Question first appeared on August 20, 2006
What are we to learn or understand from passages in the Gospels where Jesus gives a specific command or direction to the receiver of a blessing and the person does something different?

On several occasions Jesus tells individuals not to reveal what He just did or said, whether it was a healing (Matt. 8:4; 9:30; 12:16; Mark 1:44; 3:12; Luke 5:14), raising of a dead child (Mark 5:43) or a specific teaching or conversation that He had with His disciples (Matt. 16:20; 17:9; Mark 8:30).

The reason for Jesus’ requests was that it was not yet time that He should be revealed as Messiah.  The verses following Jesus’ healing of a multitude of people in Matt. 12:15, indicate that His warning not to make Him known was in fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophesy which says: Behold!  My Servant whom I have chosen, My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased!  I will put My Spirit upon Him, and He will declare justice to the Gentiles.  He will not quarrel nor cry out, nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets.  A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench, till He sends forth justice to victory; and in His name Gentiles will trust.

In the instances of the leper and the two blind men healed by Jesus, they immediately disobeyed Jesus and told about their healing.  We can infer from this what is common to “human nature.”  We can’t keep a secret.  It’s so good that we have to share it with others.  In no way did their actions affect their healing or the blessing they received from Jesus.

©Very Rev. Fr. Olof Scott, Sunday Bulletin, August 20, 2006
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