“Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it.”
That line from the seventh chapter of the gospel of Mark, which is considered to be a primary source material of the other gospels, reiterates something which is a recurring theme in scripture: Don’t tell anybody.
Why is that? It seems like the whole thrust of the Bible is to spread the word, so why would its central character command secrecy?
Scholars have a variety of interpretations for it. Some may be valid. None of us shall ever truly know. But the fact remains that, according to the stories as they’ve reached our ears today, the people who witness the miraculous are often, though not always, told to keep it under wraps. Why not always? Why ever?
Anyone with half an understanding of humanity would know that telling someone to keep something juicy a secret is the surest way to inspire the opposite. Are we claiming that Jesus, or God, for that matter, wouldn’t have an inkling of how humans behave with a secret? The more we are encouraged to secrecy, the more tempting it becomes to share it.
For the sake of argument, let’s place both God and Jesus on the pedestal upon which our culture claims they reside. Wouldn’t they know what we would do? If we are loved by them, would we be judged for what we would do? Would someone playing pinball judge the obstacles, or use them to wisely deflect the ball?
Perhaps the figure of Jesus was more shrewd a teacher than we openly recognize. Perhaps he had a very clear understanding of how God feels about us. And the verdict isn’t bad.
I’ve always felt that God did the same thing to Adam and Eve in the book of Genesis when commanding them not to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge. Perhaps they were meant to partake of the fruit all along in order to launch themselves into the human experience through which we have the capacity to raise the vibration of the universe. The admonition against their consuming the fruit was definitely not ambivalent, and yet, we could interpret what came next as being either the fall of mankind, or the inception of a great human classroom.
And then there’s Pandora’s box. We vilify the demons which she unleashed, forgetting that Hope remained in the bottom of the box. That serves as an indication the box and its contents were always part of a greater picture. One that illustrates the Divine not only knows us, but believes in us. Of course Pandora is mythology. But for all we know, so is the Bible.
I think the reverse psychology of God as It is described in scripture is an indication that, perhaps, God gets us?
I know this is not proof of anything. But belief in God or the existence of prophetic teachers has no proof. Which means that good advice must stand on its own without a belief in God. Because if God exists in the way we describe It, It doesn’t need us to believe in It in order for us to benefit from Its love of us, or Its belief that we will figure out the way.
We can’t speak benevolence out of one side of our mouth while declaring God’s wrathful retribution with the other. We can’t conclude that God is both benevolent and retributive. I don’t believe it’s possible to truly love someone and be able to punish them.
I recognize that thought goes against what the vast majority of humanity seems to think. We feel that when people do something wrong, they should be punished. But the word punish, which means to cause pain in exchange for an offense, indicates the source of our strong feelings regarding the behavior and not the desire that the behavior ends. We are acting from our rage, not our reason.
There’s a nuanced difference to the way we design the repercussions of bad behavior. When we design them with retribution in mind, we know for a fact it only perpetuates the cycle of destructive behavior. But in this culture we more widely believe in dumping people in prison and throwing away the key rather than get under the skin of what prompted the behavior in the first place. It’s a vengeful mentality. It goes counter to everything we are meant to learn from all world scripture.
The pipeline to prison in our country is the thermometer which indicates our lack of recognition of the higher principles we claim to support. It also starkly contrasts with what we expect of the Divine and what we believe the Divine expects of us.
The reverse psychology of Jesus in the stories is a signal that we are understood and pre-forgiven of our weaknesses before we even commit them.
It’s saying that it’s OK we are flawed. Sometimes our flaws are the very thing which propels our advancement. Sometimes the flaws are not by accident but by design, which means they might not be flaws in the first place. At the very least, whether we believe in Scripture or not, the thought remains that sometimes we have to leverage our bad behavior toward benevolent ends. Sometimes we make terrible mistakes. But if we spend all our time and energy punishing ourselves for them, we might miss the grace which exists at their core.
Wil Darcangelo, M.Div, is a Unitarian Universalist Minister at the First Parish of Fitchburg and the First Church of Lancaster. He is also the host of a monthly radio show called Our Common Dharma based on his columns every 4th Monday at noon on WPKZ 105.3FM. Email [email protected]. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @wildarcangelo. His blog, Hopeful Thinking, can be found at www.hopefulthinkingworld.blogspot.com.
Wil Darcangelo
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