Jesus began to reproach the towns
where most of his mighty deeds had been done,
since they had not repented.
The point of his mighty deeds was not to entertain. Even the proximate ends of those deeds, to heal and set free, was not their main point. They were meant to make credible the primary proclamation of Jesus. They were meant to led to a change of life.
The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel (see Mark 1:15).
Jesus knew that not all of those in the crowds that surrounded him did so because of a true desire to follow him. He knew that many were interested so much in the deeds themselves as to miss the more profound call to leave behind former sinful ways and embrace a new identity rooted in the Spirit, beginning with a transformation of the heart, but affecting every aspect of life.
“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.
Jesus did not hold back his mighty deeds just because they were not immediately efficacious for the conversion of those who saw them. The reason for this was that his deeds were not merely evidence, but were also and especially the result of deep compassion for those who were suffering. He cared so much about the crowds, troubled and abandoned, that he did all he could to help them at whatever level they would open themselves to receive his help. But the fact that he revealed his love in this way ought to have opened them to a more holistic response of repentance. It was really as though those who did not receive him instead simply chose to use him for their own ends and then move on with their own plans. No wonder he was hurt. His love was meant to do more for them.
But I tell you, it will be more tolerable
for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.
Jesus did not hold back his mighty deeds even though they would make those who saw them but did not respond liable to a greater judgment than those who had never seen them. He did what he could even in the face of the stubbornness and hardness of heart that he encountered and left the choice of how to respond in their hands.
Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more (see Luke 12:49).
Even in his reproaches Jesus did not preach merely to condemn. He was not sent to condemn the world (see John 3:17). He came that we might have life and have it abundantly (see John 10:10). He shared his Father's heart, desiring that all be saved and come to knowledge of the truth (see First Timothy 2:4). Rather, he preached because there was still hope for these crowds, hope that they could realize the greatness of a gift they had already been given and come to respond with the depth and intensity that such a gift deserved. An initial hardness of heart was permitted because, by overcoming it, an even deeper repentance and more profound commitment to God could result. He preached these reproaches precisely because he did not want to see the consequences of prophesied come to pass.
For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first (see Second Peter 2:20).
We should take these reproaches personally, because none of us has fully realized the magnitude of the gift we have been given. Few of us have responded with the intensity befitting such a gift. And these are the ones we call saints. Yet this is the very same response to which we are called, which Jesus himself has empowered us to make by the gift of his Holy Spirit. He wants to convict us of this truth, not to condemn us, but because he loves us enough that he doesn't want us to be content with the merely superficial. He has more that he wants to give us, more that he desires us to be.
Our life was preserved from spiritual death in baptism just as Moses was drawn from the water in which he was intended to be drowned. We should therefore leave our former ways behind, realizing that we have been purchased with a price (see First Corinthians 6:20), and that we should therefore cherish and walk in the newness of life that we have been given (see Romans 6:4).
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