The Lord's denunciation of judgment.
I. ITS CAUSE.
1. Knowledge. The Lord's tone assumes a greater severity—a severity which perhaps favours the view that St. Luke gives (Luke 10:13) the true chronological order. The people of Galilee had seen most of the mighty works of Christ. His life had been long before their eyes; they knew him well; they watched him as he walked in their streets, as he healed the sick, or cleansed the leper, or gave sight to the blind. They knew every feature of that holy face, every tone of that blessed voice. They had been astonished with a great astonishment. But now they were becoming so familiar with the Lord's power that his miracles, it may be, excited less wonder. Perhaps, like the Nazarenes (Luke 4:23), they were beginning to regard his healing virtue almost as if it were at their disposal, almost as their right. They knew him, or seemed to know him, so well now, that the old excitement had passed away, the intense interest with which they used to regard him was becoming lukewarm.
2. Obstinate indifference. They repented not. They had heard his teaching, they had seen his works. There had been excitement, astonishment, enthusiasm; but even that was passing away, and, except in comparatively few, there had been no repentance. Repentance had been the first note of John the Baptist's preaching, the first note of our Lord's; but the message had been unheeded, the works by which the message had been attested had not produced real conviction. All had been done that could be done to bring them to repentance; but they would not come unto Christ that they might have life. And now the Lord upbraids them, not in wrath, but in sorrow; as afterwards he wept over the impenitent Jerusalem. Let us listen to those solemn words, and let us take to our hearts the great truth that repentance, a change of heart, is the essence of personal religion, and that all outward privileges, whatever they may be, are lost upon us if they do not, by the grace of God, produce that inward change.
II. ITS TERMS.
1. The judgment of Chorazin and Bethsaida. Bethsaida was the home of three of the apostles. Chorazin, too, it seems, had been often graced by the Lord's presence. They had had great opportunities, but they had failed to use them; and now the woe goes forth against them. "Woe unto thee ]" It is a word of judgment, but it is also a word of sorrow (comp. Revelation 18:10, Revelation 18:16, Revelation 18:19). The Lord grieves while he pronounces sentence. "Peace be unto thee!" would come more sweetly from the lips of the Prince of Peace; but he could not say "Peace," where there was no peace. The Galilaeans, it may be, had often condemned the idolatry and the licentiousness of the great cities which lay near their northern border. But, in truth, the guilt of Tyre and Sidon was not so great as that of Chorazin and Bethsaida. For guilt is measured, not absolutely, as it is seen in the guilty deed; but relatively, in its relations to opportunities, to privileges, to knowledge. The men of Tyre and Sidon had not seen the works of Christ; had they seen them, he himself says, they would have repented. Their knowledge was less; their guilt was less; their condemnation would be less.
2. The judgment of Capernaum.
LESSONS.
1. The heart must be changed; excitement, privileges, will not save us.
2. Pray for that great inner change of repentance; be satisfied with nothing less.
3. Use the means of grace; neglect involves an awful responsibility.