Matthew 16:20
“Then he commanded the disciples that they should tell no one that he was Jesus the Christ.”
What does Matthew 16:20 mean?
After Peter declares that Jesus is "the Messiah, the Son of the living God," Jesus tells his followers to keep this revelation quiet. He does this repeatedly throughout Matthew's gospel, and it puzzles many readers at first. Jesus wasn't being secretive out of shame, but rather because the crowds had wildly mistaken ideas about what the Messiah would do. They expected a political liberator who would overthrow Rome, not a humble teacher who would suffer and die. If word spread that Jesus claimed to be the Messiah, it would trigger false expectations and probably get in the way of people actually understanding who he was and what he came to accomplish. Sometimes the deepest truths can only be grasped through relationship and experience, not announcement.