And it happened when He was in a certain city, that behold, a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus; and he fell on his face and implored Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Then He put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately the leprosy left him. And He charged him to tell no one, “But go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as a testimony to them, just as Moses commanded.” However, the report went around concerning Him all the more; and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities. Luke 5:12–15
It has been said that word of mouth is the most effective form of advertising because it costs so little and can cover ground very quickly. Whenever we see or experience something extraordinary, we can’t wait to tell others about it. When Jesus walked among men, there were multitudes of people whose lives He changed forever. In many cases, however, Jesus urged the people He healed not to expose His identity. In addition to the leper from the reading above, Jesus gave the same command to others He healed (Mark 7:36; 8:26). When He raised Jairus’ daughter, “He charged them to tell no one” (Luke 8:56). When Peter confessed His deity, Jesus commanded Him and the rest “that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ” (Matt. 16:20). When Peter, James, and John witnessed the transfiguration, Jesus charged them to “tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead” (Matt. 17:9). Why would Jesus command these to tell no one and then command us to tell everyone?
First, why did Jesus tell these people to tell no one who He was or what He had done for them? The principal reason is that the time was not yet come for His deity to be revealed. Prior to the day that Jesus was arrested in Gethsemane there were many who wanted to arrest Him, but His hour had not yet come (Mark 3:6; John 7:30; 8:20). A public declaration of Jesus’ deity would not have helped His ministry in the early days, but could have hindered it. Matthew makes this point in his narrative and quotes Isaiah in sup-port of it (Matt. 12:18–21; cf. Isa.42:1–4). In order for Jesus to have the time He needed to accomplish His mission, He needed to keep a low profile during much of His ministry.
Jesus once told the twelve, “Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops” (Matt. 10:27). Under the Great Commission, we are now commanded to teach all nations. In the early days of the church, the disciples “went everywhere preaching the word” (Acts 8:4). This evangelistic work began in Jerusalem and then pressed its way into the rest of Judea and thence to Samaria and even “to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
The sad and strange reality is that Jesus’ commandments have never been regarded as they should. Many who were commanded to tell no one disobeyed. When He commanded the leper to tell no one, His fame was spread so much that He had to withdraw and teach elsewhere (Luke 5:14–16). Many other examples of this are found in the gospels (Matt. 9:26). While the actions of these individuals is by no means excusable, it is certainly understandable, because they wanted everyone to know “what great things Jesus had done for [them]” (Luke 8:39).
Similarly, many of those whom Jesus commanded to tell all men have disobeyed as well. As a matter of fact, when they were charged to stop preaching Jesus, Peter and John said, “we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20). May we have the same attitude that we cannot refrain from telling others about Jesus and about all that He has done for us!