Gospel “flags.” Take, for example, the matter of the “messianic secret.” Prior to the Sower, Jesus’ reluctance to come right out and declare his messiahship in plain terms was mostly a matter of occasional warnings—both to demons and to the beneficiaries of his signs—not to reveal who he really was. Subsequently, though, it becomes a kind of intentional mystification that he incorporates into his teaching as a deliberate principle. To see that, all you have to do is note the words of Isaiah that