In reading through Matthew and working through our recent Sunday School apologetics series, God has taught me all kinds of things. One thing in particular that has popped up again today in my devotion reading is the following:
Many times throughout the Gospels, Jesus tells a newly-healed person not to spread news of their healing or a demon not to announce that Jesus is the Son of God.
At first in my study I used to think this was just Jesus’ humility. What a humble God-man, I used to think and move on in my reading.
Then as I thought deeper about it, I thought maybe Jesus’ ministry would have been cut short quicker if more people knew He was God at a faster rate. Maybe He’d be kept out of cities and it would have been more difficult to preach to the masses. Maybe He would have been crucified sooner, and less would have had the opportunity to hear first-hand the Good News.
And then in my Sunday School class it hit me for the first time, maybe it was none of those reasons, but that they would not have crucified Jesus if they knew for sure that He was God. The goal of Christ was what? Salvation to all who would believe (the Jew first and also the Gentiles). Would they really have crucified their Obviously Announced Messiah? What did Israel believe? Jesus was coming as a conquerer, not as a servant. So if Christ was announced as a conquerer, even the demons shrank back from His presence, I’m not thinking they’d be so quick to crucify and instead they’d be quick to enthrone Him and finally “beat” their enemies.
Just kind of interesting to think of Christ asking to remain quiet about His Deity early in His ministry (though He made it quite clear in parables and at the end of His ministry that He was indeed God) so that He would be crucified!
Kind of puts a humble spin on Christ accepting and willingly going to the cross for our salvation.
– just some thoughts.
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