Jesus warned them sternly, “See that no one knows about this.” But they went out and spread word of him through all that land. As my mother used to say, it’s hard to get adults to obey. You would think after Jesus had done so much for the blind men, curing them of their illness, they would be inclined to do what he asked of them, “sternly.” We find instead that they ignored his warning and did the opposite of what he asked. On the one hand this is understandable. When something wonderful has happened to you, you want to let everyone know about it. You can picture that when people asked, “What happened to you?” they burst with enthusiasm in telling the story. But Jesus was not simply being humble. (“Aw shucks, maam, twernt nothin.”) He was concerned that his coming would be misunderstood as “miracle max.” He was most anxious for us to understand that following God’s will is what mattered, even when it leads to the cross.
