Why did Jesus tell those he healed not to tell anyone?

[adv]

Why did Jesus tell those he healed from not to tell anyone?

 

[Fidelis]

There’s a couple of schools of thought on that.

One is that Jesus did not want word to get around to the civil authorities too early in his ministry because to attract to much attention to himself as the Messiah (and thus a kingly figure) would cause them to arrest him as a possible threat to their authority. He wanted to do this in his own time.

Sometimes Jesus gives this command to demons that identify him as the Son of God. Jesus has no need of the testimony of demons.

Another is that, if you notice, even after he directed people not to tell anyone, they did so anyway. This was, not because they couldn’t keep a secret; it was because Jesus had impacted their lives so profoundly, they couldn’t but help to tell every they met. Our experience of Jesus’ impact on our lives should also inspire us to to the same.

 

[TimothyH]

In line with the first explanation which Fidelis has provided re civil authority, many of the disciples thought Jesus was going to restore the kingdom of David in a very real political and military sense.

*And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then he strictly ordered his disciples to tell no one that he was the Messiah. (Matthew 16:18-21)*In telling Peter that he was to receive the “Keys to the kingdom”, Jesus was referencing a common political event, the appointment of a prime minister. The Old Testament makes many references to being made “lord over pharaoh’s house”, being “clothed in purple robes” or given the king’s “signet ring” or the “keys to the kingdom”.

*I will thrust you from your office and pull you down from your station. On that day I will summon my servant Eliakim, son of Hilkiah; I will clothe him with your robe, and gird him with your sash, and give over to him your authority. He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. I will place the key of the House of David on his shoulder; when he opens, no one shall shut, when he shuts, no one shall open. I will fix him like a peg in a sure spot, to be a place of honor for his family; (Isaiah 22:19-23)*Isaiah speaks of giving Eliakim the “Keys to the kingdom of David”. All of these are references to the appointment of a prime minister.

Peter was being appointed prime minister of Jesus kingdom, what we today know as Pope. Those who saw Jesus as the Davidic military and political king, would have taken Jesus words about giving Peter the “Keys to the kingdom” as an attempt to establish a government. In light of the Roman occupation, this was not a very wise thing to do.

The ability to “bind and loose” refers to rabbinic athority to interpet the mosaic law. Being given this authority would have greatly angered the Pharisees.

In short, at least in the case of Matthew 16, Jesus stricly told them not to tell anyone because they would have been arrested by the Romans for treason and put to death.

-Tim-

 

[Barbkw]

One is that Jesus did not want word to get around to the civil authorities too early in his ministry because to attract to much attention to himself as the Messiah (and thus a kingly figure) would cause them to arrest him as a possible threat to their authority. He wanted to do this in his own time.

To add to that thought, Jesus said to Mother Mary. “My hour has not come.”

It’s as if He is on an event time table in movement toward His final hour as the Lamb of God and for His eighth day Resurrection after Passover.

 

[Abba]

Excellent answers Fidelis, TimothyH and Barbkw.

Fidelis this comment of yours attracted my attention:

“Another is that, if you notice, even after he directed people not to tell anyone, they did so anyway. This was, not because they couldn’t keep a secret; it was because Jesus had impacted their lives so profoundly, they couldn’t but help to tell every they met. Our experience of Jesus’ impact on our lives should also inspire us to to the same.”

Between you and me here, …I have felt bad about sharing certain experiences that I have experienced. One day, I shared something very special and later that afternoon I was reading the book of Saint Faustina and wondered if I should have shared what I had shared. At that moment, I heard a voice from within me tell me that He did not wanted me to tell them. I had already done so and of course I felt bad. It is difficult because it is as you said. After a special spiritual experience or an encounter with Our Lord, I would say especially with our Lord but also with Our Blessed Mother Mary and the Saints the person experiences what can be described as a fire or an ardent desire for all that is holy and for the Catholic Church etc… and it’s difficult to keep a great blessing to yourself. It is very difficult not to share such riches. I feel doubly unworthy to have a personal relationship with Our Lord not only because of my past and present sins but also because I cannot keep him to myself. I wonder if he understands or if he really expects people to keep secrets. If he really expects us to keep secret our spiritual life and we don’t then maybe this will interfere with our spiritual development. Yet, it seems to me that it is the Holy Spirit that places an explosive bursting desire in our hearts to share with our brothers and sisters and even wanting to scream it from a mountain top. I have felt bad about not keeping secret and even disobeying Our Lord and somehow I have felt a little consolation with the story of those who ran to the town contrary to what Our Lord asked them and told the people about him and what he had done. I hope it is not a great sin. God bless our priests. It’s difficult to keep secrets with a burning desire to share so that others may know…tres dificile. What do you think?

