‘Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!

The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, John Martin 1852

Reflection at Morning Worship with the Community of Brendan the Navigator on Tuesday 14th July 2026

‘Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!, says Jesus (Matthew 11:20-24).

He has been travelling around Galilee, including these towns, and nearby Capernaum, proclaiming that the kingdom of heaven has come near, calling on the inhabitants to repent and believe the good news, and healing the sick. But for the most part, they have ignored his call. Now he bewails their indifference.

They are his own Jewish people. They have seen and heard him, they have witnessed his deeds of power. But they have not responded. He says that in the long run, ‘on the day of judgement’, they will rue their indifference, more than the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon, more even than the city of Sodom. Tyre and Sidon were gentile, Phoenician cities, notorious among Jews for their sinfulness. They could not be accused of ignoring his message, because he had not preached there. Sodom was the city destroyed by God in the far distant past, according to the strange story of Lot in Genesis. It was and still is a byword for wickedness, whose very location has been forgotten.

It is sometimes suggested that Jesus was cursing these cities. But that would not be like the merciful and loving Jesus of the Gospels. The Greek word ‘ouai’ translated as ‘woe’ expresses sorrowful pity rather than anger. Jesus is heartbroken that his own people do not respond to the good news he preaches. He mourns for what will become of them. Those who have responded to him surely mourn too. But all is not lost. As Jesus declares in the Beatitudes, ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.’

Today we are living through a growing crisis of global heating and loss of biodiversity, a result of human ignorance and greed. Our earthly home is in danger, and all its creatures including ourselves. To continue business as usual would be a blasphemy against the world that God has given us, and that he sees to be very good.

For decades now scientists have been warning us that we must change our behaviour, or suffer the consequences. Christian and other leaders are calling on us to change and move rapidly to a just transition away from fossil fuels. But the global response has been quite insufficient – so far.

If Jesus were to return today, I am certain that he would be crying ‘Woe’ in sorrowful pity over our cities and towns. Woe to you, Nenagh! Woe to you, Dublin, Belfast, Limerick, Cork, and Galway! Woe to you, London, Paris, Moscow, New York, Tokyo and Mexico City! As we roast in this unprecedented heat wave, as we mourn the accelerating breakdown of our climate, we must not give up hope. Let us listen to him, and to the climate scientists, before it is too late. Because he blesses us, saying ‘those who mourn … will be comforted’.