Episode 24: Why the Secrecy?

Have you ever tried to promote a product or service? Did you spread the word far and wide so more and more people are aware of what you’re offering? 

When Jesus was walking the earth conducting his ministry, he often performed a miracle, then told people not to say anything to anyone!  Didn't he want the promotion? In this essay Laurie uncovers several reasons why Jesus would do this. 

Then Laurie welcomes her guest, Leslie Caperton -- friend, neighbor, devoted Christian and also a Pampered Chef consultant!  The ladies delve into this topic to try to enlighten us all about the reason behind Jesus's secrecy ... and ultimately the beautiful moment when he opened the gate and encouraged people to start sharing!

Check out Leslie's Pampered Chef site!

I also wanted to link to Psalm 22, the important psalm Leslie referenced as David's many prophecies of the coming Messiah. 

Transcript

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Hi, I'm your host Lori Larson, and this is the year I read the Bible. Welcome a Lifelong Christian. I thought I was familiar with the Bible, but in 2023 I accepted the challenge of reading the whole thing, cover to cover. Whenever I encountered something I didn't understand or wanted to learn more. I jotted it down, but I kept reading to stay on schedule. Then I reached the end Imagine Confetti rating down on me, and a huge sigh of relief. I had 40 topics to research in 2024. I started diving into all those topics. I did research, I wrote blogs and I shared them with whoever might wanna learn too. And in 2025, the project continues. I published a book containing all my essays, and now a podcast. Is there something you can learn from that dusty book that sits on all of our shelves? Yes. Yes, there is. Let's dive into The year I read the Bible. Hello everybody. I hope you are having a great day today, wherever you're at. And I also hope that you are really enjoying these, podcast episodes that I've been creating under this project the year I read the Bible. This is Lori Larson and I want you to know that I thoroughly appreciate you joining me. And if you are interested in more than just the podcast, just a reminder that you can also buy the book that, this podcast was born out of. You can find it on all of your online retailers, and it is called, guess what. The year I read the Bible by Lori Larson. Okay, let's move ahead with this next episode. My essay today is called Why the Secrecy. Have you ever been tasked with promoting a product or service like I just did with my reminder about my book that you can buy. Spreading the word as best you can, so more and more people are aware of what you're offering. Okay. I face this promotion challenge constantly in my fiction author business. When I have a new book coming out, I employ many strategies for a successful launch. I recruit a team of volunteers to receive a free book file, read it, and have an honest review ready to post on all online bookstores on release day. I ask early readers to share graphics with the book cover and a short description, and of course a purchase link on their own social media. I pay for advertising in multiple places where readers of my genre hang out. Why do I do all this so that people find out about the book and if it sounds like something they'd be interested in, it may result in a sale. No matter what the product or service is, it's very important to get the word out. So I've often wondered why when Jesus was engaged in his earthly ministry, he often told people, don't tell anyone what I've done for you. Wouldn't he want everyone to know as soon as possible so that people can hear and buy in and believe? Let's take a look at a couple incidents of this admonishment in the Gospels and see if we can figure it out. John two, one through four in the new international version. On the third day, a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. The festive partygoers were happily celebrating. The union of the new couple. Eventually they'd drunk every bit of wine the host had provided. When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, they have no more wine. Jesus replied, woman, why do you involve me? My hour has not yet come a divine timeline. Jesus knew his hour had not yet come. That means that he was fully aware of a divine timeline set by him and God for how Jesus's ministry would unravel. Nothing was left to chance. He could do the miracle, and he did eventually turn the water to whine just as his mother wanted him to, but he knew it wasn't time yet for the big reveal. The timing of the announcement was constantly on Jesus' mind. Later in John chapter seven, Jesus is hanging out in Galilee. It was time for the annual Festival of Tabernacles, and his brothers wanted him to go to Jerusalem. In verse three, Jesus's brothers said to him, leave Galilee and go to Judea so that your disciples there may see the works you do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world. To me, Jesus' family members sound a little frustrated and I can relate to this. It's why I jump through so many hoops when I have a book release. Why would I go to all the trouble of writing, editing, and publishing a book if I'm not gonna follow through and let people know about it? If I kept it a secret, no one will ever get to read it. But what does Jesus respond in? Verse six. Therefore, Jesus told them, my time is not yet here for you. Any time will do. