Matthew 11:21

“Alas for you, Chorazin! Alas for you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which were done in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.”

He contrasts His two local towns with the cities of Tyre and Sidon. They were Gentile cities, on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea north of Carmel, and therefore despised by the Jews, and seen as deserving objects of God's judgment. (Perhaps behind the choice was the fact that Tyre and Sidon were famous as ‘twin cities by the sea', and Jesus saw Chorazin and Bethsaida in the same way). And knowing the heart of Jesus we may see in these words the hint that indeed one day His message will go to these Gentile cities, a hint that Matthew certainly takes up in Matthew 12:18; Matthew 12:21. They will see His works and have their opportunity (to some extent sooner than they think - Matthew 15:21). But for the moment they are taken as an object lesson. They were cities known for their past wealth and pride, and had regularly come under the judgment of God (see Isaiah 23; Ezekiel 26-28; Joel 3:4; Amos 6:9; Zechariah 9:2). But Jesus now declares that their guilt was nowhere near that of the towns of Galilee. For they had not had manifested before them the ‘mighty works' of God's Sent One. Such a startling conception would have horrified Jesus' hearers, but it does bring out the awareness of the uniqueness of His own status that Jesus had. Nothing was more heinous than the refusal to recognise Him and respond to Him.

Chorazin is probably what is now called Kirbet Karaze, two miles (three kilometres) north west of the site of Capernaum. Bethsaida was probably the home of Andrew, Peter and Philip (John 1:44; John 12:21) and different from Bethsaida Julius which was on the north east shores of the Sea of Galilee. Like Chorazin it was probably near Capernaum. Its name meant ‘house of fish' which might well be popular on the shores of a Sea famous for its fish.

‘Alas for you.' The word can mean either ‘woe' or ‘alas'. It is a word expressing strong feeling. Here it probably contains an element of both, but His aim is still to stir their hearts rather than just to condemn. Indeed as He will point out, that condemnation is reserved for the future. There is still time to repent. It is a potential ‘woe', which is hanging over their heads, but it can be avoided, and their hardness of heart fills Him with sadness.

‘If the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which were done in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.' Jesus probably has in mind here the repentance of Nineveh at the preaching of Jonah (Jonah 3:5), although wanting to bring it closer to home. And He no doubt hoped that these Jewish towns would have that in mind as well. He is visualising Tyre and Sidon as behaving like Nineveh did. But we must not assume some divine insight whereby Jesus knew that an opportunity was there and was refusing to give Tyre and Sidon their opportunity. We must not take the statement too literally, for the idea was theoretical rather than literally true. His point in fact is based on ‘a long time ago'. It was thus simply a typically exaggerated and vivid way of making the Jews themselves recognise the depth of their failure and sinfulness. Jesus is saying rather dramatically that these galilean towns are more hard hearted than the Gentiles. (Tyre and Sidon would later see such wonders, as did all to whom the earliest preachers went, but while some repented it was certainly not in huge numbers. We must remember that like all others they still had the testimony of nature and conscience, and rejected it (Roman Matthew 1:18)).

‘The mighty works --- which have been done in you.' Here we have a clear indication of the widespread miracles and ministry of Jesus about which we are actually told very little. For in the end the aim of the Gospels was not to glory in the miraculous, but to point to Jesus.

‘Sackcloth and ashes.' Sackcloth was a rough and ready fabric made from camel's hair, and was worn as a sign of contrition or sorrow (2Sa 3:31; 1 Kings 21:27; 2 Kings 6:30; Isaiah 58:5; Joel 1:8; Jonah 3:5; Daniel 9:3). Ashes were symbols of deep mourning (2 Samuel 13:19; Esther 4:3; Job 42:6; Jeremiah 6:26; Lamentations 2:10; Micah 1:10).