Read Matthew 16:13-20 with your family.

One of the more confusing things Jesus said was not to tell anyone he was the Messiah, even though we know that is who he was. Why wouldn’t he want people to know that?

Perhaps it has to do with what the people who lived around Jesus thought the Messiah would be.

There were a lot of different ideas about the Messiah. Some thought the Messiah would be a military leader to help get rid of the Romans. Some thought he would be a special king like King David who would talk the Romans into letting them become independent. Some thought he would be both the king and a military leader. Some thought there would be only one Messiah. And some thought there would be multiple people who were all the Messiah with specific jobs to do.

None of them imagined a quiet man who didn’t like violence, and told everyone to love each other and take care of each other. That was not the message anyone expected from the Messiah.

Jesus was the Messiah, but he was not who anyone was expecting him to be.

And maybe Jesus wanted to control the time and place of the announcement so people wouldn’t have the wrong idea about him.