“See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” – Mark 1:44

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 6, 2014): Mark 1

I love the story that Nicky Gumbel (the founder of “The Alpha Course”) used to tell of a man who desperately wanted to become a Christian. According to Gumbel, one of the stumbling blocks for this man was the idea that if he became a Christian, then he would also have to go out and tell people about Jesus. The idea of this kind of bold witness frightened the man into not making any moves toward Christianity. But one day this man was in conversation with a Christian friend and he told the friend of his fear. The friend apparently responded with much wisdom, telling the man that he could accept Christ and not tell anyone unless he really wanted to tell them. The man was relieved, confessed his sin and accepted Jesus forgiveness into his life, and then went straight out and started to proclaim that he had accepted Jesus and that he didn’t have to tell anyone.

Gumbel’s point is that when something good happens to us, we want to tell people. And that maybe the church’s effort to evangelize the world has taken all of the fun out of the very natural process of sharing our good news with the people around us. And a secondary message might be that if want something advertised, the quickest way to get it into the gossip paths of an organization is to tell people that it is a secret and they are to tell no one. (“What happens at fight club, stays at fight club” might be the only instructions needed to make sure that everyone knows what happens at fight club.)

However, in this case I am not sure that this was why Jesus told the man not to tell anyone. The reality was that there were a couple of reasons why Jesus did not want anyone to know that he had healed the man. For starters, his ministry was just beginning, and it had never been Jesus plan to become the miracle worker of Galilee. This miracle was performed because of the compassion of Jesus and this miracle – and all of Jesus’ miracles were secondary to his message which was that the people could be forgiven and could move forward with their lives without guilt; that no matter what they had done God still loved them. The miracles were simply a sign of the love and compassion of God. But Jesus also realized how quickly people could get sidetracked. Like kids searching the pockets of a father who has been away for a while for presents, people were all too willing to seek the presents of God (the miracles) and miss out on what they really needed – the presence of God.

But this was a secret that the man couldn’t contain. He went and told everyone what Jesus had done. And everywhere people began to look out for the miracle worker of Galilee, and just like Jesus had feared, they began to miss the message that the miracle worker had come to give – that there was life and love and peace in the arms of God. It was a message that the people seemed to have long forgotten – but desperately needed to hear.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Luke 3