I was struck recently by accounts in the Gospels where people explicitly disobey Jesus five seconds after He tells them something:
Then he touched their eyes and said, “Let it be done for you according to your faith.” And their eyes were opened. Jesus warned them sternly, “See that no one knows about this.” But they went out and spread word of him through all that land. Mt 9:29-31
The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean. Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once. Then he said to him, “See that you tell no one anything, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them.” The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter. He spread the report abroad so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly. Mk 1:42-45, also Lk 5:13-15
[H]e looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (that is, “Be opened!”) And [immediately] the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly. He ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it. Mk 7:34-36
Pic by spag photography
Not an exhaustive list, but you get the point. I’ve heard the phenomenon referred to as the “messianic secret.” It is pretty clear why Jesus wouldn’t want it immediately tweeted to millions of his followers that He was the Messiah: the Jews were looking for a military ruler, Jesus didn’t come to establish a political reign, etc. etc.
The mystery in such passages seems to be why Jesus would want to keep his identity a secret. What recently struck me, though, was why didn’t the people do what Jesus asked?
If someone does me a solid and then makes a small request, I usually oblige. The favors are usually in the range of giving me a ride to the airport or spotting me a few bucks for french fries. The Gospels speak of people who had just been healed by Jesus, or whose sins had just been forgiven. If someone did something as dramatic as heal my leprosy I would probably think twice before doing the opposite of what he asked me. Yet when Jesus asks these people to clam up, they blab.
But maybe these scenes can be looked at from a different perspective. Surely Jesus is hoping that his messianic identity won’t be misinterpreted but it seems possible that, when Jesus tells people to keep their healing a secret, He is in a sense asking them to go back to their regular way of life. To behave normally again. You’re sick? Okay, you’re healed. Don’t make a big deal about it.
What originally seemed to me to be a disobeying of Jesus may simply be evidence of a conversion in the lives of these people. The “misbehavior” always amounts to the people praising God. Perhaps the “normal way of life” for people experiencing such conversion is to always praise God. Many of the saints tell us that their saintly lives, heroic as they are in our own minds, were simply the obvious response to the great love of God.
After experiencing God’s love, mercy, and healing, the “new normal” is a life of continual praise and worship. I need to be a little more disobedient in my own life.