The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 460

2. Take the Lord's estimate of true greatness, not the world's. The world thought Tiberius great; the Lord, John the Baptist. 3. Try to live up to the responsibilities of the Christian life; it is a high dignity to be lea.at in the kingdom of God. 4. Hate slanderous gossip; you may be speaking ill of one whom God will exalt.. Vers. 20-24.-TheLord's denunciation of judgment. I. ITS CAUSE. 1. Knowledge. The Lord's tone assumes a greater severity-a severity which perhaps favours the view that St. Luke gives (x. 13) the true chronological order. The people of Galilee had seen most of the mighty works of Christ. His life had been long before their eyee; they knew him well; they watched him as he walked in their streets, as he healed the sick, or cleansed the leper, or gave sight to the blind. They knew every feature of that holy face, every tone of tha.t blessed voice. They had been astonished with a great astonishment. But now they were becoming so familiar with the Lord's power that his miracles, it may be, excited less wonder. Perhaps, like the Nazarenes (Luke iv. 23), they were beginning to regard his healing virtue almost as if it were at their disposal, almost as their right. 'l'hey knew him, or seemed to know him, so well now, that the old excitement had passed away, the intense interest with which they used to regard him was becoming lukewarm. 2. Obstinate indifference. They repented not. They had heard his teaching, they had seen his works. There had been excitement, astonishment, enthusiasm; but even that was passing away, and, except in compara- tively few, there bad been no repentance. Repentance had been the first note of John the Baptist's preaching, the first note of our Lord's; but the message had been unheeded, the works by which the message had been attested had not produced r,eal conviction. All had been done that could be done to bring them to repentance ; but they would not come unto Christ that they might have life. And now the Lord upbraids them, not iD. wrath, but iD. sorrow; as afterwards he wept over the impenitent Jerusalem. Let us listen to those solemn words, and let us take to our hearts the great truth that repent- ance, a change of heart, is the essence of personal religion, and that all outward privileges, whatever they may be, are lost upon us if they do not, by the grace of God, produce that inward change. II. lTs TERJ48. 1. Theju,dgment of <Jhorazin and Bethsaida. Bethsaida was the home of three of the apostles. Chorazin, too, it seems, had been often graced by the Lord's presence. They had had great opportunities, but they had failed to use them ; and now the woe goes forth against them. " Woe unto thee I " It is a word of judgment, but it is also a word of sorrow (comp. Rev. xviii. 10, 16, 19). The Lord grieves while he pro- nounces sentence. "Peace be unto thee I " would come more sweetly from the lips of the Prince of Peace; but he could not say" Peace," where there was no peace. The Galilieans, it may be, had often condemned the idolatry and the licentiousness of the great cities which lay near their northern border. But, in truth, the guilt of Tyre and Sidon was not so great as that of Chorazin and Bethsaida. For guilt is measured, not absolutely, as it is seen in the guilty deed; but relatively, in its relations to opportu- nities, to privileges, to knowledge. The men of Tyre and Sidon had not seen the works of Christ; had they seen them, he himself says, they would have repented. Their knowledge was less; their guilt was less; their condemnation would be Iese. 2. The iudgment of Cap~um. (1) It had become the Lord's own city. He had chosen to dwell there when he left the unbelieving Nazareth. The people of Capernaum had known him well and long; they had seen many of his miracles; they had followed him in crowds when he went to the house of Jairus; the maiden whom he had raised from the dead lived among them. The rulers of their synagogue, the centurion who had built it, could bear witness to the power and goodneBB of the Saviour. They all knew him; they had watched him day after day as he walked by the lake; they had listened, many of them, as he taught sitting in some fishing-boat by the shore. Several of his apostles, Matthew the publican, James and John, Peter and Andrew, were well known at Capemaum; people had talked to them constantly about their Master-his wonder-working power; his unique and unapproachable holiness; his tender, com- passionate love; his calm, simple dignity. Ho had been long one of the prinoipal subjects of talk, one of the great centres of interest, iD. that little town. All the details of his daily life had been scanned with eager curiosity, all his doings bad been watched by observant e1es. But were the people of Capernaum much improved by the J?resence illI, XI. 1-30.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO BT. MATTIIEW. 457