Luke 13:1-5

CRITICAL NOTES

Luke 13:1. There were present.—The phrase is a peculiar one, and might be translated, “then there came up” or “arrived,” perhaps to bring tidings of this outrage. Whose blood.—The phrase is highly dramatic: the persons had been slain in the Temple, and their blood had been mingled with that of the sacrifices they were offering. Pilate.—This incident is not recorded in history. But similar events are known to have happened: Josephus tells of murders and massacres in the Temple, and of Pilate’s cruelty in repressing outbreaks. As these persons were Galilæans, we have, perhaps, here an explanation of the enmity between Pilate and Herod (Luke 23:12). Pilate had, we know, about this time put down an insurrection in Jerusalem with great severity (see Luke 23:19).

Luke 13:2. Suppose ye.—This thought was in their minds, though apparently they did not express it. What they regarded as a judgment upon others Christ advised them to take as a warning to themselves. Great public calamities may be signs of God’s displeasure, but it is a superstitious abuse of the doctrine to hold that the particular sufferers are greater sinners than other men.

Luke 13:3. Ye shall all likewise perish.—It is not for those who, by their sins, are liable to like judgments of God to pass sentence on others and to infer their exceptional guilt. The words are doubtless prophetic of the manner in which myriads perished in the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans.

Luke 13:4. Those eighteen.—An incident well known at the time, but of which we have no further information than is here given. Tower in Siloam is evidently a tower on the city walls near the Pool of Siloam, at the south-east corner. “It is an ingenious, but of course uncertain, conjecture of Ewald that the death of these workmen was connected with the notion of retribution, because they were engaged in building part of the aqueduct to the Pool of Siloam, for the construction of which Pilate had seized some of the sacred Corban-money (Jos. B.J, II., Luke 9:4)” (Farrar). It is noticeable that these two incidents are of a different character: the first was death inflicted by the cruelty of man; the second, death by accident. Sinners.—Lit. “debtors,” a different word from that in Luke 13:2.

Luke 13:5. Likewise.—Prophetic also of deaths by falling buildings in the siege and capture of Jerusalem by the Romans.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Luke 13:1

Accidents not Judgments.—Whenever any great public calamity happens, there are never wanting persons who are ready to point out the special sin which has provoked it; and it is noticeable that they are, as a rule, more indignant at those who suffer wrong than at those who do wrong. They are eager to utter their harsh censures, while other men sit silent with dismay; they interpret the Divine Providence according to their private prejudices and theories, and, therefore, often contradict each other; and they carefully exclude themselves from the operation of the vengeance—“Whatever happens to them is a trial, while whatever happens to their neighbour is a judgment.”

I. The false inference.—To affirm that, by an invariable and most merciful law, sin entails punishment—national sins national punishment, personal sins personal punishments—is the duty of every Christian teacher; but to fix the times and assort punishments to sins, to affect to stand midway between heaven and earth and interpret the mysteries of Providence, is simply stark presumption in any uninspired man. It is not given to the sons of men to comprehend the goings of the Inhabitant of Eternity. The sweep of eternity is large, and gives scope and verge for the play of retribution beyond the reach of mortal eye. To play the interpreter, and say, “This punishment is a judgment on that sin,” is to play the fool. The Holy Scriptures affirm the mystery and delay of retribution; that it is not measured in mortal scales; that the sweep and fall of its scourge are not traceable by mortal eyes. They teach us that those “whose feet are swift to shed blood” often outrun the pursuing vengeance for a time, and for a long time—nay, beyond all bounds of time. They teach that many offences escape whipping here, though, sooner or later, the impartial lash falls on all.

