Keep It On The DL

Today I'll be answering a question, but it's not a question a student asked, it's a question I asked. This week in fact. Contrary to what you may think, I do not know everything. There are things even I have questions about. When I have a question, I go to those whom I know and respect and ask them. The question is this, " There are more than a few instances when Jesus, after he preforms a miracle, tells those involved not to tell anyone. There are times when He even doesn't want His disciples to tell people things. Why does He not want them to tell people what He had just done?" For those of you with Bibles at home, the passages I am talking about are Matthew 8:4, Matthew 16:20, Mark 7:36, Mark 8:26, Mark 8:30, Mark 9:9, Luke 5:14, Luke 8:56 & Luke 9:21. Now because they are in different gospels, some of them refer to the same story, so really there are 6 different instances where Jesus tells people not to tell anyone.

To make matters worse, there is another instance when, after He casts a demon out of someone, that He tell him to go tell his family and tell them all about it (This is in Mark 5:19). So does He want us to tell others or not? If He does want us to tell others (which I believe is God's command throughout the New Testament), why does He tell these people to keep it on the DL?

Here are a couple possibilities as to why Jesus didn't want a whole lot of people to know. First, Jesus was not "show-boat-ie" He wasn't a showoff. Every recorded miracle He did was to prove a point, to point them to God. It was never for His own fame and fortune. So Jesus telling people not to talk, was to make sure it was more about loving people and pointing them to God. Another theory as to why He wouldn't want people talking about it, is that maybe one or more of these people He interacted with, wasn't that credible, and people wouldn't listen to them. There is even one instance when Jesus heals a blind man, and the man goes to the Pharisee's to tell them of the miracle, and they didn't believe him and wanted him to lie. It also could have been because, as Jesus said at different points, "My time has not yet come." He didn't want people to know, because He wanted to help someone, and get the one-on-one interaction with the person, but didn't want a huge commotion because it wasn't time for that. It wasn't time for Jesus to fulfill what He came to do.

Whatever the reason, we know that God loves us, and wants us to share this love- His love, with others and point them to Him. Jesus' time came, He died for our sins, rose from the dead, and now commands us to go and teach others, to tell them all that He's done. It's not on the DL anymore, but, as the Christmas carol goes, we should, "Go tell it on the mountain, that Jesus Christ is LORD."