Whiteboard: Keep a Secret

One of the most most familiar passages in scripture concludes with one of the strangest endings in all of the Bible.

Jesus asks the question "Who do you say I am?" and Peter gives that blessed response, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God!" and then what does Jesus...instructs them to not tell anyone about it?!?

It is a perplexing ending to an otherwise amazing piece of scripture.

Scholars call Jesus' response (where he sternly orders the Disciples not to tell anyone he is the Messiah) the Messianic Secret. It happens over and over and over again in scripture. So what does it mean? Well, we'll be talking about that in worship this Sunday!

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Matthew 16:13-20
Peter’s Declaration about Jesus

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ 

And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ 

He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ 

Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ 

And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’ 

Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.