II. The true lesson to be drawn from calamities.—The gospel teaches us a more excellent way of interpreting the facts of life than that of these presumptuous discoverers of judgments. Instead of dwelling on the mysterious fate of our neighbours, it bids us come quite home, and repent, lest we ourselves should likewise perish. It teaches us in effect that no evil is so evil as the spurious goodness which, separating us from our fellows, cries to its neighbours, as from a superior platform, “Stand down there, for I am holier than thou.” It teaches us that the accidents by which we suffer, so far from being personal judgments on personal sins, are parts of that great mystery of evil which is now suffered to task our thoughts and try our faith, in order that, by-and-by, it may lead in a complete beatitude, a profounder rest, an eternal good and joy. The only safe moral we can draw from the judgments of God, or what seem to us His judgments, is the warning, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” Let us take the warning, and not judge one another any more. We are too apt, when we see any forlorn and solitary brother sitting, like Job, among the potsherds, to sit down beside him, like Job’s comforters, and hand him the very sharpest and roughest of the sherds that he may scrape himself withal. We are too apt, when any calamity befalls our neighbours, to assume that they must be sinners above all other men, and to speculate—sometimes in their hearing—on the crimson and scarlet dyes of their guilt. We need, therefore, to remember that accidents are not judgments, that accidents are not even accidents, since they are all ordered of God, and form part of that gracious discipline by which He lifts us through the graduated and rising circles of His service. They are sent for our sakes, who only stand and witness them, as well as for the sake of those who suffer them; not that we may judge others, but that we may examine ourselves.—Cox.

SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luke 13:1

Luke 13:1. Three Motives to Repentance.—We need to remember the spiritual tension, the awful feeling of urgency, if we would do justice to our Lord’s threefold summons to repentance.

I. The story of the Galilæans was probably carried to Jesus as a person who made Messianic claims of some sort, and who might be expected to show a practical interest in the honour of the country. Jesus startles His informants by the abrupt diversion of interest. He saw in the death of these Galilæans, with all its atrocity of circumstance, a picture and prophecy of the doom, which, within a single generation, should overtake the whole of the Jewish people. The moral motive to repentance is plain here. A tragic ending, a life cut short, is not to be a mere nine day’s wonder. It is a voice from heaven, an emphatic voice, to stagger and shock the careless, and to make them think seriously of God.
II. The next case is different. It was an accident. Has an accident a “moral”? If not, why did our Lord utilise this pure “accident” in a moral interest? In the lips of an unfeeling man such language would be unpardonably offensive. It is the use of it by such men that has brought it to discredit. But Christ’s interest in repentance was an absorbing passion. Such accidents ought, if we take Christ’s example here as a law, to help in the conversion of all who are awed and startled by them. Such emotions of pity, awe, sympathy, are not to be wasted. To see men moved, moved deeply, and yet not permanently, not to the point of changing their life to the bottom, and putting it right with God—this was what straitened Christ’s spirit, and moved Him to speak with such startling vehemence.
III. The insertion of the parable of the fig-tree at this point, even though it were spoken on another occasion, rounds off the lesson on repentance, it presents the same appeal, with the same importunity, on what seems to be at first totally different ground. The urgency of massacres and accidents, which do not happen every day, or at every door, can easily be evaded by most men. “These things are not likely to happen to us. It is absurd to make the bare supposition of them a motive in life.” Christ’s answer to this sceptical mood is the parable of the fig-tree. He seems to side with the mood, but does not allow it to evade His earnestness. Massacre and accident are extraordinary resources of which God avails Himself; but His goodness also—which is so unbroken in your life—is also designed to lead you to repentance. God tries every way, because men seek to evade Him by every way. He tries exceptional severity, because men take His goodness for granted; He tries uniform, ever-renewed, patient goodness, because He is good, and severity is His strange work. But it would be a fatal error to presume on His goodness. The parable ends with the same inexorable refrain as the verses about the Galilæans and the fall of the tower. Not to repent is perdition—if neither severity nor goodness startle men, they are lost. These stern, passionate utterances are the expression of the intense love of Christ. No one has ever loved like Jesus Christ, so no one has ever spoken with such awful severity and urgency. No one has been so pained with soul-travail for the conversion of men.—Denney.

Luke 13:1. The Lesson of Evil Tidings.

I. How men use evil tidings.—Jesus was from Galilee. Men are always too ready to gossip about the misfortunes of others. Christ had just been speaking about God’s judgments on men who knew His will and did it not. The bystanders at once named the destruction of the Galilæans by Pilate. Why? Because they thought the sudden death of these men was a mark of God’s displeasure at some grievous sin.

II. How Christ would have them used.—How quickly Christ saw the thoughts which had led the speakers to utter their evil tidings! He saw in them a fault which we are all too apt to fall into—the fault of always forming unkind judgments about people in misfortune; of always thinking, and even sometimes saying, the worst we can of people. Christ rebukes them for their want of charity, and cautions them for the future. God’s judgments will fall upon all unrepentant sinners.—W. Taylor.

