Why Did Jesus Command Others to Be Silent About Him? by GREG LANIER for The Gospel Coalition
Batman has the wealthy businessman persona. Spiderman has school and a camera. Superman has, well, glasses. Each of these classic superheroes hides his true identity underneath the (admittedly thin) layer of an alter ego.
Jesus, however, directly tells others to keep quiet about his identity. This motif of secrecy first surfaces in Mark 1:24–25, when he commands a demon to “be silent,” and it runs through Mark’s Gospel. But why does Jesus do this? Doesn’t he want people to spread the news about him?
Modern debate about this “messianic secret” dates to the 1800s. Though a firm consensus has yet to emerge, we can sketch an answer by tracing the various ways the silence or secrecy motif plays out.
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Pattern of Revealing and Concealing
To begin, it’s important to note that Jesus’s commands for silence form part of a broader pattern of simultaneously revealing and concealing who he is.
On the one hand, Jesus doesn’t appear secretive at all. He is visibly anointed by the Holy Spirit and declared “Son” by the Father (Mark 1:9–11); proclaims the kingdom/gospel openly in Galilee (1:14–15); conducts several healings in public (e.g., 1:34; 2:1–12); calms the storm (4:35–41); feeds the 5,000 (6:30–44); engages in public debate with religious leaders; directly states his atoning purpose (10:45); and so on. He is not shy to reveal his identity, mission, and message. He even tells a healed man to broadcast the news (5:19–20).
On the other hand, Jesus sometimes does the opposite and conceals himself. Most prominent, of course, are his stern commands to three different audiences not to speak about him:
- Demons/unclean spirits (Mark 1:24; 1:34; 3:12)
- Crowds, especially recipients of healing (Mark 1:43; 5:43; 7:33–36; 8:22–26)
- Disciples (Mark 8:30; 9:9)
Running alongside these commands are Jesus’s parables, which, per Mark 4:11–12, are counterintuitively intended to conceal truth from people. Moreover, Jesus’s repeated use of “Son of Man” insinuates his exalted status (for those who have read Daniel) while also concealing it from outsiders who may simply hear it (especially in Aramaic) as an indirect way of saying “someone like me.” Finally, Jesus employs both silence (14:61; 15:5) and self-disclosure (14:62; 15:2) in his trial.
