URC Daily Devotion 18 December 2025

St Matthew 11: 20 – 24
 
Then Jesus began to denounce the towns in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent.  “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.  But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.  And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades. For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day.  But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”
 
Reflection
 
Biblical stories such as those of restoration to physical health of the unwell, or deceased, or some sort of unexpected provision, serve as parables of social reversal: the sick are restored, the hungry are fed, the outcasts are dignified. Miracles mustn’t be limited by magical thinking, to do so robs them of their powerful, subversive, edge.
 
Those of us living in the here-and-now need to be on the lookout for divine action, rooted, as always, in human cooperation that extends beyond the limits of magic. Examples can be found in movements for racial justice, climate activism, initiatives to right the wrongs done to LGBTQ+ people, the dismantling of embedded inequalities between sexes, social classes, and more.
 
The writer we call Matthew, and those (mainly enslaved people) who edited and transcribed his words for his Jewish audience, knew what would get their readers attention. In this short passage Matthew has Jesus coruscate the privileged and comfortable folk who refuse to let the radical inbreaking of the Gospel affect their daily lives. That which should change everything hasn’t changed them.
 
By saying that Tyre and Sidon would have repented, Matthew’s Jesus overturns the ethnic and moral hierarchies of his day. He dramatically reveals the complacency of the comfortable ‘insiders’ who exhibit less in the way of compassion or willingness to embrace Jesus’ enemy loving ways than those who don’t enjoy the privileges that they do. It’s not hard to see that we, so often, do the same.
 
In typical style Matthew casts Jesus in the role of a Hebrew prophet, a new Jeremiah or Amos, dramatically mourning the spiritual blindness of his people – in the same way he calls to us now: wake up sleeper – the world is changing – get involved.
 
Prayer 
 
God of the poor, the powerless,
and the peripheral,
You dwell in the margins.
You are found in the edge places,
the hard places, the uncomfortable places.
the places we don’t like to go.
Lead us to follow your call,
to turn away from complacency,
and toward your ways of boundary crossing love.
Help us to see it, to sense it,
to feel it in action, to get involved.
wake us up, God. Amen