Why did Jesus not want to be known as the Messiah? Jesus, when talking to his disciples in Matthew 16 specifically instructed them not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

Matthew 16:20 (NIV)


  Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.


Why did he do this?  Do we know his purpose in hiding this fact from everyone?  Is there any doctrinal relevancy or importance to this request of Jesus?

Additional passages similar to this include Mark 1:43-44, Mark 7:36, and Matthew 9:30.
In the next verse Jesus tells of how he will have to suffer, die, and rise again.  


  Matthew 16:21 NIV 
  21 From that time on Jesus began to
  explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many
  things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers
  of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised
  to life.


Perhaps he did not want the people to know he was the messiah until after these things had happened.

He may also have known that he would not have much time left after people started calling him the messiah publicly.  He still had a lot of teaching left to do.

He may also wanted the people to come to the realization that he is the messiah on their own.  As it seems they did, even though he still does not state this directly at his trial.


  Matthew 26:63-64
  NIV
  63 But Jesus remained silent.
  
  The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living
  God: Tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.”
  
  64 “You have said so,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you:
  From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of
  the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”