Please read the note below from Pastor Woodhouse regarding his sermon titled “Why Keep it a Secret?”:

This week’s Gospel reading gives us one of several examples in Mark’s Gospel of Jesus wishing to keep His identity or location secret. He instructs the disciples who witnessed the Transfiguration not to tell anyone about it until after His resurrection. He tells those miraculously healed not to tell other people who did it. And this week, He avoids crowds as His disciples follow Him through Galilee, so that he can teach them about His crucifixion and resurrection.

Biblical scholars sometimes refer to this distinctive teaching in Mark as the “Messianic Secret”. But we might wonder: Why does Jesus attempt to keep His nature as God’s chosen Messiah a secret? Why would Jesus wish for some people to hear the good news of His coming, but not everyone? To what extent do these instructions in Mark apply to the Church today? Why keep it a secret?