Tell No One

 

from the Daily Office Reading; 7-12-2021; Year One

1 Samuel 18:5-16,27-30 (David and the Philistines. The reading leaves out the entire story of Mikhal falling in love with David, and Saul’s crafty manipulations: verses 17-26.)

Acts 11:19-30 (Barnabas and the Greek believers in Antioch)

Mark 1:29-45

“Tell No One!”

Why?

Why did Jesus keep telling people not to talk about being healed? Was it as simple as wanting to keep the crowds off his back? I’m not so sure.

Why did he keep running away from the crowds and going off into the wastelands? He does this all the time, and the disciples are always having to track him down. Sometimes he takes off across bodies of water, sometimes he gets up in the dark of early morning and sneaks off into the hinterlands, and the disciples turn around to find him gone. Just gone.

In this story, when they finally find him, he says, “Let’s get out of here, and go to the next town, so I can teach there too. That’s why I came out here.”

I understood the passage to say that Jesus had gone out that morning ready to travel, so he could get away without a fuss. So many of the stories are about Jesus trying to get away from people; recording his complaints about the thrill-seekers and paparazzi following him around, who don’t have a clue what he’s really about, and who would run away real quick if they did understand.

There are also a lot of stories about Jesus healing people and “sternly” telling them not to tell anyone. In all the stories, he’s ignored completely, and the person goes on to spill the beans. Nobody seems to notice or comment on the fact that these supposedly grateful people flagrantly disobeyed Jesus in a very disrespectful way.

I don’t know, but it’s something I’ve always wondered about. I’ve even speculated that this is the source of all the quid-pro-quo theology that’s distorted the Way from the very beginning.

I wonder if Jesus told them not to talk because he didn’t want people coming only for the reason that they wanted to get something from him for free. He did tell his disciples to go spread the word, since he was fairly sure that they had at least partly understood the message, but random people who weren’t interested in following him, and only wanted to get rid of their acne or their bloody cough— well he didn’t trust them to get it right. He knew that they would only get other folks all riled up; that they would describe him as a sort of Jesus Circus, and people would come out to see him as if he were a juggler or a dancing bear, or a monkey riding a bicycle. I don’t blame him for sneaking off— that sort of attention is smothering. With that sort of energy around him, he wouldn’t be able to get a word in edgewise.

These reflections led me to wonder if we are still doing that. It sure looks like it. We’re chasing after Jesus because we want something for ourselves. It certainly seems to me that nobody’s really listening. We want the world to go our way, not God’s Way. We want to make a deal. We’ll say, “I accept Jesus Christ as my personal savior” just because someone told us those are the magic words that will fix everything, and keep us from suffering.

Hmmm. Jesus never told us to say any such thing!

No, we were told to pick up our execution stake and follow him. In modern language that would come out to: “Pick up your lethal-injection syringe, and follow me.” Or maybe, “Round up your own personal firing squad, and follow me.”

After all, we’re told that he was a “man of sorrow, acquainted with grief.” I feel like it’s important to remember that.

We’d better be sure we don’t ignore that stern order not to publicize some sort of miracle cure.

We’d better ask ourselves if we’re running around advertising some big payoff in the sky, while we busily calculate the spiritual profit margin.

 

If we’re going to spread the Word, let’s be sure we’ve got the right Message!

I’m a bit nervous about summing it up, but maybe it might go like this:

 

The Territory of Heaven is right here, right now.

We all live in it, whether we know it or not.

There’s no end to it, it’s everywhere.

Open your eyes, open your ears.

There is only one thing that’s necessary—

Love one another, and be kind.

That’s it.