realm - the earth. Where once satan reigned, Christ will be victorious. Hallelujah!
Dear Reader – If you have found some value in this blog, please feel free to send a copy on to your family and friends. Kind regards, John
[1] Why Did Jesus Forbid the People To Tell Others About Miracles He Performed? Biblword.net;
https://www.biblword.net/why-did-jesus-forbid-the-people-to-tell-others-about-miracles-he-performed/
[2] Why Did Satan Crucify Jesus? James M. Rochford, Evidence Unseen, EvidenceUnseen.com;
