Matthew 11:20-23 is a sobering section of text. It says this, “Then Jesus began to denounce the towns where he had done so many of his miracles, because they hadn’t repented of their sins and turned to God. ‘What sorrow awaits you, Korazin and Bethsaida! For if the miracles I did in you had been done in wicked Tyre and Sidon, their people would have repented of their sins long ago, clothing themselves in burlap and throwing ashes on their heads to show their remorse. I tell you, Tyre and Sidon will be better off on judgment day than you. ‘And you people of Capernaum, will you be honored in heaven? No, you will go down to the place of the dead. For if the miracles I did for you had been done in wicked Sodom, it would still be here today.’”
Capernaum had been the place where Jesus had done most of His miracles.
While He was born in Bethlehem, and raised up in Nazareth, He was rejected as the Son of God, and so did a bulk of His ministry work in the city just north of the Sea of Galilee.
And the witness of the miracles should have brought about heart change in the people… but it hadn’t done so. And while they weren’t more “sinful” than others, they just didn't steward their gift of Jesus and the work of His mercy by miracles well.
Scripture tells us that the ones who had enjoyed exceptional opportunities through realms of supernatural experiences, had failed to repent. My commentary suggests that when Jesus announced the pure spirituality of His mission, “resentment took the place of admiration.. and they fell to a hell of disappointment, bitterness, and godless despair.”
“… a hell of disappointment, bitterness, and despair.”
I absolutely cannot consider anything worse!
And so this intimates to us how seriously the Lord takes pure worship and sincere admiration for Him.
The sin He indicted the people here of was the the sin of irreverence.
And I wonder if I, too, have been guilty.
Because familiarly often breeds contempt.
When miracles become “the norm”, we have a distinct risk of taking advantage of the mighty power of the living God.
I have heard myself say it before, on many occasions. I have been a Christian since I was 11. And while I am eternally grateful for my upbringing and my journey with Jesus through the years, sometimes I am strangely jealous of those who came to know Him later in life. Because they aren't too far removed from the miracle-working power that rescued and saved them from utter destruction! They remember what it was like to be in darkness, and now in light, while I have joyfully lived in this brightness almost my entire life.
And having been a witness to years of miracles likely insulated these people found in Capernaum, from the righteousness needed to save them.
It’s a grievous revelation.
And I think it was in this text… a matter of Divine Revelation through the performance of powerful miracles that gave these people unusual invitations to deeper waters with Him… and in their irreverence and complacency… they forfeited everything.
In fact Jesus says, “if the miracles I did in you had been done in wicked Tyre and Sidon, their people would have repented of their sins long ago… Tyre and Sidon will be better off on judgment day than you.”
In other words, I understand this to be, “I gave you every chance by observation of my nature through my working of miracle after miracle, to revere Me, esteem Me, and make much of Me, and you refused. If they would have had the advantages you did, they would have repented long ago.”
In even other words… instead of beating down, belittling, and casting judgement on the sin-filled nations, places, and people.. maybe you should take a look at how you’re living. And maybe being people who actually LIVE WITH what other’s so desperately need (hope, love, forgiveness etc..), they would come to repentance on their own. It’s like God saying, “If they SAW THIS… if they witnessed the goodness IN YOU, they would actually turn from their wicked ways and to Me!”
And so I would write it down as not to forget the most powerful lesson I could wrestle with, “If they see the goodness I claim about my God from the way I live my life, will they be drawn into a relationship with the Father?”
“When they see me, will they see Him?”
And will what they see cause not only a burning for more of Him, but a revelatory reaction of repentance that brings them into salvation that altars their permanent address in eternity?
It matters.
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