The temptation to ‘tell no one’

By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Aug 25, 2026

The Gospel reading last Sunday (Mt 16: 13-20) recounted the dramatic story of St. Peter’s confession of faith, followed by the Lord’s promise, “I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.” That reading naturally prompts thoughts (and homilies) about the nature of our faith and the authority of the Catholic Church.

However, while those large themes give us more than enough food for thought, the final verse of the Gospel reading sounds a different note, leading thoughts in an entirely new direction: “Then He strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that He was the Christ.”

At first that command sounds odd, particularly coming immediately after such a crucial exchange. Surely many of the Lord’s followers, seeing the miracles, that He worked, had been wondering, speculating, hoping. Now Peter, bold as always, had proclaimed as fact what they had been suspecting. And Jesus had confirmed it; He is indeed “the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”

This is, to put it mildly, a very important announcement—in fact it is the important announcement, not just for the gathered disciples but for all ages. Ordinary people, hearing sensational news, immediately want to tell their friends and neighbors. When He tells the disciplines “to tell no one,” Jesus is asking them to act against the prompting of human nature to share an amazing story.

Our Lord makes some similar requests at other times recorded in the Gospels. Lepers are cleansed, cripples walk, the blind see, and Jesus urges them not to talk about their miracles. But on those occasions the Lord obviously knows that they will not be able to keep silent. People will ask questions and demand answers: “How is it that you can walk? How is it that you can see?” The word will get out. The Lord’s pleas might mute the excited talk about Him, but they do not stifle it—as evidenced by the crowds that follow Him, expecting more miracles.

Now in this passage from St. Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is speaking only to his disciples, asking them to say what they hear from the larger crowds. “Who do men say that the Son of Man is?” This is a confidential conversation, a meeting of the inner circle.

Still, hasn’t Jesus already sent out his disciples to spread the Good News? Yes, but at that time (see Mt. 10) He instructed them to say: “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” Now, in Chapter 13, the message is more specific; Jesus tells his disciples that He is the Messiah.

That message, however, may be difficult for the admiring crowds to comprehend, particularly in light of what Jesus knows will soon occur. For now He reveals his mission only to those who are ready to believe. So, immediately after the passage read at Mass on Sunday, St. Matthew’s account continues:

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.

The crowds would not have been ready to accept Jesus as the Messiah; their faith would have been shaken by his Passion and Death. So Jesus asks his disciples to keep his secret.

But the strict order to “tell no one that He was the Christ” came with an expiration date. After Pentecost the apostles were more than ready to tell the world.

When the chief priest and the elders and scribes called the apostles in for questioning, they focused on what was, to them, objectionable in the new teaching. To say that the Kingdom was at hand might have been acceptable. To say that Jesus was the Messiah was not. So they ordered the apostles “not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.” To which Peter and John promptly replied that they “cannot but speak.” [Acts 4:18-20] What they were previously cautioned not to say, they now could not stop saying. They shared the news so effectively that today, even when impious people take the Lord’s name in vain, they typically give Him the proper title: Jesus Christ.

Now, in America in 2026, we who call ourselves Christians are often tempted to describe our faith in vague terms: as a message of love, or a set of ethical standards, or even as what has been characterized as Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. Those are messages the secular world might be ready to accept. But they are not the central teaching of the Christian faith. Today the temptation “to tell no one that He was the Christ” is the work of the Devil.