Peace,

Abba

 

[Fidelis]

…If he really expects us to keep secret our spiritual life and we don’t then maybe this will interfere with our spiritual development. Yet, it seems to me that it is the Holy Spirit that places an explosive bursting desire in our hearts to share with our brothers and sisters and even wanting to scream it from a mountain top. I have felt bad about not keeping secret and even disobeying Our Lord and somehow I have felt a little consolation with the story of those who ran to the town contrary to what Our Lord asked them and told the people about him and what he had done. I hope it is not a great sin. God bless our priests. It’s difficult to keep secrets with a burning desire to share so that others may know…tres dificile. What do you think?

Peace,

Abba

I don’t think it’s the norm that our Lord wants us to keep the joy of his presence in our lives a secret. In fact, one might say that these episodes in the Gospels show us the impossibility of someone stifling his joy of experiencing, as you say so beautifully “an explosive bursting desire to share with our brothers and sisters”. It is as Jeremiah said in the Old Testament: “I say to myself, I will not mention him, I will speak in his name no more. But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones; I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it.” (Jeremiah 20:9)

We must be prudent and charitable in speaking to others of our religious experience-- speaking to them where they are, so to speak-- but we should never hesitate to share the joy of the Lord and his Good News, and what he has done and is doing in our lives.

 

[Abba]

Thank you Fidelis for a thoughtful response.

Yes, prudence and charity are important and the timing and occasion and purpose. Maybe it wasn’t the most opportune occasion. It is not that it was obvious that it was not good and that it would not be fruitful but, maybe it was not the best or most proper. Maybe that’s the reason why, regarding what I wrote before and not that Our Lord expects us not to share. It would certainly make sense. I sometimes think that when we are blessed in a certain way it could not only be for the individual.

Thank you so much for quoting Jeremiah. That was beautiful! Now, I don’t feel bad. It’s definately time for me to start a fresh reading of Sacred Scripture. I already have a new Bible, this time I am going to read The Catholic Study Bible - New American Edition. I read it book by book and I play a little game. Each time I read a page of a book, I highlight the page number (it makes me feel accomplished) and I keep going book by book until I am done with the Bible. Each time I read it, it is as though I had not read it before. It is truly the living word of God. I think it also has to do with the fact that we grow and so different things capture the attention of our souls.

Once again, thank you for your thoughtful response’

Peace,

Abba

P.S. regarding the OP’s question I think it was answered by the the three other posters. I am running out of editing time…Jesus did not want people to know yet that he was the Messiah.

 

[patrick457]

There’s a couple of schools of thought on that.

One is that Jesus did not want word to get around to the civil authorities too early in his ministry because to attract to much attention to himself as the Messiah (and thus a kingly figure) would cause them to arrest him as a possible threat to their authority. He wanted to do this in his own time.

Correct. At a time when many one-off ‘messiahs’ - say, Athronges, Judas of Gamala, Theudas, the Samaritan, and the Egyptian - were promising great wonders and deliverance to their followers (which would never come to fruition anyway as the authorities would usually act to quell the disturbance, and swiftly), advertising yourself as a ‘redeemer’ in the idea that some understand it would be pretty much suicidal.

Sometimes Jesus gives this command to demons that identify him as the Son of God. Jesus has no need of the testimony of demons.

Another is that, if you notice, even after he directed people not to tell anyone, they did so anyway. This was, not because they couldn’t keep a secret; it was because Jesus had impacted their lives so profoundly, they couldn’t but help to tell every they met. Our experience of Jesus’ impact on our lives should also inspire us to to the same.

Amen.

 

[CB_Catholic]

People are generally not good at keeping secrets. And Jesus, knowing human nature all too well, knew this. Is it possible he told them not to tell others knowing full well that they would and thus spread the word about him? It would be almost impossible to keep a good healing under wraps, esp. since they were done mostly in public, and the public would soon notice a person was healed anyway.

