Is there any reason for the so called Messianic Secret in the Gospel of Mark?

Why Jesus rebuked the Disciples for them not to reveal He was the Messiah?

Is there any relation with the Lord rebuking the devils when they confessed His Nature?

Laying asside William Wrede's liberal interpretation, what is the Reformed Position on these issues?

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César Proença

there is no will nor running by which we can prepare the way for our salvation, it is wholly of the Divine Mercy Jean Calvin Institutes II . V. 17

Reformed Churches in The Netherlands (liberated) http://www.gkv.nl/main.asp?intTreeviewID=954

Igreja Reformada em Massamá Portugal http://www.igrejareformada.pt

I think the simplest answer is that there was a pervasive, and erroneous, understanding of what the Messiah was to be--namely political liberator. Publishing Jesus as Messiah (prior to the completion of his work and the pouring out of Holy Spirit) would have the following natural effects:

1) inflaming popular Messianic expectation, and accelerating the religious party's opposition
2) arousing the suspicious interests of the Romans and their puppets

Neither of these ideas served the purpose of laying the necessary groundwork for the Messiah's spiritual reign, and subsequent universal extension of the church worldwide.

So, the reasonable conclusion to draw is that it served the purpose of God to not publicly proclaim a Messiah whose saving work was still a promise-yet-to-fulfill. The open declaration of Messiah was to be a triumphant proclamation: A Messiah brim full of victory, with gifts to disperse.

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Rev. Bruce G. Buchanan
ChainOLakes Presbyterian Church, CentralLake, MI


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It was obviously taken by the disciples as a temporary pragmatic restraint, since the very gospel which notes this openly proclaims Him as Messiah -- as do the others.

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Jim
1689 LBCF
Independent Bible Church
North Texas, USA

The reformed view is ably expounded in Geerhardus Vos' Self Disclosure of Jesus. Wrede is particularly examined in chapter 4. The reformed have always maintained the catholic faith that Christ possessed a Messianic consciousness on earth. Vos allows that there is a sense in which secrecy can be understood as a part of the Marcan presentation, but the great confession at Caesarea Philippi shows this "secret" pertains not to the fact of Messiahship but to the purpose and work of the Messiah. Hence there is no basis for the agnostic position.

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Yours sincerely,


"Illum oportet crescere me autem minui."