The Privilege of Judgment Text: Matthew 11:20-24
Introduction: The Audacity of Indifference
We live in an age that has mastered the art of the spiritual shrug. It is an age of industrial-scale apathy. We are not so much a nation of defiant atheists shaking our fists at the heavens as we are a nation of distracted browsers, scrolling past eternity on our way to the next cat video. We have been drenched, soaked, and saturated with gospel light. We have more Bibles per household than any civilization in history. We have Christian radio, Christian television, Christian podcasts, and Christian bumper stickers. The light of the gospel has been refracted into a million different forms, and the overwhelming response of our culture has been a profound and deeply insulting "meh."
We think that judgment is reserved for the flamboyant sinners, for the Sodomites and the pagans of Tyre. We read a passage like this one and we instinctively cast ourselves as the good guys, tut-tutting those Galileans who had the Lord of Glory walk their streets and still refused to repent. But we are far more like them than we are unlike them. We have had Jesus perform His mighty works among us for centuries. The establishment of this nation, the common grace that still restrains our utter collapse, the remnants of a Christian moral framework that our secularists are now strip-mining for their own lunatic projects, all of it is the miraculous work of Christ in our midst. And our response has been to yawn, to grow fat and complacent, and to assume that God's patience is the same thing as His approval.
This passage is a bucket of ice water to the face of our sleepy, self-satisfied religiosity. Jesus here is not reasoning with the indifferent; He is denouncing them. He is not pleading; He is pronouncing woe. And in doing so, He reveals a terrifying principle that runs like a current throughout all of Scripture: the principle that privilege, when squandered, does not just evaporate. It curdles into a more potent poison. The greater the light you are given, the greater the shadow you cast when you turn your back on it. Judgment is not a one-size-fits-all affair. God is a meticulous judge, and He grades on a curve, but not in the way we would like. He grades according to opportunity. And the cities of Galilee, much like the cities of America, were privileged right up to the eyeballs.
The Text
Then He began to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles were done, because they did not repent. "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Nevertheless I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you."
(Matthew 11:20-24 LSB)
The Charge: Miracles Minus Repentance (v. 20)
We begin with the central charge, the reason for this blistering denunciation.
"Then He began to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles were done, because they did not repent." (Matthew 11:20)
The sin was not that they threw rocks at Jesus. It was not that they ran Him out of town on a rail. The great sin of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum was a sin of omission. It was the great sin of doing nothing. They were the recipients of "most of His miracles." Think of that. They were ground zero for the invasion of the kingdom. The lame were walking, the blind were seeing, the sick were healed. Heaven was breaking into their zip code. They had a front-row seat to the power of God in the flesh, and their response was to not repent.
Notice the connection. Miracles are not divine entertainment. They are not special effects to generate buzz. The mighty works of God are a summons. They are God's megaphone, amplifying the command that He issues through the preaching of the Word. And that command is this: repent. Turn from your sin and trust in Christ. The miracles were authenticating signs that the one calling for repentance was in fact the Son of God. To see the signs and ignore the summons is not neutrality; it is high treason. It is to look at the king's official seal on a royal decree and then use the document as a coaster for your drink.
Repentance is not a suggestion. It is the first word of the gospel. It is a change of mind that results in a change of life. It is not simply feeling bad about your sins; it is hating them as God hates them and forsaking them. These cities were happy to have Jesus as a traveling healer, a local wonder-worker. But they did not want Him as Lord. They wanted the benefits of the kingdom without the rule of the King. And that is the great temptation of American Christianity. We want a Jesus who will bless our 401k, heal our ailments, and make us feel good about ourselves. But a Jesus who demands that we bend the knee, that we mortify our pride, that we call sin what He calls sin, well, that Jesus gets the silent treatment.
The Comparison: Pious Jews and Profligate Pagans (v. 21-22)
Jesus now employs a shocking rhetorical device. He compares these covenant-keeping, synagogue-going Jewish towns with two of the most infamous pagan cities in the Old Testament.
"Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Nevertheless I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you." (Matthew 11:21-22 LSB)
A "woe" in Scripture is not just an expression of sorrow. It is a formal pronouncement of impending judgment. It is the opposite of a blessing. And Jesus pronounces it on these towns that were, by all external measures, respectable. Chorazin and Bethsaida were not known for their rampant debauchery. They were simply unimpressed.
