Reverse Psychology?

And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them. (Matthew 8:3, 4)

Many people argue that Jesus was using reverse psychology when He told the man not to tell about the healing to no one. By this they mean that Jesus was indirectly telling the man to advertise Him. But I beg to differ. I believe we are the ones with a psychological problem to even think of Him that way.

Why then did He ask him to show himself to the priests if he wanted the healing to spread like a rumour as that is what reverse psychology implies? Why ask him to give the gift the law prescribed? Surely rumours are not spread that way!

I am convinced that the reason Jesus asked the man not to tell others is because he did not entertain the thought of the healing being used as an advertising tool as many ‘healers’ are doing. He was not healing as a means to get other ‘customers’. He was not looking for people to follow Him on the strength of hearsay. In fact we see Him chasing people away because they were following Him for what He could give.

Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed. (John 6:26, 27)

His interest was on doing the work His Father had sent Him to do. Advertising it would have sidetracked His mission and that is why we see him getting from the crowds to concentrate on the disciples and sometimes even from them to be with His Father. Publicity was one thing He never sought. He wanted the testimonies to be for the purposes of revealing the Kingdom of heaven to men.

He never did anything secretly and so it makes no sense to think of Him as an attention seeker when he tells this man to tell no one. He knew that the man would talk, but He also knew that it was not for the purposes of advertising Jesus. He was not under any obligation to speak of his healing but like the disciples said he could not but talk of the things he had seen and heard. He would not be speaking of the healing as a favor to Jesus but simply out of gratitude to Him and especially to point people to His saving act.

And when he was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him. Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee. (Mark 5:18, 19)

This former demoniac was enough testimony without having to say anything. Why did Jesus not apply reverse psychology here, going by the argument being put forward?

Jesus was not involved with the theatrics we so love. He was focused on the one thing He came to do, redeeming mankind. Anything that stood in the way of the same was an enemy to this purpose, even publicity.

And that is how we are supposed to minister. We should just do what Christ orders us without looking for affirmation or even support for it. Let the Christ we are serving sort us when it gets to that. Otherwise we become peddlers of the Gospel instead of ministers. Or we could become brokers of the Kingdom where we will take our ‘cut’ after connecting people.

Covert or overt advertisement of our ministry (as if we own it) may be the reason we can even think of explaining Christ’s actions as reverse psychology.