Indifference Will Be Judged
“Then began He to upbraid the cities wherein most of His mighty works were done, because they repented not:” Matthew 11:20
In speaking to the crowd, Jesus began to focus on cities where He had done much of His mighty works to no avail. He called attention to them in order to upbraid, or scold, them for their indifference to His message of truth concerning their sinful lifestyles. It wasn’t Jesus’ usual manner to scold, or criticize, people for their behavior, but neither did He give them a pass. There are several times in scripture where Jesus points out the lack of moral judgment and sinfulness among the multitudes in an effort to show them their need of repentance, but He always did it with love and caring. This time He was passing judgment upon some cities which had refused to repent and accept His forgiveness even after they had witnessed many great miracles which He had done. Jesus wasn’t a wimp. When He suffered rejection after rejection to the very message and mission His Father had given Him, He would “let the hammer down” and rebuke the people for their hard-heartedness. Remember what He did to the moneychangers in the temple? (John 2:13-17)
The first two cities that Jesus took to task were Chorazin and Bethsaida, both located north of the Sea of Galilee. He frequented these cities quite often since they were near Capernaum, His home base. The people living in this area were greatly blessed by having the Son of God living, walking, teaching, and healing in their own hometowns. Perhaps part of the problem with their rejection of Him was their familiarity with Him. He had grown up in nearby Nazareth, not a very reputable town. As He spoke to the crowd, He pronounced a “woe” upon Chorazin and Bethsaida, a foretelling of the future disgrace which would befall these cities. He then used two other cities to contrast the lack of response among His own countrymen with that which might have occurred among the people of Tyre and Sidon had they been given the same privileges and opportunities as those of Chorazin and Bethsaida. Tyre and Sidon were seaport cities, which indicated prosperity, which also likely indicated wickedness among those citizens. Jesus said that if these two cities had heard the same message of repentance and seen all the miracles that He had done, they would have repented a long time ago and would have symbolized their repentance by sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
Why would the people of Tyre and Sidon been more likely to repent than those of Chorazin and Bethsaida? The inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon were chiefly Gentiles who were pagans, that is, they did not believe in and worship the God of Israel, nor did they have any knowledge of Him. The people of Chorazin and Bethsaida were just the opposite. They were part of God’s chosen, the Jews, and the knowledge of God and His law had been passed down from generation to generation. Their familiarity with God and His law had caused them to become self-righteous and to depend on their position as God’s chosen to justify themselves before God. They would not take Jesus seriously. If Jesus had gone and preached to the people of Tyre and Sidon, they would have been eager to receive His message, be forgiven of their sin, and would have welcomed Him into their lives. In contrast, the majority of the Jews were so steeped in their traditions and works that they saw no need to repent and receive Christ’s message. This makes me think about folks who hear the gospel message over and over and become hardened to it if they don’t respond to it in a positive way.
Jesus added, “It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you (those in Chorazin and Bethsaida)”. People will be judged on what they know and what they do with that knowledge, not on what they do not know. With thousands of churches spread across the U.S., millions of copies of God’s word available to us, and the gospel preached on television, radio, and the internet, no one in America and in many other parts of the world has an excuse for not believing the gospel.
Jesus brought up Capernaum, a town that was privileged to have Jesus as a resident when He was traveling. One would think that it would be the closest thing to heaven on earth, but that was not the case at all. The people there refused the very graces that had been offered to them. Jesus said that Capernaum would be brought down to hell, meaning that the people preferred to continue in their sins, depending on their traditions and works to make them in good standing with God but would find that wasn’t the way to heaven. He even compared them to Sodom, which existed in the days of Abraham, saying that if the sinners of Sodom had been able to hear the gospel, they would have repented and not been destroyed. Jesus said that it would be more tolerable for Sodom in the day of judgment than for Capernaum. Sodom would be judged for the sins of its people, but Capernaum would be judged for rejecting Christ. The more one knows, the more one will answer for.