He said to them, “Surely you will quote me this proverb,
‘Physician, cure yourself,’ and say, ‘Do here in your native place
the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.’”

Luke 4:23

Luke 4:16-30

Reflection

Jesus goes to Nazareth and reads a Scripture passage from Isaiah, stating that he has fulfilled the passage in everyone’s presence that day. He then tells the people that they will expect him to perform miracles they’ve heard about, but a prophet is not accepted in his hometown, so he will do nothing. At this, the people become angry and attempt to throw him over a cliff.

Jesus constantly defies our expectations. In his hometown, he knows the people expect him to perform various miracles, yet he does not. They become angry because their expectations are not met. We, too, can become angry when we expect Jesus to answer a prayer in a particular way and it doesn’t happen, or life takes a different turn than we wanted.

However, we shouldn’t have expectations for Christ in this way. We are setting ourselves up for disappointment if we expect Jesus to do everything our way, which is less than perfect. Our Lord wants to surprise and delight us at how he works in our lives, even if we are led down a difficult path at times. In his divine providence, he leads us to sanctity in ways unexpected, yet beautiful just the same. Will you let Jesus defy your expectations for how he should work in your life?

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Saint of the Day

Sts. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus: 1st century AD

Now there was a virtuous and righteous man named Joseph who, though he was a member of the council, had not consented to their plan of action. He came from the Jewish town of Arimathea and was awaiting the kingdom of God. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. After he had taken the body down, he wrapped it in a linen cloth and laid him in a rock-hewn tomb in which no one had yet been buried. Luke 23:50-53