Why did Jesus often tell people not to reveal who He was?
Jesus set strict limits on how and when His identity was made known, at times telling the healed, the demons, and even His own disciples not to say who He was. This was not secrecy for its own sake. Jesus came to reveal Himself, but on His own timing and terms, keeping the confession of His name tied to the cross and resurrection, so that the Christ would not be reduced to a rumor of a wonder-worker before the work was finished.
This question arose from studying Why did Jesus call himself the Son of Man? and What does it mean that Jesus is the Son of God?.
Begin by reading
Go into the Word
Not a summary of these passages: the passages themselves. Read them, then come back to the study below.
The study
What the Scripture says
Jesus repeatedly silenced talk about who He was
The pattern is unmistakable. Jesus did not allow the demons to speak 'because they knew him.' When the unclean spirits cried that He was the Son of God, 'he sternly warned them that they should not make him known.' He told the healed leper, 'See you say nothing to anybody.' And after Peter confessed Him as the Christ, Jesus 'commanded the disciples that they should tell no one about him.'
He healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. He didn’t allow the demons to speak, because they knew him.
He sternly warned them that they should not make him known.
and said to him, “See you say nothing to anybody, but go show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing the things which Moses commanded, for a testimony to them.”
He commanded them that they should tell no one about him.
Even the demons were silenced
Jesus would not accept testimony from the unclean spirits, however accurate their confession. They knew who He was and cried, 'You are the Christ, the Son of God!' but Jesus rebuked them and 'didn't allow them to speak.' Truth from the wrong source at the wrong time would have fed the very rumors He was not there to spread. Jesus alone, on His own terms, controls how His name is proclaimed.
The full unveiling was tied to the cross
Again and again, the silence is broken by the cross. At the pivotal moment of Peter's confession, Jesus turns from concealment to the cross: He began to teach that the Son of Man must suffer many things, be killed, and rise again. At the transfiguration He charges them to tell no one 'until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.' Matthew notes that from the moment He told them not to say He was the Christ, He began to speak plainly of His death and resurrection. The revelation of who He is comes through what He came to do.
He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
As they were coming down from the mountain, he commanded them that they should tell no one what things they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
Then he commanded the disciples that they should tell no one that he was Jesus the Christ.
From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up.
So the Christ would not be made a rumor
Left unchecked, word of miracles would have made Jesus a spectacle before the work was done, a wonder-worker the crowds wanted on their terms, not a Savior who must suffer and die. By guarding the confession of His name, Jesus was guarding the meaning of who He is: He would not let His identity be detached from the cross. The hiddenness was the holiness of His mission, keeping Him free to do what He came to do.”
and commanded them that they should not make him known:
He will not shout, nor raise his voice, nor cause it to be heard in the street. He won’t break a bruised reed. He won’t quench a dimly burning wick. He will faithfully bring justice.
Jesus therefore, perceiving that they were about to come and take him by force, to make him king, withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
Yet the veiled King now calls us to open confession
The season of secrecy served its purpose; it ended at the cross, the resurrection, and Pentecost. Now Jesus openly warns that whoever is ashamed of Him and His words in this generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of when He comes in His Father's glory. He sends His disciples to make disciples of all nations and to let their light shine before others. The One who guarded His name until the work was finished now freely entrusts His name to us, and calls us to confess it boldly.
For whoever will be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man also will be ashamed of him, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Go,and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Even so, let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
Then he opened their minds, that they might understand the Scriptures. He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
As you read, you may wonder…
Scripture raises the next question
Studying the Word naturally opens more of it. Follow what you just read: it leads somewhere.
We haven't written this one yet. Take it to your church or small group: the Word answers it wherever it is asked. If we study it here later, all the better.
Hold onto these
Verses to meditate on
The unclean spirits, whenever they saw him, fell down before him, and cried, “You are the Son of God!” He sternly warned them that they should not make him known.
As they were coming down from the mountain, he commanded them that they should tell no one what things they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
He commanded them that they should tell no one about him.
Then he commanded the disciples that they should tell no one that he was Jesus the Christ. From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up.
For whoever will be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man also will be ashamed of him, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Worth visiting