This sermon was delivered on June 27th, 2021 for the weekly worship service at the Kensington in Gelesburg, IL
There’s a lot to unpack in today’s verses from Mark, but the thing I can’t quite stop thinking about is when Jesus says, “No one should know this.” This is not the only time in scripture that Jesus does this- in fact he says a version of “don’t tell anyone” in nine other places across the gospel accounts. So this wasn’t a one-time occurrence. This is something Jesus did regularly- and it was usually after something BIG
Matthew 8- Jesus heals a man with just his touch, but then says “don’t tell anyone, let the priests examine you and then prove you’re cured by offering a sacrifice.”
Matthew 9- Jesus restores sight- and says “don’t tell this to anyone”
Matthew 12- After Jesus hears about the plot against him, heals “all the sick” and then tells them not to tell anyone about him.
Mark 7- Jesus removes a speech impediment and then promptly orders the people not to speak of it to anyone
Mark 8- Jesus teaches his disciples, they finally figure out that he’s the messiah, and he tells them “do not tell anyone about me”
Matthew 16- Same thing- the disciples finally realize who Jesus is and he tells them not to tell anyone.
Luke 9- Same story yet again- the disciples realize who Jesus is and he tells them not to tell anyone.
Matthew 17- After the experience on the mountain- where the disciples saw Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus, again he tells them “don’t tell anyone about thwart you've seen until the Son of Man has been raised from death”
Mark 9- Mark's version of that same mountain top experience- again- don’t tell anyone until the Son of Man has been raised from death.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke all document accounts of Jesus saying “Don’t tell anyone.” And there are three occasions where this takes place- after Jesus has healed someone, after the disciples realize who Jesus is, and after the event we call “transfiguration” where Jesus becomes all shiny and talks with Moses and Elijah.
Why? Well I think there are three big reasons Jesus would ask for silence on these occasions. Privacy, Safety, and Timing.
Privacy. I think Jesus is concerned about his own privacy as well as the privacy of the people he helps. First, Jesus definitely has concerns about his own privacy. Every time he does something in public, it becomes a big deal. I mean, of course it becomes a big deal- he’s literally bringing people back from the dead. But the reactions of the crowds that witnessed these events elevated them further.
If Jesus had done this today, there would have been a tweet, an instagram post, or a facebook meme about it in mere seconds- probably with video footage uploaded to youtube. But even without social media and mass communication technology, word about his miracles would have spread quickly.
For more “minor” miracles, this probably wouldn’t have been an issue- water into wine, basic healings. But big things? Walking on water, resurrection from the dead- these would have been huge news items and could increase the attention to Jesus and his work- and not all of that attention would have been positive.
But we also have to consider the people who saw or experienced those miracles. I can imagine huge mobs of people showing up demanding proof that the child in question had really been dead or the woman who had been healed had really been sick. And mobs of people can get pretty dangerous when they are confronted with the unknown or the miraculous.
Not sharing, then, became a matter of safety. If there was too much news about Jesus doing big miracles it could endanger his life and the lives of those he helped. Further, Jesus may have been popular amongst his followers and those he helped, but he was not popular amongst the Pharisees and Sadducees- who were concerned about law, priestly privilege, and power.
And that’s what we see happen later in the gospel accounts- So many people have heard of Jesus’ healing power that they mob him in the streets in Jerusalem demanding that he heal them and help them. When Jesus doesn’t perform on cue, the crowd begins to turn on him. Asking his witnesses to stay silent gave Jesus more time.
The timing for everything Jesus did had to be just right in order for things to make sense. Some gospel writers are more focused on this because they want to prove that Jesus is the messiah spoken of by the old testament prophets. But more than that, huge crowds getting to Jesus before he made it to Jerusalem would have drastically altered his timeline for passover and his intended work in the city. Also, if the authorities found out about Jesus “too soon” they would have set their plans into place sooner, perhaps preventing Jesus from reaching as many people or attracting as many followers as he did.
Everything was hanging in delicate balance as Jesus navigated his work and ministry- the wrong information leaked at the wrong time would ruin everything - Jesus could have been arrested or killed before what we know as the triumphal entry - he could have been mauled by an angry or needy mob - he could have been accosted by angry parents whose children had also died.
Any of those things could have happened and the story we know might not have ended the way we know it. This timing issue becomes especially clear later in both Matthew and Mark when we gt to the story of the transfiguration on the mountain top - Jesus finally gets specific with his warning “don’t tell anyone until the Son of Man has been raised from death.” This is a pretty good indication that Jesus understood the importance of this timing.
So EVERY time Jesus does something really big, he follows it with this admonition - and with good reason. Buto...do people do what he asks? Do they keep things quiet?
Nope.
Initially, this frustrated me. Why couldn't the disciples just do what was asked? Why did the witnesses not keep quiet? Probably because they couldn’t. They had witnessed an actual miracle and couldn’t help but to share it. And maybe Jesus could control the wagging tongues of his disciples, but once he left the house and that child was up and walking around, it’s not like they could keep her resuscitation a secret. She had been dead and was suddenly not-dead. Someone had to explain that!
What if Jesus knew that they wouldn’t keep quiet? What if privacy and safety and timing were all important, but Jesus also knew that word would get out anyway?
And that’s where I struggle with this admonition and what comes after it each time. Am I supposed to be mad at the disciples for not following directions? Am I supposed to question Jesus’ intentions in asking for silence? Am i supposed to be upset that the recipients of miracles either couldn’t share their joy or DID share their joy and that caused problems/
I think all of these things can be true.
If you believe that Jesus was on a prescribed path towards the cross - these actions were very intentional and helped Jesus fulfill what was expected. If you believe that Jesus was a victim of state sanctioned persecution, these efforts were futile because he was arrested and killed anyway.
OR you could be like me and come down somewhere in the middle - Jesus knew that his actions would eventually lead to his arrest and possibly his death, so along the way he was going to do as much good as he possibly could for as long as he could.
That's how I like to think about Jesus - out there doing the work trying to do as much good as possible and using everything in his power to keep his momentum going. I think it’s possible that included telling people to keep things quiet, knowing full well that they wouldn’t - and then using that momentum in his favor.
You know - there’s always that one person who you can tell a secret to if you want that information to get passed around - if you want the secret to not be a secret anymore. Jesus very well could have used these “keep quiet” moments as his way to push beyond privacy and secrecy and timing. He could have used these moments for momentum - quiet, well thought out, calculated momentum. That’s a sneaky version of Jesus that i can get behind - i love the idea of a smart man using the system and using the foibles of the masses towards an ultimate good.
Amen.
secre