Matthew
11:16-24
If
there were ever a chance to give a genuine fire-and-brimstone sermon, this text
would provide it.
“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For
if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would
have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
But I tell you, on the day of judgment it will be more tolerable for
Tyre and Sidon than for you. And
you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be brought down to
Hades.” [Matthew 11:21-23]
Do we know what made these towns places of
special immorality? No. We know very little about them at all. We don’t know if there were especially brutal
slave markets in Chorazin. We don’t know
if the people of Bethsaida were callous to the poor. We don’t have any idea whether there was a
lot of gambling or drunkenness in Capernaum or if any of these places were
centers of prostitution or the training of gladiators. We don’t know if their political life was any
more corrupt than the next town’s or if the people were any more cynical than
anybody else. What we do know is that
Jesus did some miracles among them, and it didn’t make a bit of difference to
the population as a whole.
There
were some people, certainly, who were affected for the best. Mark gives us a report of Jesus’ miracles in
Capernaum, for example. It was on the
Sea of Galilee, the home of James and John and Andrew and Peter. Those are familiar names, so certainly
somebody there heard Jesus’ message pretty clearly.
“And immediately, they left their nets and
followed him.” [Mark
1:18]
In Capernaum, Jesus healed a man who was
captive to some sort of demon [Mark 1:23-26] and healed Peter’s mother-in-law
when she had a dangerous fever [Mark 1:29-31] and at one point so many people
were coming to be healed that no one could get close to him and somebody came
up with the idea of ripping the roof off the house so that they could lower the
bed of a paralyzed man down through the opening. [Mark 2:1-4]
When
it was all said and done, though, people missed the point of all the wonders,
which was not that Jesus was some kind of miracle-worker, but that his coming
was and is a sign that the Kingdom of God is among us, and that it’s time to
start living as people of the kingdom.
What got to Jesus was that no matter how God tried to get through, the
people of these places – and let’s admit that they aren’t too different from us
– just wouldn’t get with the program.
Whether God sent them a messenger utterly straight-laced, like John the
Baptist, or one like Jesus, full of the joy of life, nobody could get them to
budge.
“But to what will I compare this generation? It
is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you
did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’ For John came neither eating nor
drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; the
Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a
drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’” [Matthew 11:16-19]
What
Jesus was saying in that situation was, “Come on, folks! How can you see that God is alive and active
and think that doesn’t make a difference?
God is alive, and it’s time that you were, too! Things don’t always have to be the same. People can turn their lives around, even
communities can turn around. At least
give it a try!”
Since it’s Fourth of July weekend,
I’ll get a little bit patriotic here.
One of the good things about this country (and there are other countries
that share the trait) is the belief that when things get bad, we can in fact
turn them around with God’s help.
“America the Beautiful” has that great verse:
“O beautiful, for
patriot dream
That sees, beyond the
years,
Thine alabaster cities
gleam,
Undimmed by human
tears!
America, America! God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in
self-control,
Thy liberty in law.”
For
all the disagreement and nastiness that is our current political situation,
let’s at least be thankful that our major disagreements are not about if change
and improvement are possible, but about what change is needed and how to go
about it. For all our problems, we also
have generally rejected the idea that any political agenda is to be imposed by
force or violence, at least domestically.
(You might argue that hasn’t been applied beyond our borders.) Our imperfect system relies on persuasion. Maybe it’s a miracle that we trust the
process even when we don’t always trust one another. And if we are open, at least theoretically,
to one another, as a democracy demands, then surely we can be open to God,
which is the opportunity of faith.
What got Jesus riled up was the
failure of people to see the possibilities that faith brings. What got to him with the people of Chorazin,
Bethsaida, and Capernaum was the way that they could see God acting right in
their midst, and then think that business-as-usual is acceptable.
“For if the deeds of power done in you had been
done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and
ashes.” [Matthew 11:21]
There’s an urgency to Jesus’ message that
should not be missed. If you don’t want
to live in a city, a community, a world that is less than it should be, you
don’t have to.
“The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God
has come near; repent and believe in the good news.” [Mark 1:15]
When the Kingdom of God has come near, why not
see that as the opportunity that it is?
Why not enter into a way of life that those miracles he did were just a
part of?
When he came to us in power, with miracles all
around him, he brought a life that is more than the brokenness that we so often
live with. We can continue to live in
the kingdom of the world, accepting its rules and practices, where there is no
belief that we have a purpose beyond self-interest and no goal beyond our own
comfort. However, if we want to live in
that better place, we can. Jesus invites
us to do that here and now, and to be part of that transformation of the world
around us until we see God’s kingdom come, God’s will be done, on earth as it
is in heaven.
We
neither work without God nor expect God to work without us. When we allow God to work within us and
through us, that is when the turn-around begins. In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
“Moral victory will come as God fills us and we open our
lives by faith to God, even as the gulf opens to the overflowing waters of the
river. Racial justice, a genuine
possibility in our nation and in the world, will come neither by our frail and
often misguided efforts nor by God imposing the divine will on wayward human
beings, but when enough people open their lives to God and allow God to pour
the triumphant, divine energy into their souls.
Our age-old and noble dream of a world of peace may yet become a
reality, but it will come neither by people working alone nor by God destroying
the wicked schemes of humanity, but when persons so open their lives to God
that they may be filled with love, mutual respect, understanding, and
goodwill.”[1]
I wish I could give you a good,
old-fashioned hellfire-and-brimstone sermon, if that’s what you really want, but
I cannot, and it’s because I believe God is holding out something far better than
destruction and condemnation. I believe
that God holds out salvation and hope and love, and the challenge to make this
world better. I believe that God does
not hold out a hand that points into the abyss, or a finger that flashes
lightning, but a hand that lifts his children up, and a palm that has the scars
on it to prove just how far he would go to do that. I believe that if God points, it is not to
scold, but to show us the right direction, and to lead us to a place where we
would, in fact, really and truly want to live, and to live forever.
[1]
Martin Luther King, Jr., “The Answer to a Perplexing Question” in Strength to Love (New York: Harper &
Row, 1963), 125. In what I trust is Dr.
King’s spirit, the language has been updated to be more inclusive.
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