15 July 2025 - since they had not repented

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

Jesus began to reproach the towns
where most of his mighty deeds had been done,
since they had not repented.

People would have assumed that Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom were at least in a worst position regarding the day of judgment than the three cities of Galilee mentioned by Jesus, cities where Jesus carried out his ministry and performed his mighty deeds. The pagan cities Jesus mentioned were famously corrupt and already noted in Scripture for being under the Lord's condemnation. But pagans acting like pagans was one thing, and, in a way, unsurprising. The people of Judea not responding to the message of Jesus was something worse. They were, after all, a people whose existence had been a preparation for this very thing. Their hearts ought to have had the hope of the messiah instilled into them by the teaching of the prophets. But now they finally actually experienced the person of Jesus himself. They heard his teaching. And they saw his works. Jesus was even celebrated and popular in their midst and among some of the people. He was not wholly rejected or, for the most part, violently opposed. In short, the response that upset Jesus in this case was one of lukewarmness. Thus he needed to act according to the word from Revelation and spit them out of his mouth (see Revelation 3:16). This, hopefully, would move them from a comfortable complacency to a state in which they could actual hear and consider his message.

And as for you, Capernaum:
Will you be exalted to heaven?
You will go down to the netherworld.

Capernaum, having been the home base of Jesus, might have seemed to be in particularly good shape. But the mere presence of Jesus, the fact that one was surrounded on all sides by signs of his power, that his teaching was always close at hand, implied nothing about the individual who happened to live nearby. This is a warning for those of us who live in ostensibly Christian nations, and who even attend churches were the true teaching of Jesus is celebrated. Proximity is not a proxy for sanctity. We must not hope that our response to Jesus is inferred from the response of those with whom we surround ourselves. It absolutely is helpful to surround ourselves with positive influences, people whom we admire, and like whom we wish to become. We often do become the average of the five people with whom we spend the most time, as someone has said. But we can't gain repentance by osmosis. 

For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Sodom,
it would have remained until this day.

In many ways we have received more than Corazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. If perhaps fewer overt miracles happen in our midst we nevertheless have a much more systemic clarity about who Jesus was and what that means for our lives. He is far closer to us in the Sacraments of the Church, especially in the Eucharist, than he was to anyone before the Sacraments were established. We are those to whom much is given, of whom much will be required (see Luke 1:48). And if we continue to avail ourselves of the benefits of his presence without a concrete response on our part then we eat and drink judgment on ourselves (see First Corinthians 11:29).

It is at least arguable that the purpose of the reproaches of the towns where Jesus had been was not to celebrate their condemnation, nor to cement it in stone, as though it were an unalterable prophecy. Rather it was a wake-up call. And if not for them, it can at least be so for us. We certainly need one, since no matter how much we might appreciate the presence of Jesus in our midst, we can never really appreciate it enough.

Vineyard Worship - Refiner's Fire