Why does Jesus always say this?

[Angela77]

In the Gospels, when Jesus performs miracles, he always tells the people he helped not to tell anyone. Why would He want to keep his miracles a secret? Miracles help people to believe, and wasn't that what He wanted? There must be a good explanation for this; I just don't know it.

[minkymurph]

Originally Posted by Angela77

In the Gospels, when Jesus performs miracles, he always tells the people he helped not to tell anyone. Why would He want to keep his miracles a secret? Miracles help people to believe, and wasn't that what He wanted? There must be a good explanation for this; I just don't know it.

Jesus would not naive. He did not think his miracles would be kept a secret, in that the person would never speak of it. However, it's possible some people didn't. Neither would he have thought no one would notice if a blind person or a leper was cured.

As far as I understand it, there are several reasons why he would have said this.

The first one is he didn't want any sensationalism. The second one is he didn't want people to believe in him just because of the miracles; in that they would only follow him because he was a miracle worker, and miracles were not the main reason he came among us. The third one would be he didn't want to be placed at people's disposal; being expected to perform miracles all the time and for everyone.

It's a bit like if we do someone a good turn today. It's not so much we don't want anyone to know about it, but we don't want a fanfare of trumpets either, or people seeking our company to take advantage of us.

[Bran Stark]

There's definitely a tension in the Gospels between miracles as public signs to convince the unbelievers and miracles as secret signs to instruct the believers.

I am very fond of Our Lord's parable of the rich man and Lazarus, wherein Abraham says: "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." (Luke 16: 31)

And then there's the story of when He went to His hometown of Nazareth, and did there no miracles, because they people did not believe His words.

[Richard320]

If He were heavily publicized, He would have been reduced to a carnival sideshow. No one would be there to hear Him, they'd all be lining up for a Miracle Cure. I heard some speaker once say that if Jesus came back today and was passing out hundred dollar bills, word would spread in a hurry, and He'd be overwhelmed with people who just showed up to get some free cash.

The cures were signs that he was God, proof of His identity and authority.

[Rainaldo]

Originally Posted by Angela77

In the Gospels, when Jesus performs miracles, he always tells the people he helped not to tell anyone. Why would He want to keep his miracles a secret? Miracles help people to believe, and wasn't that what He wanted? There must be a good explanation for this; I just don't know it.

Because miracles don't prove anything. It could have been the devil causing those problems and then he just stopped.

[CatholicRoots]

I may be wrong but I always thought it was because when he started peforming miracles the Jewish authorities would want to kill him. That's how I understood his words to Mary at Cana when she asked for the conversion of the water into wine, 'do you not know it is not yet my hour' or something to that effect. His 'hour' in the Gospel of John meant his passion/death. He knew as soon as he started to peform miracles he would be pursued, and killed. But he had a certain decided hour when he would give his life over and it couldn't come a second before or after Jesus had deigned to suffer and save us, therefore the publicity of a lot of miracles would have brought his hour sooner than he intended. Also I suppose saying this to people would teach them humility and hiddenness even when they themselves did good things in the future.

[Aleema]

Originally Posted by Angela77

In the Gospels, when Jesus performs miracles, he always tells the people he helped not to tell anyone. Why would He want to keep his miracles a secret? Miracles help people to believe, and wasn't that what He wanted? There must be a good explanation for this; I just don't know it.

he didnt want an earthly crown all he did was for the glory for the Father..He did it quietly unless it was major miricle like the Raising of Lazerus and even then when he rose him from the dead The Jews still didnt believe in him and i believe that he did this to show he is the "Way the truth and the light"

[Della]

There were times when he healed all who came to him, but it didn't seem to make any difference to those who opposed him--it didn't incite belief, only jealousy by those who thought he was stealing their thunder. He was more circumspect about miracles when he knew those in that location would make it an occasion for accusing him of working by means of the devil.

I think that in some cases it was for the benefit of the person healed. People who are healed in a spectacular way are often swamped with those wanting a bit of what they got, making a public figure out of a very private situation. It was one of the things that dogged St. Bernadette, for instance. People wouldn't leave her alone when all she wanted was to be with her Lady and do as her Lady requested. There are pitfalls to being well-known for having a miracle happen in one's life.

[SonCatcher]

Originally Posted by Angela77

In the Gospels, when Jesus performs miracles, he always tells the people he helped not to tell anyone. Why would He want to keep his miracles a secret? Miracles help people to believe, and wasn't that what He wanted? There must be a good explanation for this; I just don't know it.

