“Now on the same occasion there were some present who reported to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 And Jesus said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? 3 “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4 “Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? 5 “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” 6 And He began telling this parable: “A man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and did not find any. 7 “And he said to the vineyard-keeper, ‘Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?’ 8 “And he answered and said to him, ‘Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; 9 and if it bears fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut it down.’ ”
Here is the setting for our focus today. Jesus is teaching, we don’t know precisely where but probably in Judea somewhere outside of Jerusalem. Most translations begin saying some people were present who began to report this incident with some Galileans. We’ll talk more about that. But the actual wording indicates that some people ‘came to’ where Jesus was, rather than being already present.
That is worthy of mention because if they came to where He was to give Him this report, then they had some purpose in it. Now we’re not told whether these were Pharisees, and if they were I would imagine that Luke would have said so. Nevertheless, they may have had some political goal in mind. They may have wanted to set Jesus up, so to speak, in getting Him to either side with the cause of the Galileans who had died, or defend the actions of Pilate.
Or, they may have simply wanted to find out what Jesus thought of the incident and hear His take on the justice or injustice of it.
All we can say for certain is what is actually written for us, and that is contained in the response of Jesus to this report.
First though, let’s talk about the event in question. The historian, Josephus is the only one who recorded this incident (or at least a like incident) with the Galileans so far as I’m able to determine; and there is doubt as to whether this is the same incident or even related.
What Josephus reveals to us is that Pilate had angered the Jews, not for the first time, by misappropriating funds from the Temple treasury for the construction of an aqueduct into Jerusalem. According to Josephus there was an uprising over this and Pilate had Roman soldiers disguised as civilians mix with the multitude. On Pilate’s signal the soldiers attacked the rioters and beat them, quelling the disturbance by brute force.
The differences in the accounts may indicate that they were not the same event. Galileans visiting from the north to make sacrifice in the Temple sounds very different than a multitude rioting in the street. Now it could be that the Romans were indiscriminate in their attack and the poor pilgrim Galileans were caught up in it.
In any case, we have this small amount of information; that Pilate was responsible for a group of worshiping men from Galilee being killed, apparently while they were in the Temple making sacrifice, since their blood was mingled with the blood of the animals being sacrificed. It may be the primary reason these people came to Jesus.
Whereas it would not have been so uncommon for a riotous uprising to be harshly put down by the Romans, it most certainly would have been an outrage to the Jews that pagan soldiers had entered the place of worship to murder attendants there.
So that is the setting as we know it. Jesus is teaching, people come to Him and report this despicable incident in which a group of Galileans were murdered at the command of the Roman procurator, Pontius Pilate.
As in other places in Scripture we aren’t given all the information we might want in order to satisfy our curiosity or so that we might come to some moral conclusion of our own concerning it. What we are given though, is all the information we need to then hear what Jesus had to say and carefully consider His words, applying them as much as we are able to the circumstances in which they were said, but more importantly, to our own hearts and lives with the Holy Spirit’s enabling.
Let’s listen to Jesus now as He exhorts to right thinking.
WHAT SIN DID TO OUR THINKING
As relates to the human makeup in general, probably the most devastating affect sin had on mankind was what it did to our thinking. After all, it is our thought process that drives and affects so much else.
You’ve heard me say many times that in sin we are turned around backward. I doubt I’m the first to say that, since that is what sin did to the relationship between God and His creation. Our sin nature renders us absolutely, diametrically opposed to God and His ways and His thinking.
In fact, we’ve mentioned that Jesus was teaching when these people came to Him; if we back up to verse 54 and following in chapter 12, we see that this inability to think properly is exactly what Jesus is addressing to the crowds before He gets interrupted with this news of Pilate’s misbehavior.
“And He was also saying to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming,’ and so it turns out. 55 “And when you see a south wind blowing, you say, ‘It will be a hot day,’ and it turns out that way. 56 “You hypocrites! You know how to analyze the appearance of the earth and the sky, but why do you not analyze this present time? 57 “And why do you not even on your own initiative judge what is right?
He’s saying that we can read these physical signs regarding the weather and even forecast what is coming by what we see in the present, but when it comes to spiritual things we cannot properly assess anything.
