The Messianic Secret 

Have you ever wondered why Jesus seems so bent on keeping His identity a secret in the Gospels? And have you ever wondered why all of the sudden that changes at the Great Commission? One moment He charges them to tell no one, and the next He commands the disciples to trek to the ends of the earth to proclaim Him as the Christ and baptize people in His name. The Modern debate concerning Mark’s Gospel and the “Messianic Secret” dates back to the 1800s. And while scholars have argued over the significance of Jesus concealing His identity and this theme throughout the book of Mark, one important truth can be drawn from Mark’s Gospel and the “secrecy motif”. 

In Mark 8, after performing multiple miracles, Jesus and the disciples head towards Caesarea Philippi. On the way, Jesus asks the disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” (8:27).  The men quickly rattle off a list of the popular opinions of the time, “some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others, one of the prophets” (8:28). But then Jesus presses further, “But who do you say that I am?” (8:29). And Peter, in a rare moment of perceptive wisdom, proclaims, “You are the Christ” (8:29). There it is! A confession of faith! But what follows Peter’s confession? “And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him” (8:30). Talk about anti-climactic. 

The teaching that directly follows this text will be key for interpreting the “messianic secret” in the book of Mark. Immediately following Peter’s proclamation of faith, Jesus “began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly” (8:31-32). This is the tension between concealing and revealing that undulates throughout Mark’s Gospel. Just after His charge to conceal His identity as the Christ, Jesus begins to teach “plainly” to the disciples about what His identity really entails. Just as He demands them to conceal His identity, He is also revealing His identity. 

Now that the disciples were clear that He was in fact the Promised Savior King of the Old Testament Scriptures (the “Christ”), Jesus needs to ensure that they also understand what this really means. And being aware of the popular misconceptions about the Messiah, He tells them to not spread the news quite yet until they are able to embrace the words of 8:31-32, concerning His suffering, death, and resurrection. And clearly, Jesus was right to assume their susceptibility to such misconceptions because directly following Peter’s glorious declaration of Jesus’ Messiahship, he pulls Jesus aside to rebuke Him concerning this crazy talk of persecution and death. He rebukes Jesus for such crude talk; no such thing will happen to the Christ! God forbid! 

Sadly, Peter’s belief in Jesus as the Christ was fogged by the cultural expectations of his day so much so that he had the audacity to rebuke His Master, the very Master he just proclaimed to be the Christ! Peter was too offended at the idea of a crucified Christ to let this kind of talk slide. A suffering Messiah was an oxymoron to him- completely incomprehensible. It just could not be. Jesus’ response to Peter’s rebuke is surprisingly harsh: “Get behind me Satan!” (8:33). He just called Peter Satan! In what way had Peter messed with demonic forces? He wanted to change the nature of salvation and the mission of the Messiah. He wanted atonement with no cross. He wanted propitiation with no punishment. He wanted a win with no loss. But to distract Jesus from the mission for which he came was to play the role of the devil and Jesus would have none of it. 

The reason for the Messianic Secret should become more clear to us after considering this passage. Jesus did not want the disciples going out and proclaiming a false Gospel and He knew that the true Gospel was going to be hard for them to swallow. It was not all glitz and glam. It was not initially all about conquering and trampling over their enemies. The road to victory had to stop at the cross first. And it wasn’t until the disciples could embrace that truth that they would receive the commandment, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation” (16:15). Are you anything like the disciples? Are you too eager for triumph that you won’t look the cross in the face? Are you so bent on winning that you forget the call to “lose your life” first, just as your Master did (8:35)? There is no Gospel without the cross. And there is no Gospel without the resurrection. May we never be ashamed of our King who was willing to be treated as a peasant for our sake. May we never be ashamed of the Conqueror who would willingly lose on our behalf. May we never be ashamed of the true Gospel, “for whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels” (8:38).