Rash Judgments.—We are taught here—

1. To beware of rashly judging others.
2. Not to be too hasty in interpreting afflictive dispensations of Providence against ourselves.
3. To be thankful for our own preservation.
4. That it is our duty to mark and improve calamities, and especially violent and sudden deaths.
5. The necessity of genuine repentance.—Foote.

Sin and Punishment.

I. Punishment does follow upon sin.
II. Yet God spares more than He signally punishes.
III. Therefore no one can conclude from such instances that those who are punished are worse than their neighbours.
IV. The best use we can make of remarkable examples of this kind is to examine ourselves and to repent of our sins.

Luke 13:1. “Blood … mingled with their sacrifices.—The suggestion is: God must have been specially angry with these Galilæans, who were cut off by a heathen, in God’s house, at His altar, and when engaged in the act of worshipping God. The argument is similar to that of Job’s friends (Job 4:7; Job 8:20; Job 22:5).

“Vers. 2–9. Punishment and Long-Suffering.—Christ’s answer consists of two parts.—

I. A plain and literal threatening of general destruction to all who do not repent.
II. A new challenge to the repentance which alone can save, in a parable which exhibits long-suffering as an argument to repentance, and which passes from the people as a whole to each individual.

Luke 13:2. “Sinners above all the Galilæans.”—Our Saviour does not say that the calamity which had overtaken these Galilæans was not a punishment for sin. He contests not about that, but rather seems to agree to them so far, and draws that warning out of it. He only corrects the misconceit it seems they were in, in thrusting it too far off from themselves, and throwing it too heavily upon them that sacrificed.—Leighton.

Luke 13:3. “Ye shall all likewise perish.”—Jesus, with prophetic insight, immediately discerns the significance of this fact. In this carnage, wrought by the sword of Pilate, He sees the prelude of that which the Roman army would accomplish soon in every part of the Holy Land, and especially in the Temple—the last refuge of the nation. In fact, forty years later, all that remained of the Galilæan people was gathered in the Temple, and suffered, under the Roman sword, the penalty incurred by their present impenitence.—Godet.

Signal Chastisements—

1. Signal chastisements inflicted upon sinners by God warn us of His righteous anger against sin, and should lead us to examine ourselves and consider what we deserve.
2. His kindness and forbearance in sparing others who are equally guilty should be regarded by us as an invitation to repentance.

“Repent.”—Repentance implies.—

1. A change of mind.
2. Conviction of sin.
3. Grief on account of sin.
4. Hatred of sin.
5. Actual reformation.
6. Faith in the Redeemer.

Our Inability to Trace the Connection between Suffering and Sin.—Christ affirms, and all Scripture affirms, that the sum total of the calamity which oppresses the human race is the consequence of the sum total of its sin; nor does He deny the relation in which a man’s actual sins may stand to his sufferings. What He does deny is the power of other men to trace the connection, and thus their right, in any particular case, to assert it.—Trench.

“Likewise.”—The correspondence between what had happened to these Galilæans and what was to happen to the Jewish people is very striking.

1. In both cases the punishment was inflicted by the heathen.
2. The time was that of the Passover, when sacrifices were being offered.
3. They were slain with the sword.

Luke 13:4. “Upon whom the tower fell.”—Our Lord introduces this incident as showing that whether the hand of man or (so called) accidents, lead to inflictions of this kind, it is in fact but one Hand that doeth it all (cf. Amos 3:6). There is also a transference from the Galilæans—a despised people—to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, on whom the fulness of God’s wrath was to be poured out in case of impenitence.—Alford.

Luke 13:5. True and False Ways of Regarding Calamities.

I. Light-minded persons are inclined to deny the intimate connection between natural and moral evil.
II. Narrow-minded persons are disposed to interpret all such calamities as judgments upon exceptional guilt.
III. The true way to regard them is as a call to repentance.
“Likewise perish.”—In like manner with the former instance, this prophetic word of Jesus was literally fulfilled at the destruction of Jerusalem; houses and public buildings were burned and overthrown, and multitudes perished in the ruins.