Scripture Reading: Matthew 11:20-30
It seems strange to hear Jesus upbraiding. His words usually were most gracious and loving. Here, however, we hear Him speaking in tones of sharpness and severity. Yet the phase of His character which is now revealed is not inconsistent with other representations of Him in the Gospels. We must not think of Jesus as having no capacity for anger. He was all love, but love can be severe, even terrible. While He was a friend of sinners and went to His cross to redeem the ungodly, He hated sin. He was just and holy.
We should notice carefully, however, the reason for this upbraiding. It fell upon the cities in which Jesus had done most of His mighty works. These were not His first words to teh people of these cities. There had been long months of loving ministry, with miracles of mercy, with words of grace, revealings of the Father-heart of God, and offers of eternal life, before He spoke the words of chiding we now hear Him speak. But the people of these favored cities had been unaffected by all this love. They had gone on in their sins, unrepentant. They had accepted Christ’s gifts of love, but had not accepted Him as their Lord. They had taken His help, His kindness, the things He had done for them so lavishly, but they had rejected Him.
Page 1