1 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4 Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” ~ Luke 13:1-5
Our text today begins with, "Now there were some present at that time." This is the third interruption in this long discourse the Lord Jesus is giving here. He was interrupted in Luke 12:13 by a man who had a question. He was interrupted in Luke 12:41 by Peter who had another question. And here in Luke 13:1, He is interrupted a third time by some people who have a question.
In today's text, the man's question came with a story. In v.1 we read, “the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.” These Jews were asking the Lord Jesus if there was a connection between the way these worshippers from Galilee died and their sin. Now, remember, the Lord Jesus had closed out Luke 12 by talking about the fact that a person who is going to go to court, who is guilty of something, better settle with his accuser before he gets to the judge or the judge is going to expose his guilt, put in prison until he pays every last penny that is owed. Translation? We better settle our case with God before we get to the judgment because when we are before God at the judgment, it will be too late. We will be turned over to eternal punishment.
So judgment is the theme in the context. And that peaks the interest of these people. Now, this incident of “the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices” had just happened. Pilate had sent his soldiers to find the Galileans and he has them slaughtered while they are offering sacrifices at the Temple in Jerusalem. And, it is very likely this tragedy happened during the Passover.
Furthermore, Pilate would have been in Jerusalem at the Passover because that's when the city was bulging with all the pilgrims and possible trouble. The Galileans were notoriously rebellious, so apparently there were some Galileans who had done something of a rebellious nature against Rome and they were tracked down in Jerusalem. They were tracked down by Pilate's men, found at the temple offering sacrifices and then they killed them.
And so in v.2 we read, "Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way?'" The Lord Jesus calls their conventional theology into question here. They thought the reason this happened to these people was because they were the greatest sinners in Galilee. Their theology said, "bad things only happen to bad people." Granted, there are built-in judgments to sinful behavior. If I became an alcoholic, there is a built-in judgment. It's called cirrhosis of the liver. But, we are not talking about individual issues here. We're talking about group calamity.
In v.3 we read, "I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish." Essentially, we live in a fallen world and God has not chosen to prevent bad things from happening to good people. This is not to say that He is the cause of the calamity, He just doesn't prevent it every time. There are times He does prevent things from happening, but not always. And, we conclude that when calamity strikes, it doesn't mean that those victims of the calamity are deserving of the pain or at fault in any way. God does not operate this way.
In v.4, we are presented with another calamity, the tower calamity. The Lord Jesus brings up another recent event at that time. In v.4 we read "Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem?"
The Jews down in Jerusalem tended to think of the Galileans as inferior. The Lord Jesus directs their attention to their city. Those in that tower weren't doing anything wrong. This event happened at Siloam which is a section in the southern part of Jerusalem. And there was a spring in the area outside the wall called Gihon and it had an abundance of water and that water was brought into the city of Jerusalem through a tunnel that Hezekiah built. The water came through the tunnel and filled up the Pool of Siloam. After the water came, a scaffolding fell over and landed on the people watching or walking by, and they were crushed and they died.
These bad things did not happen to these people due to their sin. These things happen in a fallen world. Of course, God has been known to intervene in some cases but not in this one. If all calamity were prevented like this, we would all be prevented from benefiting from the purpose of pain which is to drive us to cry out to God. Calamity is not God's way to single out the especially evil people. Calamity is God's way to deepen our understanding of Him.
In v.3 we read, "But unless you repent, you too will all perish." Then in v.5 we read, "But unless you repent, you too will all perish." The real calamity is not that people die, it is we do not turn to God through the calamity. Just because people live doesn't mean they have escaped judgment. True calamity is that we die and experience the judgment of God because we have not settled our case before we go to court, as we saw back in Luke 12:58.
Pain is a fact of life. Sooner or later pain comes into everyone’s pathway. And when it does how do we deal with it? Do we let it conquer us, or do you stare it down, armed with God's “stubborn joy”? Even in pain God is near. He wants us to grasp the peace that defies pain. He wants to be with us, facing pain with His peace and joy. Only He can show us the path to a defiant peace and joy.