Jesus is as much as telling them, ‘Here is the Son of Man, come into the world as promised, doing miracles, healing the blind, even raising the dead back to life, preaching the good news of the Kingdom of Heaven, and you who can so accurately predict tomorrow’s weather can’t even see what is before your eyes!’
Sin! This is what sin has done to our thinking! And people speculate about the spiritual realm – they arbitrarily decide what they want to believe about the unseen and about eternity and whether there is anything after this life, and in their silliness, in their sinfulness, they persuade themselves that they are right, when the one and only source they can cite is their own silly speculation.
Sometimes they listen to someone else spouting their own silly speculations and they choose to believe that. But the only source they can cite is that other silly, sinful, presumptuous person. That’s all! That’s all they have, and yet they pride themselves in it.
They might even be very intelligent. They might be experts in their field of study. On a personal note, I once knew a military Colonel for whom I had a great deal of respect as an officer and as a man. But he decided there is no devil, that what the Bible calls the devil or Satan or any of the other names it gives to that beast, is only symbolic of evil in general and that there is no created entity called the devil. Why? He couldn’t give me an answer; he just chose not to believe in a personal devil.
See what sin does to our thinking? It brings us to ignore truth no matter how clearly it is presented to us. It brings us to believe the lie because the lie is easier on our palate than the truth. It causes us, as we will see in our text, to see things askew as though through a foggy, mottled glass, and get things all turned, twisted and perverted in our heads.
Folks, we need the Scriptures and we need the Holy Spirit and we need Jesus teaching us how to think rightly; because without the help of God we never can, never will – and those without hope and without God in the world, will never think clearly or wisely or with any understanding at all about spiritual truth because they are hopelessly deluded in their sin and they can not think rightly about any of it.
Paul to the Corinthians:
“But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.” 1 Cor 2:14
So what do we see Jesus doing here? He seemingly ignores this tidbit of news that has come to Him. Are they simply gossiping? No matter. Are they wanting to trick Him into revealing His political loyalties? No matter. Are they wanting to know why God would allow this thing to happen?
It doesn’t matter.
What does? That they get their thinking right!
WHAT JESUS WANTS US TO KNOW
Do you remember reading at the end of John’s Gospel, when the risen Jesus met His disciples on the shore of the sea and gave them breakfast and reinstated Peter? As they walked on down the road, Peter looked back and saw John walking behind and he asked Jesus, ‘What about him?’. In response Jesus said, ‘If I want him to live until I return, what is that to you? You follow Me.’
Well that is very much like what is going on in this situation. He is exhorting to right thinking.
Jesus has been teaching about discernment and the lack of discernment in the sinful mind and He simply continues His line of thought in the face of this news that has come to Him.
“Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate?
It was commonly believed in that ancient world, as it is in many places and cultures in our day, that when misfortune befell someone it was because of their sin, because of something they had done wrong, because of their pagan beliefs or something along those lines.
Do you know what I find very interesting? The people who would say for instance that some large earthquake or flash flood that took out thousands of people was a judgment from God for their sin, would never say that any evil befalling them was because of their own sin.
We just cannot see the same sin in ourselves that we see so clearly in others. It’s a fact.
King David gave us a good example of that in his reaction to Nathan’s story of the one ewe lamb and the evil landowner who took it away from the poor man in order to provide a meal for his guests. What was David’s response? That man deserves to die! Imagine the shock on his face when the prophet pointed and declared, “YOU are the man!”
And don’t you just love the righteous indignation? He had Bathsheba’s husband murdered to cover up his adultery with her, but by golly, he is going to see to it that this mean rich man pays for what he did to a little ewe lamb.
“You hypocrite!” says Jesus. “First take the log out of your own eye” Matt 7:5
But no, we can’t see it in ourselves with the precision clarity with which we think we see it in others.
“Lord, why was this man born blind? Was it because he sinned, or his parents?” Remember that from John 9? How foolish is that question? And what faithlessness in the goodness of God does it demonstrate?
Is God going to appoint a man to lifelong blindness because of something his parents did before he was born? On the other hand, could he have sinned before he was born and thus deserved blindness? Did he commit some great crime in the womb?
See how silly we are with our backward thinking?
Do you suppose these particular Galileans were more sinful than all the rest of the Galileans? Don’t be foolish! But just in case their defense would come, ‘Oh, no, Lord, we know it was Pilate’s fault’, He asks a second question. What about when that tower fell near the pool of Siloam and crushed 18? Whose fault was that? Surely not Pilate’s… so if we follow your line of reasoning we can only expect that you will now blame God.
