This past Wednesday night in the YouthRoom, we once again went straight to the text and learned so much.
I began with a brief discussion on secrets and why we should be able to keep one. When someone asks you to keep a secret it is because they are discosing some information to you that does not need to be public. Now, we all know that a lot of secrets are wrong and full of slander and gossip and drama. I’m not talking about those at all. I’m talking about a good secret, like some sort of good news. If someone tells you that and asks you to not tell anyone, then you shouldnt tell anyone and you should trust that they have a very good reason for asking you to not tell anyone. There is a good reason why that information does not need to be public.
Well, on Wednesday night we finished up the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark, and we had to deal with this issue in the Bible. In Mark 1, there are a couple instances where Jesus tells people to not tell anyone who He is or what He has done.
Which leads everyone to asking….Why? Why not tell what Jesus has done? The man had leprosy and Jesus healed him from it. Then He asked the guy to not tell anyone. WHy? The leper just had the best thing ever happen to him…Jesus healed his miserably awful skin disease….why could he not tell anyone? Of course, obviously, everyone was going to be asking him how he was healed? And Jesus told him not to tell. Why?
Well, the end of the text gives some light to this “why” question? And it really is impressive. As people began to spread the word about Jesus his fame was spreading. It was already getting to where Jesus could not go out in public because He was always surrounded by so many people. So the end of Mark summarizes saying that Jesus could no longer go into cities because the crowds were so large. He had to stay in the rural areas.
Now, why is this significant?
Christ came and lived with one purpose in mind…to die. His whole purpose in coming was to ransom His people and this could only be done by dying for their sins and appeasing God’s wrath for them. Every moment of everyday of Christ’s life was a fulfilling of the purpose of getting to the cross. Jesus did not want anything to get in His way. His plans were clearly to travel around preaching until they killed Him. Well, His traveling and preaching was being hindered because of the spreading of His ability to perform miracles.
So…
As we learn that some information doesn’t need to be public until the right time, we stand amazed and humbled at the glorious intensity with which Christ Jesus lived as He was becoming a propitiation for us. Christ was determined to get to the cross so that in dying on it He could bring us to God.
Now thats awesome!