To review from the previous post:
Jesus has clearly shown us through miracles and teaching that He is the Son of God. There is little room for question there. But there is one element in the story that has raised some questions for me – and if this didn’t make you stop and ponder a bit, then…well…go write your own blog.
Take, for example, the story out of Mark 1:40-45:
Here’s where it gets interesting –
“Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed. And He sternly warned the man and immediately sent him away, and He said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”
Kind of strange, right? Consider this similarly strange story[1]
And so Jesus went with him; and a large crowd was following Him and pressing in on Him.
A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years and had endured much at the hands of many physicians and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse, after hearing about Jesus she came in the crowd behind him and touched His cloak. For she thought, “If I just touch His garments I will get well.”
Immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that the power proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said:
The woman was afraid – she’d just been busted by none other than Jesus Himself. But she came forward and ‘fessed up, and in the midst of this crowd Jesus declared to her:
"Daughter, your faith has made you well; be healed of your affliction."
THIS is the kind of behavior we expect from the Son of God. Miraculous. Grand. Merciful. And PUBLIC. But it doesn’t always go down that way. Immediately afterward, Jesus goes with Jairus to his house and heals his ailing daughter.
Why does Jesus play this way? Why does He want to keep miracles (which are clearly a sign of God at work) a secret? And more than that, why are some of His works public and some of His works explicitly private? This didn’t make any sense to me. It also made me wonder what that must have been like for the people who encountered Jesus and were told by Him to keep it on the DL. I know how I get when God works in my life. I am usually bursting at the seams to tell ANYONE who’ll listen about the awesome thing that God just did. Imagine, if you will:
Now, I ask you: wouldn’t you react the same way?
Don’t you think the people in Jesus’ day would have reacted the same way? You would be correct in assuming that they did. Any time Jesus tells someone to be quiet about the work He’s done, they – without fail – go and blab about it. And what does this do for Jesus? It hinders His ministry. Everywhere He goes, there is a throng of people following Him, begging Him to work in their lives, even at the cost of Jesus getting His personal alone time with the Father. Because any time He tries to find a place of solitude and rest, the crowds close in and impede upon that time.
More than that, when the people of His day went and blabbed about Jesus being the Messiah and being able to perform all of these miracles, immediately the people assumed that Jesus was going to kick Rome off it’s throne and take His rightful place as High King. That’s what Jews of that day thought the Messiah was – a deliverer from political oppression.[2]
This was NOT why the Son of God came to earth at that time. Jesus the Christ KNEW that in order to propitiate the Kingdom of God, which would include suffering, even unto death. But the people of His day didn’t understand that – even the disciples and apostles didn’t get it! Which is why Jesus needed to keep His Messianic status a secret. He didn’t want people to get the wrong idea about what He was there to do. His role as the Son of God at that time looked VERY different than the people were expecting – and when they tried to impose their unrealistic expectations onto Jesus, it caused problems for His ministry.
What does that look like in your life and mine?
I think it looks like (1) Speak when God says speak and SHUT UP when He says to stay quiet. But so much more importantly, I think it means that a clear understanding of Christ’s role in our lives is so important to Him being able to do magnificent things in our lives. Having inappropriate expectations of our Lord will always cause us problems – it takes recognizing that Jesus often works outside of our paradigm, in ways we don’t expect to understand.
It means don’t treat Jesus like He is a vending machine. It means seeking out Christ’s character, and HIS will for our lives, rather than simply seeking out what we can get from Jesus. 
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