Matthew 11.20-24

Just Seeing Jesus Isn’t Enough

Matthew 11:20-24

By: Lindsey Bell

After the Joplin tornado, I heard an incredible quote from a meteorologist in Springfield. He said something along the lines of this: “The tornado was an act of nature, but the fact that many more people were not killed was an act of God.” 

There is no denying it. God was present in Joplin during that storm. He didn’t save everyone, much to our dismay, but he most certainly did save some. The miracles cannot be denied. 

Let’s read our text for today:

“Then Jesus began to denounce the towns in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. ²¹ ‘Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. ²² But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. ²³ And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades. For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. ²⁴ But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you’” (Matthew 11:20-24). 

Allow me to provide a little bit of historical background to our text before we hit on how it applies to us today.

Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom were all cities destroyed by God because of their wickedness. You can read about them in the Old Testament. (See Genesis 18-19 for the story of Sodom’s destruction and Ezekiel 27-28 for the prophecies against Tyre and Sidon.) 

What Jesus is saying in these verses is this: these wicked cities, had they seen the miracles Jesus performed, would have repented immediately. Even as evil as they were, they would have fallen to their faces in sorrow. Contrast them to the cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, who saw Jesus’ miracles and refused to repent. These cities would face even greater punishment than the cities of the Old Testament. They saw Jesus face-to-face and ignored him.

As Christians living in the world today, we are so blessed. We have churches (at least here in the Bible belt) on nearly every street corner. We have easy access to Bibles, Biblical television programming, and Christian books. Because of the tornado, many of us have been given the opportunity to hear stories of God’s miraculous protection and comfort. 

We’ve been given a lot. I wonder, though, what we’re doing with the gift. Are we allowing it to change us into the men and women God desires us to be? Or are we sucking it all in, filling our minds with more and more knowledge, but never allowing the knowledge to change us? I fear that many of us are a lot like Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. We see Jesus, but don’t let him change us. 

And when judgment comes, we’ll have no excuse. We had the miracles. We had the resources. We had the blessings. 

We just didn’t use them.