Sometimes, we can feel limited by the expectations placed on us. Or by the way people know us. Jesus travels throughout the land in different regions of Israel, with the people recognizing and acknowledging the special way he proclaims the kingdom of God in his preaching and in his actions, such as miracles of healing. However, when Jesus starts preaching in the synagogue in his own hometown, the people cannot get beyond his identity as the son of a carpenter, as the son of Mary and Joseph.
Sometimes we can place expectations on ourselves as well. We think we know our limits; we don’t want to push ourselves beyond that point. We think that some of God’s laws and commandments are too restrictive and beyond what we can do. Perhaps the values of the world have too much an influence on us. Perhaps the expectations others have on us place limits on what we think we can do.
Many people of Jesus’ day rejected his teachings, culminating in his violent death on the cross. Today, we see people defacing religious statues. We hear them mocking the values of Christianity. We hear a lot of them calling for social justice, yet we don’t see most them performing actions to bring that about. We have a choice to follow the values of Christ or not. Sure, it has been difficult doing a lot of things during the pandemic. Sure, some of us did not like the choices we had in practicing our faith. But let us make the choice to follow Jesus without limits and expectations. It is easy to criticize the decisions of others. What are we doing in our lives to follow our faith and to see Jesus for who he is?
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