Today, Jesus mentions two apparently recent incidents in which lives were lost (Luke 13:1-9). In one case, Pilate the Roman governor, had some Galileans executed in the Temple precincts. It is not clear as to why. In the other, eighteen people were killed when a tower in Siloam, inside the south-east section of Jerusalem’s wall, fell on top of them. There is no other historical record of either of these two events. However, the first is regarded as typical of Pilate’s administration.
This slaughter of the Galileans by Pilate is unknown outside Luke; but from what is known about Pilate from the Jewish historian Josephus, such a slaughter would be in keeping with his character. Josephus reports that Pilate had disrupted a religious gathering of the Samaritans on Mt. Gerizim with a slaughter of the participants; and on another occasion Pilate had killed many Jews who had opposed him after he appropriated money from the temple treasury to build an aqueduct in Jerusalem.
Some people at the time were saying that this was a punishment from God for these people’s moral wrongs. Jesus disagrees: “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way, they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you, unless you repent you will all perish as they did.”
The sins of the victims were not the cause of their death, but their deaths are certainly warnings to the rest of us to see if we are ready for such a certain eventuality. Jesus goes on to illustrate his meaning with a parable:
“A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the man working the vineyard, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good, but if not, you can cut it down then.’”
The story can be linked to what Jesus has just said. In a sense, the people he has been talking to are like fig trees that have not borne fruit. The three years mentioned in the story likely refers to the length of Jesus’ own ministry. However, they still have a chance to turn their lives around, a chance that was not given to those who had died in those two incidents.
We, too, are being given a chance—for a day? A month? Several years? The fact is that we have no idea. What is clear is that there is no time to waste; we must start today. For God, the past is not what counts, nor the future, but only the present. As long as I am with him now, I have nothing to worry about.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!