Probably the fastest way to spread something is to tell someone not to tell about it.

 

[Crumpy]

We all know that Jesus did not want other people to know that He was the Messiah. The question here is “why?”

Slightly different from the previous answers: In the cases of healings and such, Jesus did not want to arouse crowds of followers who would be distracted with the miracles He performed, and thereby losing track of His message.

Maybe this is just rewording what somebody else has said, maybe He didn’t want people to think of Him as the ‘messiah’ they imagined Him to be, rather than the ‘messiah’ that He was.

 

[Curious1324]

We all know that Jesus did not want other people to know that He was the Messiah.

I didn’t know that. Why is that?

I mean, if it’s true he was the Messiah, why would he not want people to know the truth?

Thanks.

 

[patrick457]

I didn’t know that. Why is that?

I mean, if it’s true he was the Messiah, why would he not want people to know the truth?

Thanks.

As I’ve mentioned, the term ‘messiah’ was at times so associated with troublemaking (from the authorities’ POV, anyway!) folks who actively question and rise against the status quo; it was so drenched with political overtones. Just look at how people such as Theudas or the unnamed Egyptian ended up when they took their followers and openly promised them signs of redemption; the Romans take swift response and put a sudden end to their movement. In Theudas’ case, his followers were ambushed; many were slaughtered and the survivors taken hostage, while Theudas was captured and beheaded. The Egyptian was more lucky: he managed to escape (and was never heard from again), but four hundred of his followers were killed and two hundred were taken alive.

Jesus would surely have befallen a same fate had He openly and publicly proclaimed Himself as the Messiah from His own mouth. It was not His hour yet. Sure, He might be saying the truth, but for the authorities - who are already weary of putting down tens to hundreds of these one-shot ‘messiahs’ - it wouldn’t really matter if He is the real deal or not anymore.

 

[Curious1324]

As I’ve mentioned, the term ‘messiah’ was at times so associated with troublemaking (from the authorities’ POV, anyway!) folks who actively question and rise against the status quo; it was so drenched with political overtones. Just look at how people such as Theudas or the unnamed Egyptian ended up when they took their followers and openly promised them signs of redemption; the Romans take swift response and put a sudden end to their movement. In Theudas’ case, his followers were ambushed; many were slaughtered and the survivors taken hostage, while Theudas was captured and beheaded. The Egyptian was more lucky: he managed to escape (and was never heard from again), but four hundred of his followers were killed and two hundred were taken alive.

Jesus would surely have befallen a same fate had He openly and publicly proclaimed Himself as the Messiah from His own mouth. It was not His hour yet.

Thanks, but I still don’t understand. If Jesus was the Messiah, why would he not want people to know this truth?

And, obviously, he was not afraid of any dangerous fate awaiting him, as he allowed himself to be persecuted and crucified. Jesus didn’t run away or escape from suffering or persecution.

 

[patrick457]

Thanks, but I still don’t understand. If Jesus was the Messiah, why would he not want people to know this truth?

I don’t know if I have the answer you want, but here’s a passage from John:

After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. Now the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand. So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” For not even his brothers believed in him. Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.” After saying this, he remained in Galilee.
But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private. The Jews were looking for him at the feast, and saying, “Where is he?” And there was much muttering about him among the people. While some said, “He is a good man,” others said, “No, he is leading the people astray.” Yet for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him.

And, obviously, he was not afraid of any dangerous fate awaiting him, as he allowed himself to be persecuted and crucified. Jesus didn’t run away or escape from suffering or persecution.

Yes, He allowed it because then His hour had come. Yet that doesn’t mean that He didn’t protect Himself from things such as overexcitement of His disciples, mob violence, death threats and other potentially dangerous situations before that time:

Luke 4:28-30 - The infuriated inhabitants of Nazareth try to drive Jesus off a cliff to kill Him, but “He, having gone through the midst of them, went away.”

John 4:1-3 - Jesus hears of the Pharisees being alarmed at the number of His followers, and perhaps sensing danger, decides to leave Judaea and return to the Galilee.

