The Pharisees went out and took counsel against Jesus
to put him to death.
When Jesus realized this, he withdrew from that place.
Many people followed him, and he cured them all,
but he warned them not to make him known.
This was to fulfill what had been spoken through Isaiah the prophet:
Behold, my servant whom I have chosen,
my beloved in whom I delight;
I shall place my Spirit upon him,
and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.
He will not contend or cry out,
nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break,
a smoldering wick he will not quench,
until he brings justice to victory.
And in his name the Gentiles will hope.
This reading brings up the request by Jesus to not tell of the miracles that they are witnessing to anyone. This request, in theology circles, is called the Messianic secret, and sadly it does cause confusion for many people. But there are two very good reasons why would Jesus want people to keep His work quiet. The first is logistical, and the other is prophetical.
The first and most obvious reason is that His work was not done yet. The prophesied Messiah was believed to do four things when He returned. He was to gather the tribes of Isreal, and to bring all of the enemies of Isreal under His feet, and to rebuild the temple, and to reign as king forever. Jesus gathers the tribes by first preaching to the Isrealites, fullfilling all of the prophecy that proceeded Him, and then sending His diciples out into the whole world to proclaim the good news. He brings the enemies of Isreal (the devil and all of his minions) under His feet by taking all of the sins of the world onto Himself, in the great sacrafice of dying on the cross. He restores the temple on the 3rd day, the temple of His body, when He ressurects Himself from the dead. And lastly, He reigns forever as king of the universe, both now and forever. It is incredible to think that Jesus accomplished all of that in His short time on this earth, but the point of His requests is that none of that can happen if He is stopped before His “gathering” is complete.
The second reason, I believe is more important and related to all of the prophecy that proceeded him. Jesus was sent as the great messiah that was going to fulfill all of the prophecy of the old testament, and in order to fulfill all of that prophecy it required that the jews be the ones to kill Him. This was because this is what the jews always did with prophets. They would argue that they were false prophets, kill them because of their blasphemy, and then not realize that they were true prophets until much later on. Jesus even foretells all this (to the pharisees), as a prophecy of His own, in His parable of the unworthy tennants. This parable talks of a landowner that gives his vineyard to his tennants to watch over while he is gone. The tennants sieze the vineyard for themesleves, they kill all of the landowners representatives one-by-one, and eventually even his own son.
Thus it was necessary, in this case as well, for Jesus to fulfill all of the prophecy of the messiah, and for His prophecy to be eventually heard by all of His people after His death, His blood had to be on their hands. So If word got out (to the romans) that Jesus was claiming to be God, the romans would kill Him immediately without thought. The romans eliminated all threats to ceasar because they thought only ceasar was actually God, and so anyone else making a similar claim would be considered a threat to the empire. Jesus mission required that the romans did not do the dirty work for the jews. His death must be at the hands of the Jews not the Romans.
So what is the message in this reading for us today? I think it is simply to ask yourself…, do you believe that Jesus is who he says He is? Do you believe that He is the Son of God, the great High priest of God’s church, the Heir to the great kingdom of David, and the fortold messiah? If you don’t, you are litterally crucifying Him all over again, you are killing Him because your are more attached to the things of this world, over the promises of the next, and your are lost to the lies of the evil one. But if you do believe this, if you do believe that Christ is King, then you must change your life, in accord with His teachings, and you must take that message out into the whole world. It is a simple message, but for some it can be a daunting request, but you are called to it all the same… how will you respond?
