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When Silence Is Better Than Good Endorsements

good endorsements

I suppose there are some good endorsements that you don’t want.

“He trained me in fielding ground balls.” – Bill Buckner

“Taught us everything we know about singing.” – Milli Vanilli

“He’s financially creative. I’ve learned much from him.” – Charles Ponzi

“His views on group dynamics and leadership are top shelf. I’m a disciple.” – Charles Manson

“I’ve used him for my taxes for over a decade now.” – Al Capone

And among good endorsements we find this one:

And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” And he strictly ordered them not to make him known.

It’s pretty obvious why Jesus didn’t want demons to be leading the charge on his public relations. It wouldn’t be long after that the religious leaders were charging Jesus with driving out demons by the power of demons. As non-sensical as that sounds, it’d have been an easier sell if the demons were the ones telling people that Jesus was the Son of God.

When Silence Is Better Than Good Endorsement

But there is something else happening here in Mark. It’s not only demons who are silenced, but in Mark 8, we’ll see the apostle Peter charged with not telling anyone that Jesus is the Son of God. It won’t be until his crucifixion that this declaration is made. Why?

Because a premature expression of Jesus’ identity would have led to much confusion. If people were going to wildly misunderstand what it meant for him to be Messiah, or Son of God, then it would be detrimental.