The comparison to Tyre and Sidon would have been jarring. These were Phoenician port cities, centers of idolatry and commercial pride. The prophet Ezekiel had pronounced God's judgment on them for their arrogance (Ezekiel 26-28). They were the epitome of pagan rebellion. And yet, Jesus says that if these pagans had seen what Chorazin and Bethsaida saw, they would have hit the dirt. They would have repented in sackcloth and ashes, the outward signs of profound, gut-wrenching grief over sin.
This is a staggering statement about divine sovereignty. Jesus knows exactly what it would take to bring any person or any city to repentance. He is saying that the citizens of Tyre and Sidon were, in one sense, less hard-hearted than the citizens of Bethsaida. The grace they were denied would have been effectual, while the grace given to Bethsaida was spurned. This does not make God unjust. He is not obligated to give saving grace to anyone. But it does reveal the depth of culpability. To whom much is given, much is required. The judgment on Tyre and Sidon will be "tolerable" in comparison. This teaches us that there are degrees of punishment in hell. Hell is not a flat-line experience. It will be worse for the man who heard the gospel every Sunday of his life and rejected it than for the pagan in the jungle who never heard the name of Jesus.
The Condemnation: From Heaven's Gate to Hades' Door (v. 23-24)
Now Jesus turns to His own adopted hometown, Capernaum, and the verdict is even more severe.
"And Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you." (Matthew 11:23-24 LSB)
Capernaum was Jesus's base of operations. It was "exalted to heaven" in terms of privilege. The very Son of God lived there. He taught in their synagogue. He healed their sick. They had more concentrated exposure to the light of the world than any city in history. Theirs was a pinnacle of spiritual opportunity. But privilege is a high place, and the fall from a high place is a long one. Because they rejected this exaltation, they would "descend to Hades." The Greek word here is Hades, the place of the dead, the realm of judgment.
The comparison here is even more shocking than the last. Sodom. The city whose name has become a byword for sexual perversion and utter depravity. The city so wicked that God rained down fire and brimstone from heaven to obliterate it from the face of the earth. And Jesus says that the sin of Capernaum was worse. Why? Because Sodom's sin was a sin of passionate, ignorant rebellion. Capernaum's sin was a sin of cold, calculated, well-lit indifference.
If the Sodomites had seen what Capernaum saw, Jesus says, their city "would have remained to this day." Again, this is a window into the sovereign calculus of God. God knew that the display of Christ's power would have brought even Sodom to its knees. But He withheld that revelation from them and granted it to Capernaum, which hardened its heart. The conclusion is inescapable and terrifying. On the day of judgment, it will be better to be a homosexual pagan from Sodom than a respectable, church-going unbeliever from Capernaum. It will be more tolerable for the Castro District in San Francisco than for the Bible Belt town that has heard the gospel, sung the hymns, and refused to bend the knee.
Conclusion: The Weight of Light
So what do we do with a passage like this? First, we must tremble. We must kill any notion that our proximity to the things of God is a fire insurance policy. Attending church, owning a Bible, living in a "Christian nation," none of this avails anything. In fact, these things only increase our responsibility. They add to the weight of glory we will enjoy if we repent, or they add to the weight of judgment that will crush us if we do not.
Second, we must understand the nature of repentance. It is not a one-time decision but a lifetime posture. It is the constant turning from our self-sufficiency and our pet sins and turning to Christ in faith. It is admitting that He is Lord and we are not. It is a grace-wrought hatred of our own apathy.
Third, we must see the grace in the warning. Why does Jesus pronounce these woes? Is it to gloat over their impending doom? Not at all. A woe is a warning. It is the cry of a watchman on the wall. He is telling them this precisely so that they might repent and avoid this terrible fate. The pronouncement of judgment is itself an act of mercy. God warns before He strikes.
And finally, we must see that our only hope is the very one who pronounces this judgment. Jesus Christ is not just the fierce judge of Capernaum; He is the one who, on the cross, absorbed the full fury of God's wrath that our sins deserved. He drank the cup of judgment down to the dregs. He descended to Hades, figuratively speaking, so that we, through faith in Him, might be exalted to heaven. The very judgment that hangs over the unrepentant is the judgment that He took on our behalf.
Therefore, do not be a citizen of Capernaum. Do not be content to admire the miracles while ignoring the Messiah. The light has shone. The King has come. The summons has been issued. The only sane response, the only saving response, is to fall on your face in sackcloth and ashes and cry out for the mercy of the one who is both our Judge and our only hope of salvation.