Mark 1:38
He told them, “Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come.”

Jesus saw his primary ministry as one of teaching, not healing. He may have been concerned that people would be so intent on obtaining or witnessing a cure that they wouldn't pay attention to the message.

[CaptFun]

Originally Posted by Angela77

In the Gospels, when Jesus performs miracles, he always tells the people he helped not to tell anyone. Why would He want to keep his miracles a secret? Miracles help people to believe, and wasn't that what He wanted? There must be a good explanation for this; I just don't know it.

Matt 10:27

What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.


It may be that His time had not yet come, or that he humbly was living out the principals of this scripture (which of course were His own words and not scripture YET when he spoke them) ...

Matt 6:1

1 "(But) take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father. 2 When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites 2 do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing,
4 so that your almsgiving may be secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.


Re-read those scriptures and it seems that Jesus often paid a physical price for having
healed someone. Often the fame of the healing would not allow Him to enter a town quietly. Other times He must retreat physically to pray or take a moment's rest with the disciples - and the crowds follow them (whereupon He has pity on them and teaches them).

I'm not trying to look like the big authority here, but your question is one I've wondered about and these scriptures came to mind.

[Michael Francis]

Off Topic posts have been split into the following thread.
SPLIT: Why did God choose the Salvation plan that He did?

[patrick457]

Originally Posted by Angela77

In the Gospels, when Jesus performs miracles, he always tells the people he helped not to tell anyone. Why would He want to keep his miracles a secret? Miracles help people to believe, and wasn't that what He wanted? There must be a good explanation for this; I just don't know it.

Congratulations! You've just stumbled upon the theme of the 'messianic secret', something which puzzles even biblical scholars. Let's look specifically at Mark's gospel, since the messianic secret is much more prominent in it and is in fact one of its central themes.

Again and again in the gospel, when Jesus performs something miraculous He rather oddly tells the witnesses to keep quiet about it. The very first time Jesus tries to silence someone is in Mark 1:25, when He rebukes an unclean spirit possessing a man.

And they go on to Capharnaum; and immediately on the sabbaths, having entered into the synagogue, he was teaching, and they were being awestruck at his teaching because he was teaching them as having authority and not as the scribes, and immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, saying, "What to us and to you, Jesus the Nazarene? You have come to destroy us! I have known you who you are: the holy one of God," and Jesus rebuked him, [saying,] "Be muzzled shut, and come out of him;" and the unclean spirit having torn him and having shouted a great voice came out of him.

A little later Mark tells us: "And many demons he drove out, and was not permitting the demons to speak because they knew him." (1:34) Jesus does not silence them because they were saying false things about Him; on the contrary, He did so "because they knew him." We often get this pattern in Mark where Jesus heals or exorcises someone, or when someone reveals His true identity, Jesus tells them all to shut up about what just happened, but very often the people can't seem to restrain themselves from blabbering about it for some reason and so fame about Jesus and His abilities spreads anyway. This also applies for Peter's confession and the Transfiguration: "And he asked them, "But you; who do you say that I am?" Answering, Peter says to him, "You are the Christ!" And he strictly warned them that they should tell no one about him." "And as they were coming down out of the mountain, he ordered them not to tell anyone what they had seen except when the son of man should rise from the dead."

The first person to identify this theme is a guy called William Wrede. Now Wrede advanced the theory that Jesus did not really proclaim Himself as the Messiah during His lifetime nor was He identified as one by anyone. It was only after Jesus' death that the disciples eventually came to believe that He was indeed the Christ. Now what happened, according to Wrede, was that the early Christians then invented the literary motif of having Jesus keep His true identity secret throughout His ministry when they retold the story of His life, in effect (anachronistically) transposing their understanding of who Jesus is back to an earlier time. Wrede thought that the clue to this lies in Jesus' admonition to the disciples after the Transfiguration, where the disciples are told to keep everything a secret "except when the son of man should rise from the dead."

The problem with Wrede's theory, however, is that first of all, while he argued that the messianic elements in the Jesus story were later insertions by the early Christians some of the 'Jesus tradition' do look rather messianic in nature (the entry to Jerusalem, for instance - which evokes the prophecy from Zechariah). Secondly, while Jesus commands silence in the gospels, the people proclaim the news anyway - hence the theory doesn't really make sense of the messianic-secret motif and its function in Mark's gospel. Thirdly, there is one instance (Mark 5:19-20) where Jesus actually does command a healed person to tell the news.

