Then began he to reproach the cities in which most of his works of power had taken place, because they had not repented.
The Lord turns to the towns where He had done most of His miracles. They had seen more of His power than any other place on earth, yet they did not repent.
One writer marks where this moment falls in the Lord's ministry:
The Lord did most of His mighty works round the Sea of Galilee. Here we get His rejection, the rejection of His Galilean ministry. These verses are very solemn; we need to weigh them well.
What does repentance mean here? One writer answers from the way the Lord uses the word:
The Lord reproaches the cities where He had done most of His mighty works, because they did not repent. Tyre and Sidon would have repented if they had seen them. Is it not a real change of life and a self-judgment in answer to the testimony set before them?
Another writer makes it personal, and warns against putting it off:
Repentance is real submission of soul to what God says in His word about me. There is a lot of subtle teaching around about another chance, drawn from what we have here. Let it be clear; everything about eternity is settled in this life.
Power on display did not change these towns. One writer draws a wider rule from that:
We learn from this that no outward circumstances are enough to convert a soul. There must be an inward work of the word and Spirit of God. The mighty works of our blessed Lord did not produce repentance in favoured Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum! So it will be in the millennium. With all its displayed power and glory and increased knowledge, the heart of man stays unchanged, unless it is the subject of divine grace. There must be a new birth, and this cannot happen apart from repentance and faith.
Israel's earlier sins were sins against the law and against the prophets. Here the Lord names something worse:
How deep and awful the word "Woe!" sounds, coming from the lips of the Son of God. It is the woe that follows rejected grace. It is no longer just a question of a broken law, or of ordinances dishonoured and abused. It is no longer just divine institutions shamefully corrupted, or prophets and wise men rejected and stoned.
The Lord goes on to compare town with town. One writer states the rule behind those comparisons:
There was another city that was favoured even more. It is called His own city elsewhere (Matt. 9:1), because that is where He usually lived at the time. For that reason its guilt was so much worse… In other words, the measure of privilege is always the measure of responsibility.
Reproach is not His last word. Within a few verses the same lips give thanks to the Father:
He could weep over Jerusalem, and at the sight of the power of death over the hearts of men. The refusal of His love was a constant source of grief to Him. He reproached the cities where He had done most of His mighty works. Yet He is perfect in His patience. In that same hour He said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children," Matt. 11. He gives thanks at the very moment He reproaches.
The principle does not stay in Galilee. One writer turns it on the reader who keeps hearing and keeps refusing:
We fear that very few people realise the awful responsibility of hearing the gospel again and again and rejecting it. It was a solemn thing for Capernaum to reject the light that shone on it. How much more solemn it is for anyone now to reject the still brighter light that shines on him in the gospel of the grace of God! Redemption is now accomplished. Christ is exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour. The Holy Spirit has come down. The written word of God is complete. Everything has been done that love could do.
- Privilege given. These towns saw most of His mighty works. No place on earth saw more of His power.
- Privilege wasted. No outward display converts anyone. There must be a new birth by the word and Spirit of God.
- Privilege measured. The measure of privilege is always the measure of responsibility. Capernaum, the town where the Lord lived, carried the worst guilt of all.
- Privilege answered. God asks for repentance: self-judgment, real submission of soul to what He says about me. This life is where that is settled.
- Privilege refused. This woe follows rejected grace. It falls heavier still on anyone who hears the gospel now and keeps saying no.
Woe to thee, Chorazin! woe to thee Bethsaida! for if the works of power which have taken place in you, had taken place in Tyre and Sidon, they had long ago repented in sackcloth and ashes.
Two towns beside the Sea of Galilee saw more of the power of Jesus than almost anywhere else, and neither repented. Instead of arguing, He compares them with Tyre and Sidon — two cities that never received His message.
Galilee saw the most of His power and gave the least response. One writer draws out both what repentance is and why it matters now:
Most of the Lord's mighty works were done around the sea of Galilee... So He rebukes the cities because they did not repent, and He rebukes His own people because they did not believe. This is the only place where Chorazin is named. Philip, Andrew, and Peter all belonged to Bethsaida. These verses are very solemn; we need to weigh them well. Repentance is real submission of soul to what God says in His word about me. Much subtle teaching draws the idea of a second chance out of these words. Let it be clear: everything about eternity is settled in this life.
