J Julius Wood
Luke 10:13. Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which have been done in you, they had a great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
Tyre and Sidon were two famous towns, situated at the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. They were in that portion of Canaan which fell to the tribe of Asher, but the ancient inhabitants, the Phoenicians, were never dispossessed by the Israelites. They became exceedingly rich and powerful, and at the same time exceedingly proud, luxurious and corrupt. They never recovered their ancient glory after they were destroyed by Alexander the Great and, in the Saviour’s time, they were poor, miserable, little towns.
Chorazin and Bethsaida were towns of Galilee, visited by Jesus Christ and the scenes of many of His miracles, but the men and women of these towns seem to have been unmoved by the words they heard from Him who spoke
1Taken, with editing, from The Christian’s Daily Companion. Wood (1800-1877) was, at the time when he wrote this piece, minister of New Greyfriars’ church in Edinburgh.
as never man spoke. And they seem to have gazed with wonder on His miracles, and then gone away to sin as before. The wondrous works that Christ did in them, though accompanied by His divine teaching, produced no general reformation of their lives. He found them wicked; He called them earnestly, affectionately, powerfully to repentance, by His teaching and His miracles and, notwithstanding all, He left them as wicked as He found them.
Then he uttered against them the solemn woe that we have read. When He spoke these words, Chorazin and Bethsaida were fair and flourishing towns, and the hum of a busy population was heard in their streets. But a woe denounced by the lips of the compassionate Saviour is a fearful thing. It falls where it is thoroughly deserved, and it blasts, like the lightning, the things, the places, the persons on whom it falls. For where is Chorazin now? Where Bethsaida? Utterly perished. No one can even tell where they stood. Travellers dispute which of the ruins that they visit were once Chorazin and Bethsaida.
The heathen towns of Tyre and Sidon, and the Jewish towns of Chorazin and Bethsaida have all been visited with destruction. They have been so visited for the sinfulness of their inhabitants. But Chorazin and Bethsaida enjoyed advantages which Tyre and Sidon did not have. The latter towns indeed, were near the land of Israel, and their idolatry might have been rebuked by the worship which the Israelites paid to the living and true God. But in the streets of Chorazin and Bethsaida, the Son of God often taught; and in testimony that He was a teacher sent by God, He wrought many wonderful works before their eyes. There was not such a display of hardened and daring wickedness in Tyre and Sidon, when they resisted the influence of their intercourse with the Israelites, as there was in Chorazin and Bethsaida when they resisted the divine teaching of the Son of God and the many striking miracles of mercy which He wrought among them.
Had matters been reversed, or had Tyre and Sidon enjoyed the teaching and beheld the miracles of Christ, as did Chorazin and Bethsaida, He declares that these heathen towns would have repented a long while before. That they did not enjoy such advantages was the will of God. They had means, but did not make use of them, and therefore they perished in their sins. But deeper was the guilt, and heavier the condemnation of Chorazin and Bethsaida, who despised and resisted means and privileges so exceedingly great as those which these Jewish towns enjoyed, and which would have prevailed to bring to repentance the luxurious and corrupt heathen towns of Tyre and Sidon.
We do not profess to explain how these means would have been effectual to produce repentance in the one case, when they were not so in the other. We believe Christ that things would have been as He says. His word on this,
as on every other point, is enough for us. May the Lord ever preserve us from the pride which refuses instruction, because God’s ways are deeper than our understanding.
But do no towns except Chorazin and Bethsaida neglect privileges and reject means of grace? Have none but the inhabitants of these towns turned a deaf ear to heaven’s calls to repentance? It is easy to find fault with others: it is safer to judge ourselves. There are towns in our countries which equal, or perhaps surpass, Tyre and Sidon in wealth, luxury and commercial greatness. Much awful wickedness is to be found in these towns and, if a number of those who are the salt of the earth were not to be found in them, and who preserve them from utter putrefaction and corruption, we might expect those towns speedily to share the fate of Tyre and Sidon.
Indeed, with regard to religious privileges, the towns of our land are as highly favoured as were Chorazin and Bethsaida.2 For though the mind dwells with a pleasing fondness on the personal teaching of Jesus Christ, it cannot be doubted that a fuller and clearer revelation of the gospel was given after His resurrection than was previously unfolded.
And what was taught to the apostles is now freely and fully taught to us. We do not behold with our eyes the miracles which Jesus Christ wrought in the towns of Judah; we do not hear the living voice of the Son of God. But we profess to believe (but do we really believe?) that these miracles were assuredly wrought by Jesus Christ; and we read and hear a fuller statement of divine truth than it was consistent with the divine will that the Son of God should make, when He tabernacled as a man on the earth. How then shall they escape who neglect so great salvation? Was it only with Chorazin and Bethsaida, and their inhabitants, that God was displeased? Is there no risk of His being angry, even to destruction, with towns and persons in the present day, who are as guilty as they? As guilty? No, guiltier. For Chorazin and Bethsaida never acknowledged the direct authority of Jesus Christ, whose miracles and teaching they resisted.
But how many of us profess to acknowledge the divinity of Christ and admit that He is the only Saviour and that His doctrine unfolds the only way of a sinner’s escape from hell and of admission into heaven – yet treat Christ and His doctrine with utter coldness and indifference. It was a fearful sin to refuse altogether Christ, His miracles and His teaching, treating Him as an impostor. But surely it is a sin more fearful still to admit that Christ is a divine Saviour and that His doctrine is absolutely necessary to our eternal well-being and to neglect or despise Him notwithstanding.
Who is guilty of this fearful sin? Is it I? Do I not admit the reality of
2Note that this was written around 1840.
Christ’s miracles, of which the Gospel writers testify? Do I not hear many a time, in terms plain and earnest, the doctrines of the gospel; and do I not accept the heavenly origin of these doctrines, and their unspeakable importance to sinners of mankind? Yet these miracles have, in truth, had as little weight with me as if they had been the tricks of an impostor. I have many a time heard the glorious gospel with less attention than I have given to an idle tale; and its statements, warnings, entreaties, promises, threatenings, examples, revelations do nor affect my heart nor influence my conduct. My Bible, how little it is prized, read, pondered, understood, believed, obeyed, enjoyed! My Sabbaths, how little they are my delight! My minister, the Lord’s servant and messenger, how carelessly I hear him, how little I thoroughly believe him, and to how small an extent obey his teaching!
So then I am not free from the sin of Chorazin and Bethsaida. Am I safe from their woe? No voice is heard proclaiming it against me, but is it therefore not in existence? It has not yet come; is that a reason for believing that it will never come? Methinks I hear the Saviour saying to me and to my fellow sinners: “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish”. May the example not be lost! May the call not be refused or neglected!