What you are referring to is known in theological circles as the messianic secret motif. What does it mean? Several times throughout his public ministry, Jesus plainly told Jews, whom he had healed, not to tell anyone. The reason is that their testimony would have provoked nationalistic Jews, longing for Messiah, to try to force Jesus into a political rule and interfere with his mission.

The Jews viewed Messiah strictly as a political ruler who would deliver Israel from the powerful grip of Rome. Messiah came as king of kings to be sure, but his mission was not political; it was spiritual—he came to deliver people from their sins. His ministry demonstrated his authority to forgive and save sinners, bring them out of darkness into light, deliver them from the bondage of sin, and make them slaves to righteousness. He did not come in a political capacity to dethrone Caesar and rule in his place. Nevertheless, this is what the Jews believed (cf. Luke 24:21; Acts 1:6), and you can imagine how compelled they would have been to establish Jesus as their king upon hearing testimony of some of these healed eyewitnesses (cf. John 6:15, 60, 66).

Such a zealous and nationalistic attempt would interfere with Jesus’ mission and, in fact, did. We have an example in Mark 1:45 of a leprous Jew that Jesus healed and gave specific instructions to tell no one. "However," the once-leprous-now-clean man "went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the matter, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter the city, but was outside in the desert places . . ."

There is at least one practical lesson that the church can learn from the messianic secret motif: we must proclaim the Lord in such a way that he is fairly and accurately represented. Many in the church today are giving in to the temptation to accommodate a wrong view of Jesus if it will keep people who hold it following him. But is it Jesus they are following, or a lie manufactured in the depths of the sinful human heart? Let’s proclaim the truth about Jesus and leave the consequences to God, remembering all the while that our faithful proclamation of the truth finds its confirmation not only in the fact that there are those who turn and follow Jesus, but also in the fact that there are those who turn back and no longer walk with Him (John 6:66).