The woe is not the reaction of a stranger. He had already given them everything, and they had refused Him:
The Son Himself had come, in richest grace. He had spoken in their ears such words as none other had ever spoken. He had done His mighty miracles among them. He had healed their sick, cleansed their lepers, raised their dead, fed their hungry, opened the eyes of their blind. What had He not done? What had He not said? He longed to gather them under His sheltering wing; but they would not settle there... and now, at length, after long patience, He pours out His solemn woes upon them.
Sackcloth was a real garment with a known use:
Sackcloth was the badge of mourning, used at times of bereavement, calamity, or individual and national repentance.
If those cities would have repented, why did He not do the miracles there? Commentators give two answers. The first is that God was testing man at his highest point of privilege:
It might have been said, Why was the message not sent to Tyre, ready to listen? Why not to Sodom, so that the city might have escaped the fire that consumed it? It is that man must be tested in every way, so that the perfect counsels of God may be developed. If Tyre or Sodom had abused the advantages heaped on them by a God of creation and providence, the Jews were to show what was in the heart of man. They held all the promises, and God had entrusted them with all His words.
The second is that His mission had a set boundary:
Why then did He not do these works there? Because He was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and would give them every opportunity to repent.
The comparison does not lower the guilt of Tyre and Sidon. It raises the guilt of the towns that saw more:
The Lord recalled the memory of Tyre and Sidon, but it was only to show the far greater guilt of the cities where most of His mighty works were done... In other words, the measure of privilege is ever the measure of responsibility.
"More tolerable" implies that the coming judgment is not one flat sentence for everyone:
Each will be dealt with on his own distinct ground and according to his light and privilege... It will be "more tolerable" for some than for others, as in Matthew 11. The Judge of all the earth will do right, but man is responsible, and his responsibility is measured by the light and advantage given him. All are not lumped together carelessly, as though they were all on one common ground. On the contrary, God makes the most exact distinctions. No one will ever be condemned for making light of advantages that were never within his reach.
The chapter does not end in the woe. Jesus turns from these towns to His Father and gives thanks:
What feelings at such a time! Oh, for grace to bow like that and bless God, even when our little labour seems to be in vain! At that time Jesus answered, "I thank you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children."
- Privilege — Chorazin and Bethsaida were not judged for being worse than other towns. They were judged for having seen more. Privilege is the measure of responsibility.
- Patience — the "woe" is not a flash of temper. It comes at the end of long patience, from the One who had healed them, fed them, and longed to gather them.
- Repentance — real submission of soul to what God says about me. Tyre and Sidon would have shown it by putting on sackcloth, the clothing of mourners.
- Reckoning — "more tolerable" shows that the coming judgment weighs each person exactly. No one is condemned for making light of advantages he never had. And this life settles everything about eternity.
- Rejoicing — rejection did not stop Him. His next words thank the Father, who hides these things from the wise and reveals them to little children.
But I say to you, that it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in judgment-day than for you.
Jesus has just pronounced "woes" on the towns where He did most of His miracles. Here He compares them with Tyre and Sidon, two Gentile cities outside Israel. That raises a hard question. How can cities that never saw a miracle fare better in judgment than cities that did?
Chorazin and Bethsaida had done more than break rules. They watched the Son of God work among them and stayed unmoved. Darby points to what makes their case so grave:
But Israel would not repent. His works left them without excuse, His grace made the sin the greater. On their day of judgment it would be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon, and for Sodom and Gomorrah, than for these cities. That is how great the testimony was that they rejected.
C. H. Mackintosh lists what they were offered and refused:
The Son Himself had come, in richest grace. He had spoken in their ears such words as none other had ever spoken. He had worked His mighty miracles among them. He had healed their sick, cleansed their lepers, raised their dead, fed their hungry, opened the eyes of their blind. What had He not done? What had He not said? He longed to gather them under His sheltering wing; but they would not nestle there... Now, at last, after long patience, He pours out His solemn woes on them. He tells them of the terrible destiny waiting for them.
Jesus does not praise Tyre and Sidon. He names them to measure the guilt of the towns that saw far more:
The Lord recalled the memory of Tyre and Sidon (Matt. 11), but it was only to show the far greater guilt of the cities where most of His mighty works were done... In other words, the measure of privilege is ever the measure of responsibility.
If those cities would have repented, why did Jesus not go there? Grant points to the limits of His mission at that time:
Tyre and Sidon were Gentile cities. He says that if they had seen the mighty works He did in Chorazin and Bethsaida, those Gentiles would have repented long before, in sackcloth and ashes. Why then did He not do these works there? Because He was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and would give them every opportunity to repent.
