The Messianic Secret

As part of the message today we talked about the idea of the "Messianic Secret." Up until a couple weeks ago, I had never heard that term. But roughly it is the term given to the fact that Jesus repeatedly asked people not to tell others who He was or what He had done for them.

When you think about the fact that a big part of our call as Christians is to reach the world with the Gospel and Jesus came to be the savior for us all. But in the passage we looked at today — Mark 8:27-30 — Jesus asks the disciples who they think he is and when Peter responds that Jesus is "the Christ," he tells him not to tell others. I have two theories.

First, Jesus wanted to manage expectations. I remember when I first saw "The Matrix." It was an incredible cinematic experience, unlike anything I had ever seen before. So I, like most of the world, was pretty excited for the sequel. As time drug on, the weight of expectations became enormous. I still remember seeing the first trailer for "The Matrix Reloaded" and hearing the crowd explode with excitement. Then the movie came out... and that excitement and anticipation turned into anger. I thought it was the worst movie I had seen.

A few years have passed, and I've since seen the film a few more times. I now realize it isn't terrible, it just isn't good. And with that much pressure, the film never could have lived up to my expectations.

Jesus probably understood that too. In my lesson on "Superman Returns" for Faith in Film, one of the things I talk about in understanding the archetype of Superman is the context for his creation. He was created by two Jewish men during the height of the great depression. One of the reasons Jews today don't accept Jesus as savior, and the reason he wasn't recognized as our savior in his time, was that he wasn't what they expected. Jews expected an all powerful conquering king — something like Superman. Jesus wasn't that, he is something so much more.

So Jesus wanted to manage expectations.

Second, Jesus wanted people to discover him for themselves. Consider if your friends all started telling you about a new restaurant. They told you it was the greatest restaurant, in fact the only restaurant. You'd probably go, convinced that was what you should do. You might even like the restaurant, but the question is whether you really had a connection to it.

People could have gone out far and wide to proclaim Jesus as Messiah — and some probably did — but that wasn't necessarily what Jesus wanted. He wants us to have a relationship with him, which is something personal. That's what free will is all about. Jesus didn't want people to worship him because they were told he was the Messiah and they thought they should, he wanted people, like Peter in that moment, to recognize who He is and choose to worship Him.

There are a lot of theories on the Messianic Secret and, the truth is, we probably won't know until we are in the next life. But I think it had to do with Jesus managing expectations and managing how people discovered their Savior.