<p>12:16&nbsp;<em>And charged them that they should not make him known</em>- It was predicted of the Lord&rsquo;s preaching that He would not &ldquo;strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice [raised up in this way] in the streets&rdquo;. And for this reason He asked His converts not to &ldquo;make him known&rdquo; in this way; He wanted them to witness&nbsp;<em>as He witnessed</em>&nbsp;(Mt. 12:16,19). This is quite something, the more we reflect upon it. He rebuked the self-righteous, restored peoples&rsquo; dignity, alleviated their poverty and sicknesses to give them a foretaste of the future blessings of His Kingdom on earth, opposed legalistic and corrupt religious practices, and ultimately gave His life to show that even His enemies were encompassed in His love. This is the pattern for us, especially in our seeking to do these things in the lives of those who respond to the Gospel.</p>
<p>But the same words (&ldquo;<em>make Him known</em>&rdquo;) are used about how later, He was made known by the church (Acts 4:16; 1 Jn. 3:10). It could well be that as so often with Semitic languages, we must read in an ellipsis- 'Not make Him known [immediately, right then, at that time]'. The implication could be that they were indeed to make Him known- but later. The great commission, to take the knowledge of Christ to all men everywhere, could then be comfortably read in this context; the commission signalled the end of the relative silence which the Lord called for. In line with our comments on how and why the Lord withdrew Himself from the crowds in the preceding verse (:15), it would seem that the Lord was constantly concerned on a practical level that His ministry would be badly impaired if the masses of Palestine rose up out of His control and made Him King. He wanted above all to teach and personally model the Kingdom, and being at the centre of a political uprising thrusting Him forward would not enable that.&nbsp;<em>Phaneros</em>, &quot;known&quot;, is only elsewhere used in Matthew in the Lord's teaching about what would happen &quot;openly&quot; (s.w.) at the establishment of the Kingdom at the last day (Mt. 6:4,6,18). The Lord didn't want them trying to establish the Kingdom there and then in their own strength, and especially whilst so seriously misunderstanding the nature and essence of the Kingdom- for they still thought it was all about military victory against Rome. So it could be that the idea of 'to make known' may mean far more than 'Don't tell anyone'; it was psychologically impossible to expect that multitudes of people who had seen healings would literally not breathe a word to anyone else. It was obvious that healings had been done- people came home healed. To 'not make known' doesn't have to mean 'Don't tell a word of this to anyone', indeed the Lord's parables and other teachings suggest that such telling of others is an inevitable part of response to Him. I suggest it means more of the flavour of 'Don't declare Me publicly as King'.</p>