2/3/19: 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Whether We Suffer or Not We Live Under God’s Protection

In today's Gospel we have a very dramatic scene where Jesus's fellow townspeople listening to him at the Nazareth synagogue are initially delighted with his words and then very quickly filled with violent rage towards him. The other place where we see this sudden "flip" in feeling toward Jesus is on Palm Sunday, when the crowds initially sing hymns and lay down palms for Jesus as he enters Jerusalem and then one day later are clamoring for his death. The climax of today's Gospel sees Jesus escape unharmed from the violent crowd while three years later he would surrender himself, suffer the violence, and die. So was the Father protecting Jesus today but not during his Passion? Why not the suffering today and why the suffering in three years? These questions regarding the life of Jesus prompt questions regarding our own lives and the lives of our loved ones: Why does God shield us from suffering only to allow suffering at a different time?