"More bearable" is a comparison, not an acquittal. Fereday separates the place of punishment from its severity:
It will be "more bearable" for some in the day of judgment than for others. Not that the place or duration of punishment varies for any of the lost. Eternity in the lake of fire is the portion of all who die in their sins. Yet the Saviour speaks of a "light beating" and a "severe beating," showing degrees of severity in what God inflicts.
So God does not judge everyone by one standard:
Each will be dealt with on his own distinct ground and according to his light and privilege... The Judge of all the earth will do right. But man is responsible, and God measures that responsibility by the light and advantage He has given him. All are not lumped together carelessly, as though they were all on one common ground. Instead God makes the most exact distinctions. He will never condemn anyone for ignoring and refusing advantages that were never within his reach.
Kelly warns readers who pity distant lands while assuming they are safer at home:
This is a solemn principle much too easily and too often forgotten. People are apt to pity the heathen and to think of distant lands... But there is no greater delusion than this: to suppose that when the judgment comes, men as such will be better off, for example, in England than in a distant land like Tartary... Israel was privileged, of course. But privileges despised or misused bring only deeper ruin on those who reject or twist them.
- Privilege. What God gives you sets what He asks of you — "the measure of privilege is ever the measure of responsibility."
- Grace. Refusing grace is worse than never hearing it. His works left the cities without excuse, and His grace made the sin greater.
- Boundary. Tyre and Sidon never saw those miracles. He came to the lost sheep of Israel, to give them every chance to repent.
- Degrees. God measures the sentence: some face a light beating, some a severe one. He condemns no one for ignoring a chance he never had.
- Today. Living where Christ is well known does not make judgment lighter. Despised privilege makes it heavier.
And *thou*, Capernaum, who hast been raised up to heaven, shalt be brought down even to hades. For if the works of power which have taken place in thee, had taken place in Sodom, it had remained until this day.
Of the three towns the Lord names here, Capernaum gets the heaviest word. It had seen more of Him than any other place on earth, and now He sets it beside Sodom — with Sodom coming off better.
Capernaum's height came from one thing — what it saw and heard. The writers quoted here follow older versions, which read the opening line as a statement: "which art exalted to heaven."
It was exalted to heaven — how? Because it witnessed His mightiest works. It saw the display of divine power in the words of our Lord Jesus Christ as well as in His works. And so it was privileged. But Matthew 11, where this verse occurs, shows you how little they gained by it. It shows that it was all, so to speak, given to them in vain.
One writer traces both the rise and the fall to the same Presence.
Capernaum, the city of His choice, had come near to heaven by the Presence which indeed makes heaven for those who have received His grace. It would sink down under the weight of its rejection of Him, into a mere home of death and desolation. And such it has long been, whether the identification of its site is correct or not.
Older translations put "hell" here; the ESV keeps the Greek word, Hades. One writer sees the fall covering two things: the ruin of the town itself, and where its people stand before God.
Capernaum did not repent at the preaching of Jesus. Its unbelieving people must still answer for themselves, one by one, in a day of judgment yet to come. Meanwhile this, the Lord's own city in Galilee, has been so completely overthrown that no one can identify its site with certainty.
Sodom was the standard example of wickedness that God wiped out. Yet in the Lord's comparison it is Capernaum that stands in the worse place.
They refuse the voice of heavenly wisdom. So the judgment must be more unsparing than the one that long ago made Sodom the monument of God's vengeance. Which city in the land was the most favoured? Capernaum, where most of His miracles were done — and yet this very city would be brought down to hell. Even the notoriously depraved Sodom had not come under so fearful a sentence. The Lord only comes in judgment when the means and calls to repentance have run out. But when He does judge, who will be able to stand?
Capernaum was not an indifferent town. Crowds came.
Capernaum was indeed brought near to heaven, and to the power and grace of heaven. But it was all in vain, so far as most of the people were concerned. As in that day, so in this, mere crowds do not mean that souls are stirred or consciences awakened. The Lord's coming among them was only a passing wonder in their eyes. But before God, their lack of repentance under such a ministry left them in a more terrible position.
Why is Capernaum's case worse than Sodom's? One writer sums it up in a single line.
In other words, the measure of privilege is always the measure of responsibility.
One writer turns that rule on his own readers, and on Christendom — the whole Christian world.