Now the usual explanations from a historical, "this is what happened" perspective (Jesus wanted to keep any unwanted fame in check, etc.), while helpful, do not fully answer the mystery of this motif: why Mark seems to make such a big deal out of it and why this theme seems to appear during key moments. I think that one good way to look at it is to see this motif in light of the other literary elements in Mark's gospel, the other things he chooses to put into the spotlight: the disciples being slow-witted and blind and Jesus as the crucified Messiah.

[patrick457]

To quote an old post of mine:

If you compare Mark to Matthew and Luke, his view of the disciples doesn't come off as good. They are a slow, even buffoonish bunch who doesn't really comprehend what Jesus says and does, even given their privileged positions. However, unlike the blind man of Bethsaida, even by the end of the Gospel - remember that the main text as we have it actually ends in a cliffhanger, with 16:8; verses 9-20 seems to be an addition made to the text at an early stage - their blindness doesn't seem to be have been cured (yet?)

Mark starts off his portrayal of them pretty well: for instance, when Jesus calls His disciples, they obediently follow, leaving behind everything to follow Him (1:16-20; 2:13-17; 3:13-18). But aside from a handful of places where the disciples shine, everything goes downhill from there.

• In chapter 4:11-20, Jesus tells His disciples of their privileged position in that "the mystery/secret of the kingdom of God" is plainly revealed to them, while those outside everything is said in parables. Immediately after saying this, He starts rebuking them: "Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?" (v. 13) and goes on to explain the parable of the sower. In the Matthean parallel (13:1-23), by contrast, no rebuke is present, instead Jesus actually commends the disciples! (v. 16-17) "But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it." No rebuke in the Lukan version as well (8:1-15).
  
  
• At the onset of evening, Jesus decides to cross the other shore of the Sea of Galilee, and they all set off by boat. In typical Markan fashion, the narrator briefly mentions other boats that set off with Jesus'. You probably know the rest: they encounter a storm, the disciples panic, and Jesus calms the sea (14:35-41). We're going to note here two things: in Mark's version, the disciples tell Jesus bluntly: "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" (4:38; cf. Matthew 8:24 "Save us, Lord; we are perishing"; Luke 8:24 "Master, Master, we are perishing!"), and Jesus answers them: "Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?" (4:40; cf. Matthew 8:26 "Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?"; Luke 8:25 "Where is your faith?")
  
• In an interesting little detail in Mark, as the hemorrhaging woman touches Jesus' garment as they were on their way to Jairus' house (5:24b-34), there is a little exchange between Jesus and disciples:
  

  And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, "Who touched my garments?" And his disciples said to him, "You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, 'Who touched me?'"

  This is absent in the Matthean parallel (9:18-26), while Luke (8:42b-48) has a slightly different version (v. 45-46):
  

  And Jesus said, "Who was it that touched me?" When all denied it, Peter said, "Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!" But Jesus said, "Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me."

• Just after Jesus feeds five thousand men and walks on water (6:30-51), Mark has this ominous note: "And they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened." The Matthean parallel (14:22-33; Luke does not include the event) does not have this; instead Matthew has a more positive ending: "And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God.""
  
• Leaving Dalmanutha (cf. 8:10-13), the disciples forgot to bring bread with them on the boat, and Jesus starts warning them of the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod (v. 14-21).
  

  Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. And he cautioned them, saying, "Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod." And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, "Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?" They said to him, "Twelve." "And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?" And they said to him, "Seven." And he said to them, "Do you not yet understand?"

  Jesus' rebuke to the disciples is interesting: "Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear?" This hearkens back to chapter 4, where Jesus says that for outsiders "everything is in parables, so that "they may indeed see but not perceive, / and may indeed hear but not understand, / lest they should turn and be forgiven." (v. 11b-12) In effect, the disciples, to whom "the mystery of the Kingdom of God" is revealed, are apparently no better than those outside because of their slow comprehension. No rebuke is present in the Lukan parallel (12:1), while Matthew's version is in many ways softer than Mark's (16:5-12):
  

  When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread. Jesus said to them, "Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees." And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, "We brought no bread." But Jesus, aware of this, said, "O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees." Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

• Immediately after Peter's confession of Jesus (8:27-30) - to which "he strictly charged them to tell no one about him", Jesus starts to speak of His own Passion (v. 31-33):
  

  And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man."