John 5:9-13 - The Judaeans found the man whom Jesus healed in the pool of Bethesda carrying his couch. Because it was the Sabbath, they confront him about it and ask the man who it was that healed him. “But he that was healed had not known who He is, for Jesus slipped away, a crowd being in the place.” Jesus reappears later to talk to the man (14-15).

John 6:14-15 - The 5,000 that Jesus fed becomes overexcited and tries to make Jesus king by force. To escape from this, Jesus goes off into the mountain by Himself alone.

John 7:1-13 - Jesus’ unbelieving ‘brothers’ try to convince Him to show Himself off at Judaea “for no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly”, a proposal which Jesus refuses - “because the Judaeans were seeking to kill Him” - and because His time had not yet come. He eventually does go to Judaea after His ‘brothers’ have left (after telling them that He would not go), but in secret.

John 7:30 - “They were seeking, therefore, to seize Him, and no one laid the hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come.”

John 8:57-59 - After a long debate with the Judaeans which concludes with Jesus proclaiming “Before Abraham was, I am,” the Judaeans have had enough and decide to lynch Him right then and there. John tells us: “They took up, therefore, stones that they may throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out from the temple.”

John 10:31-40 - In yet another instance, the Judaeans are getting ready to perform an impromptu stoning after Jesus’ declaration “I and the Father are one.” Jesus confronts them, and John again tells that: “Therefore were they seeking again to seize Him, and He departed out of their hand, and went away again to the other side of the Jordan, to the place where John was at first baptizing, and remained there.”

John 11:53-54 - As Jesus’ reputation began to be more infamous after raising Lazarus: “Jesus, therefore, was no more openly walking among the Judaeans, but went away from there to the region near the wilderness, to a city called Ephraim, and there he remained with His disciples.”

All this changes once Jesus gets to Jerusalem, during His last week. “Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour has come, that He would depart out of this world to the Father…” “Jesus, therefore, knowing all things that are coming upon Him, having gone forward, said to them,“Whom do you seek?”” After having eluded attempts for so long, Jesus now freely hands Himself over.

You can see that in many of these instances, Jesus is being more open than He usually is, but the oft-unfavorable reaction often causes Him to flee from the scene or move about in private because, as St. John would put it, “His hour had not yet come.”

 

[Dark_Prince]

Everything christianity claims to be truth, are nothing but lies, if you want the truth, this you must read:
www.joyofsatan.org
www.exposingchristianity.com

 

[Curious1324]

As I’ve mentioned, the term ‘messiah’ was at times so associated with troublemaking (from the authorities’ POV, anyway!) folks who actively question and rise against the status quo; it was so drenched with political overtones. Just look at how people such as Theudas or the unnamed Egyptian ended up when they took their followers and openly promised them signs of redemption; the Romans take swift response and put a sudden end to their movement. In Theudas’ case, his followers were ambushed; many were slaughtered and the survivors taken hostage, while Theudas was captured and beheaded. The Egyptian was more lucky: he managed to escape (and was never heard from again), but four hundred of his followers were killed and two hundred were taken alive.

Jesus would surely have befallen a same fate had He openly and publicly proclaimed Himself as the Messiah from His own mouth. It was not His hour yet. Sure, He might be saying the truth, but for the authorities - who are already weary of putting down tens to hundreds of these one-shot ‘messiahs’ - it wouldn’t really matter if He is the real deal or not anymore.

But Jesus’ fate was crucifixion. Why would he fear any such fate?

 

[Curious1324]

All this changes once Jesus gets to Jerusalem, during His last week.

I am confused again, because according to the Gospel of John Jesus had been to Jerusalem numerous times. Not just during his last week. Thanks for any help.

 

[patrick457]

I am confused again, because according to the Gospel of John Jesus had been to Jerusalem numerous times. Not just during his last week. Thanks for any help.

What I meant was, when He was there for the last time.

 

[patrick457]

But Jesus’ fate was crucifixion. Why would he fear any such fate?

I’m not talking about THAT, but rather the dangerous prospect of Him prematurely being killed before His hour had come.

 

[thecone137]

Why did Jesus tell those he healed from not to tell anyone?

The gospel accounts were written after Jesus’s ministry, and many people didnt know about Jesus during before his death. This provides an explantion why most people didn’t know. Just a thought from a historical critical perspective.