But, dear reader, does it not occur to you that the "woe" of Matthew 11 may reach further than Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum? Should it not fall with even deeper force on the ear of Christendom, with more power to subdue the soul? For our part, we cannot doubt it for a moment. We cannot try to list everything that makes the guilt of the professing Church heavier. Scriptural knowledge and gospel light have spread widely. Spiritual privileges lie scattered along the path of this generation in countless, nameless forms.
- Raised — one thing lifted Capernaum to heaven: Christ Himself, His words and His works, among its people.
- Wasted — crowds came, miracles happened, hearts stayed the same. Attendance is not repentance.
- Reversed — the same Presence that raised the town sank it, once the town refused Him.
- Measured — privilege sets the level of responsibility. Sodom saw far less light, so its reckoning is lighter than Capernaum's.
- Applied — the same measure falls on any generation that has Scripture and gospel light in abundance.
But I say to you, that it shall be more tolerable for [the] land of Sodom in judgment-day than for thee.
Jesus has just named the towns where He did most of His miracles. He ends with Capernaum, the town He used as His base, and sets it beside Sodom — a name that stood for wickedness. The verdict is startling. The city that watched the Son of God work day after day will fare worse than the city God wiped out.
This "woe" does not fall on people who only broke rules. It falls on people who refused grace itself.
How deeply and terribly solemn the word "Woe!" sounds when it comes from the lips of the Son of God. It is the woe that follows grace refused. This is no longer only a question of a broken law. It is no longer only about God's commands dishonoured and abused. It is no longer only about His institutions shamefully corrupted, His prophets and wise men rejected and stoned.
This sentence is not His first move, but His last. He had already used every appeal.
Was there one place or city in the land more favoured than another? It was Capernaum, where He did most of His miracles. Yet this very city would be brought down to hell. Even Sodom, famous for its corruption, had never received so terrible a sentence. The Lord comes in judgment only when every means and every call to repentance has been used up. But when He does judge, who will be able to stand?
Some read the word "tolerable" as if Jesus were promising Capernaum a bearable future. The word does the opposite work.
The word "tolerable" here is not a positive promise; it is a word used to bring out a contrast. The Saviour did not say that Capernaum would have a tolerable time. On the contrary, He showed the extreme gravity of its sin by contrasting its greater privileges with the lesser privileges of Sodom.
Sodom no longer existed when Jesus spoke. So this comparison cannot be about anything that happens in this world.
In verse 24 the Lord must be speaking of eternal judgment. Sodom was completely destroyed, so it had already received its full judgment in this world. It will be more tolerable for her on the day of judgment than for Capernaum. Luke 12:47-48 shows that all unbelievers will go to hell, yet their punishment will come in different degrees. The measure of each one's responsibility decides it.
The same holds for the other cities Jesus named. Being destroyed once did not close their account.
God had already judged Tyre and Sidon. Nebuchadnezzar destroyed them, for example. But God has not finished with them. Judgments in this world are not eternal judgments. They will still have to stand before the Great White Throne.
If one sentence is heavier than another, then God weighs guilt case by case. Jesus names what weighs most.
What the Lord says about Sodom is very solemn and very striking. Those who rejected Christ will face a harsher judgment and a harsher penalty at the Great White Throne than even the filthy people of Sodom. God alone knows how to measure out the guilt of each person. So it will be more tolerable for Sodom itself than for those who rejected Christ. The greatest guilt that can rest on any soul is the rejection of Him.
We expect open sinners to be the worst off. Jesus says otherwise. Light given and refused weighs more.
It is God's people, when they are in a bad state, who are worse than anybody… They talked about how horrible Sodom and Gomorrah were. "Oh," said the Lord, "it is you that are worse than they."… Capernaum was the place where He lived. It was counted as His own city in Galilee. What He thought worse was the rejection of all His light and all His love. And therefore the nearer you are to the blessing, if the blessing is not yours the more guilty you are.
The warning does not stay in Galilee. One writer turns the question on his own country.
Privileges that are not valued bring the severest judgment from God. How far does this principle apply to our favoured land?
- Grace first. This woe is not the law's verdict but grace's. It lands only after God has spent every call to repentance.
- Privilege next. Capernaum had the most. Privilege given sets the exact measure of responsibility owed.
- Contrast, not comfort. "More tolerable" is a comparison that exposes guilt. It is not a softer sentence for anyone.
- Beyond the fire. Sodom's ruin settled nothing eternal. Both cities still meet God at the Great White Throne.
- Rejection weighs most. God alone weighs guilt. The heaviest weight any soul can carry is having refused Christ Himself.