  Notably, the absence of any mention of Jesus' acceptance of Peter's confession here, as in Matthew (16:17-19) kind of makes the rebuke stronger. Also note the mention of Jesus "turning and seeing his disciples." Again, Luke does not include any rebuke of Peter in his version (9:18-22).
  
• After the Transfiguration, Jesus warns Peter, James and John "to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead." Mark goes on: "So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead might mean." (9:9-10; cf. Matthew 17:9-10; Luke 9:36)
  
• Immediately afterwards, we come to a whole pericope about Jesus healing a possessed boy which the other disciples had failed to heal (9:14-29). We'll only going to note the conclusion (v. 28-29):
  

  And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, "Why could we not cast it out?" And he said to them, "This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer."

  In true Matthean fashion (17:14-21), Matthew's Jesus uses the disciples' question as a vehicle to point out their being "of little faith" (there it is again!), and goes on about the saying about even how faith as small as a mustard seed can move mountains. Luke simply ends his version (9:37-43) with: "And all were astonished at the majesty of God." (v. 43)

[patrick457]

• After foretelling once more His impending death and resurrection, Jesus et al. come to Capernaum (for the last time in Mark; 9:33-40).
  

  And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, "What were you discussing on the way?" But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, "If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all." And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me."

  Both Matthew (18:1-4) and Luke (9:46-48) have slightly different, shorter parallels:
  

  At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."
  
  An argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest. But Jesus, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took a child and put him by his side and said to them, "Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For he who is least among you all is the one who is great."

  Both Mark (9:38-40) and Luke (9:49-50) then follow it with John noting someone who uses Jesus' Name in his exorcisms.
  

  John said to him, "Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us." But Jesus said, "Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. For the one who is not against us is for us. For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward."
  
  John answered, "Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he does not follow with us." But Jesus said to him, "Do not stop him, for the one who is not against you is for you."

• On another occasion, James and John requests to Jesus that they be seated in the places of honor - His right and left - in His glory (10:35-44). A slightly harsher version than the Matthean parallel, where their mother does it for them (20:20-28).

By the end of the Gospel, all of the male disciples have abandoned Jesus. Judas had sold information about Him (14:10-11), Peter denied even knowing Him (14:66-72), while the rest - including a mysterious young man - ran away (14:50-51). This leaves only the women who followed Jesus - the first time they crop up in the narrative! - brave enough to watch Jesus suffering at His final moments, to see where His corpse is buried, and to visit His tomb (15:40-41, 47; 16:1-2).

Even then, what they do seems to be a dubious honor, as they watch Jesus die "from a distance," and the Gospel proper ends with them apparently not (yet) delivering the young man in white's message that Jesus has been raised up to the male disciples (16:6-7). "And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid." (16:8) In this dark note, the only glimmer of hope is the young man's/angel's words: "There [in Galilee] you will see him, just as he told you." But as we mentioned, Mark apparently finishes (or breaks off) before we even get to see it.

This motif of the disciples' (and everyone's) blindness is strengthened by the fact that the reader knows. Mark's gospel after all begins with the words: "Beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, son of God." In fact, the only people who call Jesus as God's Son within the gospel is God Himself, the demons, and the centurion (Mark notably does not have Peter saying that Jesus is the "son of God").

[JonathonofOhio]

I know others have pretty much answered this but to just add my 2 cents:

This is probably why:

This is written just after Jesus feeds the 5,000 (which is the subject of the theme of Mass these past few weeks and in the weeks to come). There was a need to keep things quiet, because Jesus knew that they would quickly make him a king, not because they believed in Him or God, but because of the miracles, and this would put him in opposition with the authorities for the wrong reasons..the focus would have been on the material not the spiritual (which is what they were more focused on and had lost site of the purpose of the Law). Jesus came for the purposes of salvation, not to judge (He will come again to judge as king of heaven and earth)....the people were concerned with the 'what' [what is this (Mana)?], but Jesus was trying to get them to be concerned with the 'who' [WHO is this? (God is the Mana who comes down from heaven and save, that fees the hungry)]...so Jesus knew what was in their hearts and minds, and so he tried to keep the miracles as quiet as possible in order to keep people from making him a king, and he withdrew when he perceived that they were about to do so....it was necessary.