Why does Jesus tell the disciples not to tell of his miracles and not to tell that he is the Messiah? Even when he is questioned by the authorities about these things, he says "Thou sayest." Yet, he tells Pilate that his kingdom is not of this world (which leads to why you think the kingdom of heaven is on earth). He even asks the disciples the following:" Whom do men say that I, the son of man am? They say John the Baptist, Jeremias, and Elias.” He then says: "But whom do ye say I am?" And Peter says, "the Christ, Son of the Living God" and Jesus calls him blessed. Can you make sense of any of this?
Answer
My mother has a theory that Jesus may have told people not to spread the word about who he was because then people would be more likely to do it. Jesus was a master of psychology, but I am not sure this is one of those cases.
I think the key is found in John 7:1-8. When his brothers urged him to go to a feast in Jerusalem so that people there could see who he was, Jesus said, “My time is not yet fully come.” Then, when he knew his time had come (Luke 19:35-40), when someone told him to silence his disciples he said that even “the stones would immediately cry out.” Until it was exactly the right time for him to die, he insisted that his disciples keep quiet about who he was. But at the right time he lets them speak.