Unrepentant Cities
one
Christ’s condemnation of the Towns
At the end of the eleventh chapter of Matthew, Jesus turns to the towns where He has preached – Corazim, Bethsaida, and Capernaum – and predicts their downfall.
Then he began to reproach the towns where most of his mighty deeds had been done, since they had not repented. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon,* they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. And as for you, Capernaum: ‘Will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to the netherworld. For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.
It’s a pretty dark prediction: what can we learn from it?
two
Love of Country – Love of Place
The first thing to note is that Jesus isn’t just talking to individuals – He’s talking to towns. He’s talking to places. Why? Because there is in every human being a God-given love of the place where you belong, the place you are from, the place you live. Crowds cheer whenever a talk-show host names the place they’re from. Sports teams enjoy so much popularity because they represent the places people identify with.
We are meant to have a love and a loyalty to our place, our nation, our culture. As the Catechism says, “The love and service of one’s country follow from the duty of gratitude and belong to the order of charity” (2239). So we’re supposed to celebrate who we are and where we’re from. And we’re supposed to pledge ourselves to support and serve the common good of our place.
But as Christians, we need to remember that our people, our place, our culture can only thrive if it remains in right relationship with God. And if it doesn’t, then the places we love are doomed to corruption, decay, and eventual death.
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Whether it thrives or not depends on whether it accepts Christ
Everyone wants to believe that if we just tweak the system enough, we can guarantee the health and prosperity of our society. If we just get the right officials elected. If we just get the power-balance of the different branches right. If we just work the kinks out of the electoral process.
Those things are all important in their own way. But none of them is what makes or breaks a people or a culture or a nation. What determines whether a culture is saved or lost is whether they accept or reject Christ. If the people of a place is godly, that place will be blessed. They may go through hard times, they may struggle materially. But they’ll be okay. Because they’ll be right with God – everything else will be okay.
If the people of a place reject God. If they reject Christ. If they vote for anti-Christian laws; if they indulge in anti-Christian entertainment; if the let the love of Christ die in their hearts and in their homes. Then WOE to that people. As Christ says, they will not be brought up to Heaven – they will be cast down to Hell.
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Cultures can be Lost
Those towns reproached by Christ were all decimated by the destruction of Jerusalem. The entire nation of Judah was completely eliminated for thousands of years. And that’s true spiritually as well. In the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, John is told to write to the Churches of eleven cities, to warn them of the spiritual threats they were facing. And the Churches in those cities are now gone. Those cities are no longer Christian.
We in the west come from a Christian nation, a Christian culture. If we care about it at all, we should care that our Culture is losing its faith. That we indulge in demonic entertainment, that we live godless lives, that our Children have walked away from their faith.
Christ has been with us. The Church has been with us. We have known the Lord. And we have not believed. If we love where we are, where we come from, we have to commit to saving our land by saving and spreading our faith.
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Cultures and Peoples can be Saved
t’s interesting that when Jesus is condemning the towns of Korazim and Bethsaida and Capernaum, He brings up the cities of Tyre and Sidon. He says, “If the wonders done for you had been done for them, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes.” In other words, He’s saying, “Those godless cities? Those forsaken cities? They could have believed in the Gospel!”
And, in fact, those places – the land of Tyre and Sidon – did accept the Gospel when the Apostles came to evangelize there. Those cities are in Lebanon – one of the most ancient Catholic countries in the world. What does that mean? It means no matter how godless, no matter how spiritually destitute, there is still the chance for any people, any place, any culture, to accept the Gospel and be restored to sanity and holiness. It’s up to the people in it.
So if we would save our culture, save our country and our people – the first step is for us to make sure, every day, that we hear God’s word and keep it. Then we offer that word to others as the opportunity arises. And the same saving truth that transformed the lost cities of Tyre and Sidon can restore our lands to the Lord.