Messianic Secret? 1.26.2023

    One of the critical issues often discussed by scholars of the Gospel of Mark is the so-called “Messianic Secret.” In short, critical scholars following William Wrede noticed that Jesus repeatedly advised disciples, auditors, and recipients of miracles to not widely spread the idea that He was the Messiah. Wrede’s widely repeated thesis was that this was because Jesus did not claim to be the Messiah and Mark contoured his story in such a way to first disguise this omission and then to “sneak it in” for what it actually was, a claim of the early Church not derived from the teaching of Jesus.

    I have personally been studying the Gospels with a focused intent beyond the needs of yearly preaching for three decades. I have read and reread such claims, considered the rebuttals, and weighed the options. If Mark was trying to keep a secret regarding the Messianic mission and statements of Jesus, he did a singularly lousy job. The very first miracle Mark details finds a demon confessing Jesus as the “Holy One of God.” He may not have used the term “Christ”, but Jesus is certainly identified as more than a mere prophet. At the end of that first section detailing a day of ministry Mark makes this summary statement:

“And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.” (Mark 1:34 ESV)

    This seems to indicate that the identification that demons were able to make regarding Jesus was not just a degree of difference between Jesus and other spiritual figures, it indicates that both the demons (and Mark as well) understood that there was a difference in Kind as well. 

    We can multiply these examples many times just in the opening chapters. In Mark 2 Jesus is presented with an opportunity to heal a paralytic. He first pronounces the man’s sins forgiven, prompting negative rumination in some of the audience. His response?

 Why do you question these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.”” (Mark 2:8–11 ESV)

    Jesus does not claim a Messianic title here, nor does Mark give Him one, but Jesus does claim divine prerogatives that do not belong to a merely human prophet, priest, or king. This goes on throughout the early chapters of Mark and comes to an abrupt stop when Jesus asks His famous question regarding what the disciples think of Him, and Peter provides his famous answer.

“And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him.” (Mark 8:29–30 ESV)

    Here we have a prime test of Wrede’s argument for the “Messianic Secret.” If Peter is correct, and if Jesus has disclosed His Messianic identity to them why does Jesus tell them to keep His identity close to the vest? The answer comes in the very next pericope. 

“And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man” And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” (Mark 8:31–35 ESV)

    The issue is not whether Jesus is the Messiah. And the secrecy is not concocted by Mark to hide some nefarious truth about Jesus. Jesus knew from His time with the Twelve, the larger group of disciples, and the common crowds that most people did not have a correct understanding of what this Messiah they were expecting was going to accomplish. Peter himself upbraids Jesus at the first mention of the cross because it did not correspond to formative Judaism’s various expressions of the Messianic office. Jesus would spend a lot of time explaining the issue to the Twelve, and Mark would dutifully record Peter’s (guilt-ridden and dramatic) recollections of this time in Jesus’ ministry. His enemies may have gotten their way and nailed Jesus to the Cross, but His friends did not exactly help matters by being so recalcitrant in misunderstanding His message. It will not be until after the Resurrection that the Apostles will fully understand how this wonderworking, sin-forgiving, suffering-savior fulfills the Messianic expectation.

    We keep secrets too. We read the texts that describe the work of Jesus, often repeating the same misunderstandings and committing the same gaffes as the Twelve. We too want an all-powerful Jesus, magnificent in His glory who delivers us from the uncomfortable realities of telling the Kingdom story in a fallen, uncomprehending world. We want to have our enemies conquered, our comforts restored, our feelings salved, and our desires granted. The heart of Mark’s Gospel is not a “Messianic Secret” but an old, rugged cross. One for Jesus. One for each of us. We wish it were otherwise but “them’s the facts.” 

    I have simplified the technical arguments surrounding the Messianic Secret, which after more than a century is still around in many different guises. I wanted to discuss it while neither minimizing nor emphasizing Wrede’s old theory. Ultimately, I think that this, like so many critical theories, is not an orderly search for truth but a flight from the requirements of faith, at best it is a red herring to be quickly disposed of during one’s study. The gambit is not intellectual but spiritual. If Mark was deceptive, and Jesus was not Christ, then obedience is optional! So, the real secret is not what Jesus claimed, nor what Mark wrote, but what I choose to believe and obey. The secret we all hold, and all must conquer is the secret fear of the reality of the cross which awaits all who would follow Christ.