Sermon Sunday January 19, 2025
“Don’t Tell”
There are three main instances in which Jesus instructed people not to tell others who he was or what he had done:
- After confirming to his disciples that he was indeed the Messiah, Jesus instructed them not to tell anyone. (Matthew 16:20; Mark 8:29-30; Luke 9:20-21)
- Matthew 16 v20 – Then he warned the disciples against telling others that he was the Messiah.
- Mark 8 v 30 – But Jesus warned them not to tell anyone.
- Luke 9 v 21 – He then gave them strict orders not to speak of this to anyone.
- Jesus healed a leper and told him not to tell anyone that it was he who had done this. The man, however, did not comply with this request. (Mark 1:40-44; Matthew 8:1-4; Luke 5:12-15)
- Jesus told demons not to speak about him and tell others who he was. (Mark 1:34, 3:11-12)
Why did Jesus say this to people?
Reduce large crowds – If everyone knew of Jesus’s healing, large crowds would gather. Either to see first hand a miracle, or to seek healing themselves. In large crowd it would be to hard to get a message across. From a speaking perspective, to a background noise perspective, to just the common distrubances of a large crowd. According to the Bible, Jesus often avoided large crowds because he was more concerned with building deep relationships with individuals and disciples, rather than simply attracting a large number of people who might be following him out of curiosity or for superficial reasons; he wanted people to truly understand and commit to his teachings, not just be part of a large, unengaged crowd.
Wanted to teach more than heal – According to biblical interpretations, Jesus didn’t prioritize healing over teaching, but rather used healing as a way to draw people in and then teach them deeper spiritual truths; he sometimes asked those he healed not to publicize the miracle so that the focus would remain on his teachings and not solely on his miraculous abilities. He feared that people might be more interested in the spectacle of healing than the message he was conveying about God’s love and redemption.
Fulfill the Prophesy – He knew the bible. He knew the prophecies. He knew the book of Isiah. He knew book of Zechariah. He knew the book of Daniel.
- Isaiah 7:14: A virgin would conceive Jesus. Mary was a virgin when Jesus was conceived.
- Isaiah 8:14-15: A “stone” of salvation that people would stumble over. Jesus is that stone.
- Isaiah 35:5, 6: The Messiah would restore sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the mute, and walking to the lame. Jesus did all of these things.
- Malachi: The Messiah would come to the Temple with power. Jesus entered the Temple and drove out money-changers.
- Zechariah: The Messiah would enter Jerusalem on a donkey. Jesus did this, according to Luke.
- Daniel 9:24-27: The Messiah would be killed before the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Jesus’s death fits this prophecy.
Keep them out of trouble – At this time in history, if they professed of Jesus’ miracles and claim him as a savior, they might be imprisoned or killed for saying such. Jesus instructed to be silent to project them.
Passion (NEW) – What about inspiring them to be so passionate that they can’t keep their mouth shut? He must have realized that this would be hard for folks to do.
Have you ever gotten news that you just couldn’t contain? The birth of a child, a new job, a life saved, an engagement, a successful surgery. Especially something that someone said – Don’t tell anyone. Ok, maybe these are secret easier to protect.
I was struggling to come up with similar issues. What about current events (in our lifetime), the assassination of JFK, the explosion of the space shuttle, the 9/11 attacks, release of the Iranian hostages, fall of the wall in Berlin? Even these were global events that we really couldn’t escape hearing about… and nobody told us to keep them a secret.
This was different – Jesus was performing miracles! Who could contain that! The deaf were hearing, the blind were seeing, the lame were walking and demons were cast out! How could we compete with that?
It was hard to come up with something similar to the ministry of Jesus, but I think you get the point.
Under the conditions of a miracle, why couldn’t one contain themself?
I googled words for Passionate and got these…
Happy – Overjoyed – Excited – Eager – Emotional – Enthusiastic – Purposeful
These are powerful words that exhibit an extra layer of joy. A feeling of joy so grand that might not be containable. When you have these feelings, I bet people can see it on your face. You just look happy!
The Bible never mentions any of these reasons. However, Jesus did fulfill the prophesy. I also don’t imagine that Jesus ever complained about people ignoring his pleas for silence either… there’s no written record anyway.
Although the previous ideas for Jesus’ intimating silence makes sense, what if he just wanted people to be so enthusiastic that they couldn’t contain . It meant so much to the person that they are willing to risk everything and express their joy.
Something to think about!
AMEN