Luke 13:1-9
Some people told Jesus about the Galileans
whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices.
Jesus said to them in reply,
“Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way
they were greater sinners than all other Galileans?
By no means!
But I tell you, if you do not repent,
you will all perish as they did!
Or those eighteen people who were killed
when the tower at Siloam fell on them—
do you think they were more guilty
than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem?
By no means!
But I tell you, if you do not repent,
you will all perish as they did!”
And he told them this parable:
“There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard,
and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none,
he said to the gardener,
‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree
but have found none.
So cut it down.
Why should it exhaust the soil?’
He said to him in reply,
‘Sir, leave it for this year also,
and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it;
it may bear fruit in the future.
If not you can cut it down.’”
Today’s reading from Luke 13 is sobering. Very sobering.
So who were the “Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices”?
Alas, there appears to be no historical account of this incident because Roman killing of Jews so often occurred during the turbulent administration of Pilate, who would send disguised soldiers with daggers among the crowd (see Luke 23:1; Acts 21:34; Luke 18:3). As examples, at one Passover “during the sacrifices,” 3,000 Jews were massacred and “the Temple courts filled with dead bodies”; and at another Passover, no less than 20,000 were slaughtered. (Source)
As for “those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them,” the Tower of Siloam was an ancient tower in Siloam in south Jerusalem.
Tower of Siloam by James Tissot
Whatever the two incidents — Galileans whom Pilate killed while they were worshiping in the Temple, and those killed when the tower of Siloam collapsed — Jesus’ point is that the Galileans and those crushed by the tower were not special sinners. Extraordinary tragedy does not signify extraordinary guilt.
Jesus then made his intent clear in the next passage with the parable of the fig tree. He is telling us not to be self-congratulatory and complacent if we seem to be living a golden life — that when we see others suffer, we should not imagine ourselves to have been exempted because we are specially virtuous. Our having escaped suffering and misfortunes may simply be God giving us — the fig tree — another year to “bear fruit.” There will come a time when we’ve exhausted all the chances He’s given us, at which time we will be “cut down.”
“But I tell you, if you do not repent,
you will all perish as they did!” –Luke 13:5
The Greatest Commandment of all is to love God with your whole heart, your whole soul, your whole mind, and with all your strength.
May the peace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you,
~Eowyn