Is there a danger of being indifferent to Jesus?
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| Old Synagogue in Korazim Israel. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| Corazim_synagogue (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
For the most part, the three cities mentioned here-which typified all the places where His miracles were done-did not take any direct action against Jesus. They simply ignored Him.
While the Son of God preached, taught, and performed unprecedented miracles in their midst, they carried on their business and their lives as usual, seemingly unaffected. From the human perspective, their indifference appears foolish but it does not appear to be terribly sinful.
But indifference is a heinous form of unbelief. It so completely disregards God that He is not even an issue worth arguing about. He is not taken seriously enough to criticize.
As the young King Josiah declared, the great sin of Israel in that day was that the people had “not listened to the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.” And for that disregard of God’s Word the king said, “the wrath of the Lord … burns against us” (2 Kings 22:13).
In the parable of the royal wedding feast, the guests who were first invited “paid no attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business” (Matt. 22:5).
But indifference is a heinous form of unbelief. It so completely disregards God that He is not even an issue worth arguing about. He is not taken seriously enough to criticize.
As the young King Josiah declared, the great sin of Israel in that day was that the people had “not listened to the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.” And for that disregard of God’s Word the king said, “the wrath of the Lord … burns against us” (2 Kings 22:13).
In the parable of the royal wedding feast, the guests who were first invited “paid no attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business” (Matt. 22:5).
They did not mistreat and kill the king’s slaves as some of the other citizens did (v. 6), but they were equally excluded from the feast. They picture the many people Christ calls but whose indifference excludes them from being among the few who are chosen (v. 14).
Indifference to the Lord will continue in the world until He returns. “Just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it shall be also in the days of the Son of Man,” Jesus said; “they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.
Indifference to the Lord will continue in the world until He returns. “Just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it shall be also in the days of the Son of Man,” Jesus said; “they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.
It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building; … It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed” (Luke 17:26–28, 30).
Some of the people in Noah’s day doubtlessly criticized him abusively for building a ship in the middle of the desert; and some of the worst inhabitants of Sodom tried to homosexually attack the angels who came to rescue Lot. But most of the people in the days of Noah and of Lot paid no attention to the Lord or to His servants. Yet they, too, were totally destroyed, because they rejected God just as totally as those who actively expressed their unbelief.
Jesus’ righteous anger boiled against the privileged cities who witnessed the awesome evidence of His divine power and goodness yet did not repent. In His holy fury He declared to them, Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!
The interjection woe is sometimes used in Scripture to represent grief (see, e.g., Rev. 18:10), but most often it represents denunciation, as it clearly does here.
Probably most inhabitants of Chorazin and Bethsaida had personally witnessed Jesus’ miracles, and everyone else knew about His mighty works from the reports of friends and relatives. But the number who responded in faith was small (cf. Matt. 7:13–14).
When people have great opportunity to hear God’s Word, and even to see it miraculously demonstrated, their guilt for rejection is intensified immeasurably.
Jesus’ righteous anger boiled against the privileged cities who witnessed the awesome evidence of His divine power and goodness yet did not repent. In His holy fury He declared to them, Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!
The interjection woe is sometimes used in Scripture to represent grief (see, e.g., Rev. 18:10), but most often it represents denunciation, as it clearly does here.
Probably most inhabitants of Chorazin and Bethsaida had personally witnessed Jesus’ miracles, and everyone else knew about His mighty works from the reports of friends and relatives. But the number who responded in faith was small (cf. Matt. 7:13–14).
When people have great opportunity to hear God’s Word, and even to see it miraculously demonstrated, their guilt for rejection is intensified immeasurably.
It is far better to have heard nothing of Christ than to hear the truth about Him and yet reject Him. “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries” (Heb. 10:26–27).
The greater the privilege, the greater the responsibility; and the greater the light, the greater the punishment for not receiving it.
Jesus’ marvelous works should have shaken to the foundation every Jew in Galilee, even more than the preaching of Jonah shook every person in pagan Nineveh, from the king down to the least servant (Jonah 3:5). But most Galileans did not respond to Christ at all, much less repent.
Chorazin was a small village nestled in the hills some two and a half miles north of Capernaum. It has long ceased to exist, and its ruins are known today as Charaza, a variation of Chorazin.
Jesus’ marvelous works should have shaken to the foundation every Jew in Galilee, even more than the preaching of Jonah shook every person in pagan Nineveh, from the king down to the least servant (Jonah 3:5). But most Galileans did not respond to Christ at all, much less repent.
Chorazin was a small village nestled in the hills some two and a half miles north of Capernaum. It has long ceased to exist, and its ruins are known today as Charaza, a variation of Chorazin.
Bethsaida, the home town of Philip, Andrew, and Peter, was located still farther north and to the west, in the plain of Gennesaret. These were two of the many towns and villages Jesus visited as He ministered out of His headquarters in Capernaum.
To Galilean Jews, Tyre and Sidon epitomized pagan, Gentile corruption and worthlessness. The people in those cities were descendants of the ancient Phoenicians, the renowned seafaring merchants and colonizers of the Mediterranean.
To Galilean Jews, Tyre and Sidon epitomized pagan, Gentile corruption and worthlessness. The people in those cities were descendants of the ancient Phoenicians, the renowned seafaring merchants and colonizers of the Mediterranean.
Both cities were typical seaports, noted for their immorality and godlessness (even by pagan standards) and were deeply involved in the licentious Baal worship. A certain king of Tyre was so proud and evil that Ezekiel used him as a picture of Satan (Ezek. 28:11–15).
The city’s violence, profanity, pride, injustice, greed, and immorality were so excessive that the Lord destroyed it (vv. 16–19; cf. Jer. 25:22; 47:4). It had even sold many of God’s own people into slavery (Amos 1:9).
Yet those two wicked cities would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes, Jesus said, if they had had the privileges of Chorazin and Bethsaida.
Yet those two wicked cities would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes, Jesus said, if they had had the privileges of Chorazin and Bethsaida.
The self-righteous, traditional religion of Galilean Jews blinded them more to God than the heathen religions did the Gentiles of Tyre and Sidon. Those chosen people had so long rejected God and His Word that they were totally indifferent to His Messiah when He came to them.
Few things Jesus might have said could have stunned Jews more than to be unfavorably compared to Gentiles. Nevertheless, I say to you, Jesus continued, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment, than for you.
Few things Jesus might have said could have stunned Jews more than to be unfavorably compared to Gentiles. Nevertheless, I say to you, Jesus continued, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment, than for you.
At the great white throne judgment, the dead of all the ages will be brought before the throne of God to be judged and sentenced to eternal punishment. And at that judgment the unbelieving Gentiles of Tyre and Sidon will fare better than the unbelieving Jews of Chorazin and Bethsaida.
Jesus here makes two truths clear: there will be degrees of punishment in hell, and among those given the severest punishment will be those who have received the divine revelation and been the most religious and outwardly upright.
Jesus here makes two truths clear: there will be degrees of punishment in hell, and among those given the severest punishment will be those who have received the divine revelation and been the most religious and outwardly upright.
Those who thought they were eternally safe-because they were Abraham’s physical descendants and because they kept the religious traditions of their forefathers-looked with contempt on all Gentiles. Yet in hell many Gentiles will look down on those Jews.
