TRANSLATION MATTHEW 11:20

Then Jesus began to scold the towns in which he had done many of his miracles, for not changing their hearts. “Misfortune for you, Chorazin! Misfortune for you, Bethsaida! Because if they had been done in Tyre or Sisdon, these miracles that were done in you, they would long ago have shown their change of heart by wearing sackcloth and smearing ashes on their heads! So I’m telling you, it will be easier for Tyre and Sidon on Judgement Day than for you! As for you, Caphernaum, will you be lifted up to heaven? No, you will be thrown down to the Pit of Death! For if they had been done in Sodom, these miracles that were done in you, it would have remained to this day! So I’m telling you, it will be easier for the land of Sodom on Judgement Day, than for you!

Here Jesus uses popular notions of Judgement Day: foreign cities, like Tyre and Sidon in Lebanon, would be harshly judged, like the fabled cities of the plain, Sodom and Gomorra which God had consumed by fire for persistent vices. The towns and cities of Israel on the other hand, would be rewarded, and perhaps even raised to heaven. Jesus is saying that their rejection of him makes them in God’s eyes, as bad as foreign places, not too mention the legendary sin-cities of the past.

We saw in the previous passage, how much Jesus treasured the Rule of God that was arriving in his ministry. This is the other side of the coin: those who reject something so precious will answer for their arrogance. The language he uses is traditional prophetic denunciation, “Woe to you etc.” It is the opposite of “Blessed are you etc” . Neither the prophets nor Jesus are rejoicing in this denuciation; rather they can see the coming justice of God. All this rhetoric is appropriate to Jesus as the magical righter of wrongs who will not be defeated.

There is also a kind of rough humour in comparing the tiny towns of Galilee with the great cities of the coast and the ancient Sodom and Gomorra. “Don’t think because you’re so small that God will miss you!”