Right? If the murder was Pilate’s fault and someone must get the blame when seemingly innocent people die, then the column falling had to be God’s fault.
See where our fallen, sinful thinking takes us?
JESUS CUTS TO THE TRUTH
What Jesus is going to bring to their attention in very direct and personal terms, is that they are asking the wrong question. They are thinking wrongly.
Did these die because of their sin? Wrong question! What you should be asking is ‘Why am I still alive?’
Store this away for your private mediations, Christ-followers. When out of our sinful thinking we ask the wrong questions, the end result is always that we question God’s character, His wisdom, His goodness. On the other hand, when we ask the right questions the end result is always that we come to witness the goodness and grace of the God who loves us.
When we ask, ‘Why would God let this happen?’, it leads to blaming God for some misfortune. When we ask, ‘Why would God preserve me from harm?’, it leads eventually to considering His grace and unmerited love.
You’ll see what I mean before I’m done.
So the right question is not ‘Why did they die’, but ‘Why do I continue to live?’ Doesn’t the Bible say that all have sinned? Doesn’t the Bible say the wages of sin is death?
So when the tsunami hits, or the earthquake, or the flash flood, or the heart attack or the multiple car pile up on the freeway, what do you think? What do you ask? What is your thinking about those who died suddenly?
Shouldn’t you be wondering why God allows you to go on? I’ll tell you something, Christians. It isn’t because you’re Christians!
Everybody deserves death and everyone dies. We know that, don’t we? So why do we think of it so little? You know, that is the purpose of preaching the Gospel; to get people to think about the fact that eventually they are going to die, and when they do, they will find themselves before God.
The purpose of preaching the Gospel is to get people to ask themselves what defense they will give for themselves when they are suddenly standing there and there is no going back. That’s why they don’t like it. They don’t want to think about it. They don’t want to think that they could be in the next tsunami or the next earthquake or flash flood or vehicular pile up.
Commentator, Warren Wiersbe, asked his friend a question. Now, I don’t know why he would ask this question; it seems pointless to ask. But he says he did; he even wrote it for us to read.
“I asked a friend of mine what the death rate was in his city, and he replied, “One apiece.” Then he added, “People are dying who never died before.”
Friends and family, just because you’ve never died before doesn’t mean it won’t happen. And here’s where we come to the point Jesus made when He cut through the nonsense and got down to the meat of the matter.
‘I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish’
What did He mean by ‘likewise’? Did Jesus mean that unless they repented they’d all be killed by Pilate, or that they would all be smashed by falling towers? Of course not. If He meant that, then the rest of us are safe. Pilate is long dead and all we have to do is steer clear of rickety looking towers.
Jesus is saying to them what He says to you and to me. Turn your thinking around. Repent. Change your mind about things and turn to God, because those who refuse to do so, PERISH!
You see, with Jesus the focus was not on the dead but on the living. It was not on those who had died and why they died or why God allowed it or whether they deserved it – Jesus ignored all those issues and got to the point – change your thinking! Change your thinking about God and about who He is and who you are and repent while you still can. Everyone dies; your turn may be soon and it may be sudden.
So for emphasis He asks His second question, “Do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
Everyone dies. What is the rate of death in our town? One each. Have you repented? Is your thinking about God still as one who wishes He’d just go away and that you wouldn’t have to think about Him because you don’t want to be accountable to Him? Then you are against God. Turn around. Change your thinking. Repent.
A PARABLE OF JUDGMENT AND GRACE
Now verse 6 says, ‘And He began telling this parable.’ So we know that the parable is meant to illustrate a truth; more specifically, the truth He has been just teaching. It’s not unrelated, it’s not as though Jesus suddenly had this inspiration and thought of a good story to break the tension.
He has something to say that is for the nation and also for the individual.
We have learned in past studies that the prophets of the Bible were always addressing their contemporaries as they preached and they were giving admonition and warning related to what was going on at the time they spoke, but at the same time the word they had from the Lord had meaning for the prophetic future and for the individual to consider personally.
We can apply the same principle here. Jesus in telling this parable is speaking to the nation of Israel, and to the individual, and His message is clearly as applicable to every man, woman and child of today’s world as it was the day He spoke it.
