“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, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades.” (Luke 10:13-15)

One of the highlights of our last visit to Israel was walking the streets of Korazim (the Chorazin of our text), which is now a national park in Galilee. As I walked the streets I couldn’t help but think: “this is where Jesus walked – Jesus walked these streets and saw these houses”. Yet we don’t know much about Chorazin from the accounts of Jesus’ life except that he was there, did miracles there, and undoubtedly taught there. But the people of this village rejected him and his message. How sad!

Chorazin sits on the hillside above the north of the Sea of Galilee – you can just see the lake in the distance. As we approached the site we could see ruins of buildings jutting out from the hillside. I thought that would be a nice place to visit, not knowing what I was looking at – and we did spend some time walking these streets and looking in the ruins of the buildings.

When you enter Chorazin you are immediately drawn to the black basalt synagogue, some of it reconstructed, while other parts had been put back in place. We walked the streets and could see where the houses would have been with the original stones of the walls of the buildings. On the outskirts of the village were buildings for storage and other types of work.

Chorazin wasn’t the only town to reject Jesus, even after seeing the miraculous signs that he did. Jesus mentioned Bethsaida as well as Capernaum. Capernaum was where he centered his work in Galilee. People in these places heard Jesus and saw what he did but still rejected him.

Victor Guerin, an explorer, wrote about Chorazin in 1875:

“Its synagogue has more than once heard the word of God out of His mouth and witnessed the miracles He performed. This is why all Christians should cherish the ruins of this building. We know that in the time of Eusebius the town was deserted, the Messiah’s curse had struck it, and as witness in their deliberate disregard of His loving grace, the synagogue lay in ruins.” (from a sign at Korazim)

Is that not a lesson for us today? Many hear God’s word and through that word see what Jesus did when he lived on the earth. Perhaps they claim to follow Jesus. Yet how often does his teaching fail to penetrate lives so as to make the needed changes?

We despair at times when our teaching seems to fall on deaf ears. Sometimes we think it must be us or what we are doing. Yet people even rejected the Messiah himself when he was here and was doing miraculous signs!

Sometimes we might be tempted to change the message, to water it down so that people might more readily accept it. Yet Jesus himself did not do that when they rejected him. He continued to teach the truth of God’s kingdom.

We must do the same.

by Jon Galloway