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. Hmm, the danger is real. Jesus's response here gives us another clue. Yes, there's a predetermined timeline and he wants to stick to it, but there's also a sense of danger being revealed. Jesus knows that his message to the world will make some angry and he will be in danger if he continues to preach it. And for those of us who have read the rest of the gospels, we know he's right, don't we? He needs to keep from being publicized because it's just plain too dangerous for him to be revealed. Yet Jews of the day are expecting the Messiah to be something else. A warrior who will help overthrow the Roman oversight of the Jews and the Jewish officials. The Pharisees and the Sanhedrin are growing more and more alarmed about the spreading news of Jesus' miracles, causing them to begin planning his death. Mark 14, one says, now the Passover and the festival of unleavened bread were only two days away. And the chief priests and the teachers of the law were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him, but not during the festival they said, or the people may riot. There are other reasons to, let's consider Mark 1 32 through 34 that evening after sunset, the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon possessed. The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was. This was very interesting to me, so I did a little research to find out what was thought about it. I ran into Greg Lanier's article. Why did Jesus command others to be silent about him? What did Mark mean by the demons knew who he was? Here are Greg Lanier's thoughts. Apparently as supernatural beings, they have insight into who Jesus really is, the divine one from God. At this stage, Jesus either didn't yet want that message to be made known. Or he didn't want demons to be the ones revealing it, or perhaps both. End quote. Again, I can draw an analogy between this analysis and my own situation, although I wanna get the word out as best I can when I have a book out. I also have to be careful to only promote it to my chosen audience. I write Christian romance, so my demographic is mostly women in their forties or above who are Christians or interested in Christianity. Love to read and are comfortable with electronic reading devices. I'm obviously not going to promote my books in Playboy Magazine, for example, and I'm not going to ask authors who write hot and spicy romance with no faith element to promote my books. So Jesus not wanting the demons to announce that he is the son of God. Sure. I can see why Jesus tells them to stay quiet, his celebrity status. Another reason is the sheer impact on his life when his celebrity is fully revealed. Look at Mark 1 43 through 45. Jesus sent him a man with leprosy away at once with a strong warning. See that you don't tell this to anyone. Instead, he went out and began to talk freely spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly, but stayed outside in lonely places, yet the people still came to him from everywhere. Jesus was a rock star, a celebrity. He couldn't walk down the street without being mobbed. Have you ever seen an interview with a movie star and they're enjoying a highly paid career with all the luxuries, but the price is almost too high because they can't even leave the house anymore without a security detail because people won't leave him alone and his life has changed drastically. Mm-hmm. And a final reason, his true purpose. I believe that Jesus started performing demon exorcisms and healing the sick and lame so that people would take note and believe that he was the Messiah. He felt that without the miracles, people wouldn't necessarily believe he was anyone special, and listen to his true message. But his true purpose was not to perform miracles. His true purpose on earth was to demonstrate God's love for mankind by dying on the cross for their sins. It's like he was saying, let's not lose the message in the magic. If a man who had blindness or deafness or leprosy or was crippled for life suddenly was healed. And they ran off to tell everyone they knew. What would they be proclaiming? A man healed me. Look, I can walk, see, hear, et cetera. His message would not necessarily be the Messiah. Son of God has come to earth and he has a message of redemption for all of us. The time is right. But when all the conditions are right and Jesus opens up the gates of witnesses, encouraging them to spread the word, it's a glorious thing. Mark five 18 says, as Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon possessed, begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him but said, go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you. And how he has had mercy on you. So the man went away and began to tell in the Deis how much Jesus had done for him, and all the people were amazed. Let's pray. Dear God, thank you for helping us dig a little deeper into this question of why Jesus often told people not to say anything about him being the Son of God. We thank you that you and he made a plan at the very beginning and you both followed it. Thank you for sending your son Jesus to earth, to save us and to share your love for us. And thank you for illuminating your word the more we read it. Amen. And now stay tuned for our guest, Leslie Caperton. I'm so excited today to welcome my guest, Leslie Caperton. I knew, as I was recruiting guests, for this next set of podcast episodes, I thought, Hmm, that would be a great guess that I haven't had on yet. And I realized that it was time to have Leslie welcome Leslie. So glad that you could join me today. Thank you for having me. Go ahead and introduce yourself. Tell us a little bit about yourself and then also how you and I became acquainted with each other. All right. Well, I've been married 41 years. I'm a mother of congratulations. Thank you. I'm a mother of two. I have a son who's 34 and married, and I have a daughter who is 18 and in her second year of college. I've been a Christian most of my life. I love reading and studying God's word. I also enjoy cooking and I am a pampered chef consultant. Been one for a long time and Lori, you and I met each other over six years ago when my family moved to South Carolina from Maryland through our neighborhood dinner club, and we have been friends ever since. Yes. And now we are a member of Dinner Club. We're a member of Bunko. We're a member of book club. Yes, we have a very active and social neighborhood, so we're lucky about that. And occasionally we even walk the neighborhood together. So yes, as we're getting our steps in, yes. I was so happy when you moved in, just from chatting with you briefly and, reviewing your Facebook page. I thought Leslie and I are definitely gonna be friends. We have so much in common. Yes, we do. And I'm so glad that we are friends too. Thank you. Well, we are here to talk about the essay, why the Secrecy, which I just finished reading for the listeners. And we talk in the, essay about Jesus, he's doing his ministry. He's out there amongst people and he is doing the miracles. He's doing all the miraculous things. But he doesn't necessarily