Mt 11:20-24
Repentance: Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, the unrepentant towns, are all located in Galilee. However, Matthew records no works of Jesus located in either Chorazin or Bethsaida. He is merely repeating an earlier oral tradition concerning the ministry of Jesus in these two towns.
Repentance: Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, the unrepentant towns, are all located in Galilee. However, Matthew records no works of Jesus located in either Chorazin or Bethsaida. He is merely repeating an earlier oral tradition concerning the ministry of Jesus in these two towns.
In Capernaum, according to Matthew, Jesus heals a centurion’s servant and Peter’s mother-in-law (8:5-15), a paralytic (9:1-8), the official’s daughter and the woman with a hemorrhage, two blind men, a mute person, and many others (9:18-35). Capernaum is where Jesus lives after John is arrested (4:12-13). Matthew refers to it as Jesus’ “own town” (9:1).
The issue is the repentance that should have followed the witness of Jesus’ “mighty deeds” (vv 21, 23)—manifested in healings, miracles, preaching, teaching. Because Matthew portrays Jesus as a new Moses, Matthew’s “mighty deeds” of Jesus echoes Moses’ mighty deeds of God in the book of Exodus. Pharaoh remains obstinate throughout the ten plagues and never repents.
Chorazin and Bethsaida do not repent. Their lack of repentance is compared to Tyre and Sidon, pagan cities, which are denounced for their wickedness by the Old Testament prophets (cf Jl 4:4-7; Is 23, Ez 26-28). Capernaum’s lack of repentance is compared to that of Sodom, an Old Testament town which was destroyed because of its grave sin (cf Gn 18:20 ff).
According to Matthew, repentance is a key dimension of authentic discipleship. Those who hear Jesus and witness his “mighty deeds” and do not repent, are worse than Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom, the epitome of lack of repentance.