"Going to Hades"

 “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.” Matthew 11:23

Capernaum was Jesus’ center of operations, being called “his own city” often in the gospels. This makes his denunciation of Capernaum and comparison with Sodom even more striking. Sodom’s infamy, of course, is because of the wicked and violent attempt to rape the angels who resided with Lot. God destroyed Sodom, along with Gomorrah because “the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous.” (Genesis 18:20)

Capernaum had nothing like the reputation of Sodom. It was large enough to be called a “city” and have its own synagogue. Jesus actually taught there on many occasions. It also had a customs station where taxes were collected. So, though it was not a metropolis, it was of some importance.

Pertinent to Jesus’ words are the occurrences that have to do directly with His connection to the town. We are told that after Jesus was run out of Nazareth, He lived in Capernaum. When Jesus taught in the synagogue there the people were astonished at His teaching, remarking that His word was with power, or authority. It is where He healed a Centurion’s servant and Peter’s mother-in-law. He also healed a leper in Capernaum, telling him, “Be clean.”

It was there that four friends brought their paralyzed friend to Jesus, carrying him on a blanket. The room was so full where Jesus was teaching that they actually removed tiles in the roof to lower their friend down to have access to Him. Jesus both healed him and pronounced him forgiven. The Gospel of Mark tells us “the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.” (Mark 1:32-34)

So, what do we make of this? Why would He condemn Capernaum to such a degree? For clarity’s sake, it is important to note that “Hades” means “abode of the dead”, not “place of punishment.” Sodom was horribly wicked and has become synonymous with rampant and vile behavior. That is hardly a characterization of Capernaum.

Or is it? It grieves me when I hear fellow Christians pine for the days when we Americans were a “Christian country”. I always wonder what exactly they mean. Do they mean the days when we trampled on Indian land, citing our belief that they were not even human? Or do they mean the time we not only enslaved men and women, but bought and sold them in such a way that many suffered horribly and even died before they arrived on our shores? Or maybe it is the 1950s we long for when it was still legal to segregate people based on the color of their skin, and when people were being hauled before the Congress on trumped up charges of Communism.

My point, which I hope is fairly obvious, is that no time of our history can be called “Christian”. We must not think ourselves “lifted up” as something special; for that is the danger which Jesus announced concerning Capernaum. “Will you be lifted up? No, you will go down to Hades.”

Why? Because Jesus Himself had been among them, healing, forgiving, teaching and announcing the kingdom of God. He, the very Son of God was living and moving among them in their day to day life, and, except for a select few, no one acted as if anything special was going on. Capernaum was a city that was doing quite well, thank you, and didn’t need a Savior. “Go over to the village south of us,” they might have said. “That’s where the winos, whores and tax collectors live. You’ll find lots of needy converts there, Jesus.”

It is not the Ten Commandments that will judge us in the end; it is what we do with Jesus Himself. An encounter with Jesus slays every bit of self-righteousness we possess. No longer able to call ourselves “a great city”, we must admit to being only piles of rubble waiting for someone to build us into something worthwhile. I don’t want Jesus to see me as someone wanting to be “lifted up”.

So, whether our life is like Sodom, or whether we are a Capernaum, the center is always Christ. Every moment, every breath, thought, action and movement is meant to be done in relationship to Him. We are not meant to measure our lives by the Ten Commandments, the 1950s version of American living, or our church’s list of fundamental teachings. Our measure and standard is Jesus Himself. May my heart beat with His, for it is only in Him I have life at all.

And, a note in passing; archaeology is unsure of the exact site of Capernaum. There are two possibilities, but both, true to Jesus’ words “went to Hades”; mere piles of rubble where a once thriving city sat along the shore.