want anyone to tell, you know, to spread the word about what he's doing. And I brought up the comparison, not that I'm any comparison in reality to Jesus, but in my business as a Christian fiction author. I spend all this time writing the book, editing the book, publishing it, promoting it. If I didn't wanna tell anyone about it, what, like, what would be the point? You know? And you mentioned that you are a Pampered Chef consultant, so you use public promotion quite a bit in your business. So what are some tried and true ways that you spread the word about your products? Great question. So in the beginning when I started Pamper Chef, which was 31 years ago, it's how long I've been selling. We didn't have the internet, so it was calling family and friends, telling people in person mailing out invitations or handing out flyers. And then once I would have my parties, then most of my business came from those that attended. A lot has changed since then with the addition of email and social media. So now it's so much easier to spread the word. And I have customers all over the country now because of that. Where before it was just local people because that's where my circle was. Yeah, I've actually hosted a Paper Chef party with you, and we use a lot of Facebook and internet and, social media to not just to get the word out about an upcoming party, for example, but also to actually just hold the party over the internet. We don't even have to get dressed up and go to somebody's house for a Pampered Chef party anymore. So yeah, it's so easy now to use the internet to spread the word about what we're doing. I do the same thing with my book promotion. It does bring you back to, 30 ad when Jesus was walking the earth. He was determined to keep quiet about his ministry for a number of reasons. One was timing. I. Feel after reading the New Testament, that those 40 days and 40 nights that Jesus spent out in the wilderness away from people, when Satan tempted him, I think he and God had a business meeting about, okay, here's what you're gonna do. Here's where you're gonna go, here's who you're gonna talk to, here's the miracles you're gonna do. So he had it all in his mind, ahead of time. So when he said. It's not my time yet to be known. He was working and he was doing his miracles, but he told people, don't tell anyone who I am. What are your thoughts about this, about him and God planning this out ahead of time? God absolutely had it all planned out and timed because it had to happen the way it did. It was all tied to the prophecies in the Old Testament to prove that Jesus was who he said he was. To prove his identity as the Messiah, Jesus fulfilled over 300 Old Testament prophecies like Psalm 22. Which he quotes from the cross, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Which goes on to describe the crucifixion in amazing details a thousand years before it even happened. Other prophecies include the lineage from David, the Virgin birth, the birth in Bethlehem, his betrayal, his suffering for our sins, and of course his resurrection. Psalm 22. We're definitely gonna have to look that one up. That's amazing. That's absolutely amazing. Yeah, it was an intricate plan and, Jesus was, meeting with the individuals on earth, but also completely connected with his father in heaven in order to deliver, the ministry that God had planned for him. Jesus performed miracles in order to convince people that he was the son of God, and yet his true purpose on Earth was not to just do miracles. What do you make of this balancing act that Jesus had to manage while he was on earth? Again, it goes back to timing. I think he healed many out of compassion and love for them, and that is why he said do not tell anyone because he wasn't ready to reveal who he was. But I also think many would not understand his true purpose to be a suffering messiah for the redemption of our sins, to bridge our relationship with God that he had come to die. The Jews were looking for a triumphant messiah to come and free them from oppression. Oh, you're absolutely right. I did a two part series earlier on in this, project called, why do the Jews not believe that Jesus is the Messiah? And that is the main part of it, is that they, they weren't expecting Jesus to come in humbly, be born in a manger, work with the people and be persecuted and crucified. They were expecting someone to come in as a military leader and to. Make the Roman Empire rule over the Jews, be eliminated so that they would have a, Jewish king it's just a different way of looking at Messiah, but obviously, that's where the basis of the disagreement, takes place. Is there anything else as you read this essay about Jesus's timing and what he did and why at point in time he finally did say, yes, go ahead and tell everyone what what I've done for you. But for so long it was kept secret. Do you have any other thoughts that you wanted to add about that? No. Just that his timing was. Planned and it had to be carried out the way it needed to be carried out to definitely, fulfill those prophecies so people could say, oh my gosh, he is the Messiah. Yeah. Yes. And we're so grateful that he did. Yes. And, here we are over 2000 years later still. Learning about him, talking about him, sharing our faith, worshiping him. I mean, it's a great thing to be a part of, isn't it? Yes, it is. All right. Well, I wanna thank you so much for joining us today. Stay tuned listeners, because Leslie is also going to be joining us next week and I can't wait to welcome you back, Leslie. Thank you. Alright, talk to you next time. and that's it for today. Thank you very much for being here with me on the year I read the Bible Podcast. We'll be back with another episode next week. If you enjoy this podcast, please do all the normal things to spread the word like it. Review it, share it with your friends. If you are interested in additional the year, I read the Bible resources such as the book, the video channel, and the blog, I will certainly include the links in the show notes, and I'd love to hear about your own journey to read the Bible cover to cover. Have you done it or are you doing it right now? Please reach out to me and let me know how it's going. Until next time, it's Lori Larson with the year I read the Bible. Bye.