Sometimes Secrets Are Necessary

I've been reading the Gospel of Mark in the mornings, and I've noticed a particular perplexing pattern. Why did Jesus ask people to keep so many secrets (such as Mark 5:43, Mark 8:30, Mark 9:9)? I came up with an idea. I wonder if it was because He can't lie. (Was Liar Liar actually based on a true story?)

Jesus didn't lie in His earthly ministry, and He doesn't lie now. (I believe that Jesus has always been unable to lie due to His Holy nature.) Lying would violate Commandment #9 (Exodus 20:16) in the Ten Commandments. Yet Jesus was and is "without sin" (Hebrews 4:15), so didn't ever lie. He could refuse to answer a question (which the Bible records Him doing in Mark 11:33).

I think the secrets were necessary because of timing. He knew that certain miracles (and the knowledge of certain facts about Him) would raise His profile so much among those who felt threatened by His power that He would lose His ability to move around freely. If He couldn't walk about freely, it would hurt His ministry's efforts to reach people.

Since I was sure that I wasn't the only one who was curious about Jesus's apparent need for secrecy, I looked into what my NIV Study Bible contains on the topic (I now prefer to read the ESV translation since I view the NIV as more of a paraphrase than a strict translation, but I still find the commentary and maps of the NIV Study Bible valuable). The note on Matthew 8:4 mentioned three possible reasons:

1. Jesus didn't want to be pigeonholed as "just a miracle worker".
2. He didn't want the publicity of His healing miracles to interfere with His teaching ministry.
3. He didn't want His death to come before He finished His ministry.

Those reasons make a lot of sense to me.

I guess the reason for the secrecy isn't that Jesus won't deny that He performed miracles, but that once everyone starts telling everyone about the miracles that might be all they want to talk about. If all of the witnesses came forward with their testimonies of His miracles, it doesn't even matter that Jesus isn't going to deny doing the miracles that He has done, since people wouldn't believe any such denials anyway.