Whenever Jesus speaks such threatening words as we read in today's Gospel, we may wonder where the Good News, the saving truth, is to be found in them. Perhaps Matthew reveals where we are to find truth and consolation, when he says that the towns which Jesus reproached were those in which "most of his miracles had been worked." Since these people had failed to reform, they were obviously in need of repentance and reformation. God had not abandoned them for Jesus had worked most of his miracles there. That is to say, through Jesus, God had given them ample opportunity to reform, the grace to repent in abundance. Moreover, the fact that Jesus affirms that Tyre and Sodom would have responded to the miracles with great repentance [sack cloth and ashes] shows that the miracles were easily accessible to the people: they could have comparatively easily understood them and responded to them.

The Good News is that God did not abandon the human race because of Adam's sin, but promised a Saviour. God never abandons us but is always present with us in Jesus, for Jesus was born to be Immanuel, "God with us" and as he ascended into heaven he made this promise, to be with us for ever.