First of all, it was a message directed to the people around Him and the nation as a whole.
Israel was on the threshold of rejecting her long-awaited Messiah and they were hearing their final exhortations to change their thinking and humble themselves before God.
Oh, they were so concerned with the ‘other guy’. Listen, Christians. When legalism reigns, whether in a church or a nation or even in the individual heart, the focus will always be on what the other guy is doing. Is he getting away with anything? Because if I can’t do it he shouldn’t get to either. Is he or she engaging in something that will bring shame on the rest of us? Why did that calamity come upon those folks? Oh, they were doing that? Well, I don’t do that. See what I mean?
I want to bring two verses to your attention that relate directly to this parable. They are Luke 3:8 and 9. John the Baptist is preaching repentance to the people who have come out to see him. The voice of the Lord has been silent for 400 years, and suddenly people are saying, ‘Hey, there’s a guy in the wilderness preaching and saying that the word of the Lord has come to him. Let’s go see’
So Pharisees are there and Roman soldiers are there and multitudes of the common folk are there. And John is telling the Jews that it is useless to be proud of their heritage and depend on that alone to gain God’s favor. He’s calling for repentance. He says to them, “Therefore, bring forth fruits in keeping with repentance…” and in verse 9, “…the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
So what kind of fruit is he calling for, and what kind of fruit is Jesus looking for when He tells His parable of the fig tree? The fruit of repentance! He isn’t generalizing here; He is exhorting to repentance – to right thinking about themselves and about God, and he is telling them as John did several years before, that the axe is laying at the root and the owner of the Vineyard is weary of coming again and again and finding no fruit.
Did they repent? Did they change their thinking? Well, we know very well that they did not. They rejected their Messiah and they crucified Him, and less than 40 years later they were cut off.
But their history is not done and that is another study. What I want you to see in closing today is that this parable of Jesus is one of justice and it is also a parable of grace.
If it was about judgment only, the only character in the story would be the owner of the vineyard and he would be swinging the axe to the very root of the fruitless tree.
But it is a parable of grace and there is another there; the vine keeper. It is he who cares for the vineyard. It is he who faithfully breaks up the hard ground and turns it and adds fertilizer and water, and he persuades the owner to let him try for one more year. Just one more year and if there is no fruit then let judgment fall.
And you who are hearing this (reading this) today need to understand, that it is only by God’s amazing grace that you continue to live.
You are not immune to the maladies that ravage all of humankind. You are not impervious to the bullet or the knife or the speeding car or the falling airplane. You cannot say to the wind and the waves, ‘Peace! Be still!’
“He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” Matt 5:45
Whether you are a born again believer or someone who has never even considered the claims of Christ, Jesus calls for a response from you in these words of His.
I tell you…unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
No matter how good you are or think you are, whether you are 8 or 80, your thinking about God is wrong and that is sin. If you did nothing else wrong or bad or inappropriate, if your every other thought was pure and you never in your life had an evil thought toward anyone, you would be guilty of sin because you have thought wrongly about God.
Jesus exhorts to you right thinking today when He calls for repentance. What happened to that other person is not your concern. What befell that other group is all in God’s control and authority. Never mind all that. Unless you repent, you too will all likewise perish.
But that is a warning issued in love, both for the believer and the unbeliever. Because what Jesus says to all of us in this parable He has told, and what He has said to all of us in His exhortation to repent, is that there is still time. It is still available.
There will come a time for each one when it is too late. Death comes. One each. Then the judgment. But now it is the time of grace, and when Jesus says ‘repent’ it is an urgent cry from the One who cares the most to turn away from judgment, to avoid perishing, to bear the fruit for which He has so tenderly dug and fed and watered, and live.
Now I’m not teaching some new doctrine here and saying that the believer must repent to avoid perishing. The believer should live in a constant state of repentance. The believer with the Holy Spirit knows as no one else can know, that he or she is by nature a sinful creature and in need of God’s daily grace and the provision made at the cross for cleansing and forgiveness and sanctification.
The true believer also knows as no one else can know that his or her thinking will be contrary to Godly thinking without the Holy Spirit’s help. But we all need reminders don’t we? And the only difference between the believer and the unbeliever is an eternal difference. We who have believed are safe in His hands now, but the Vine Keeper continues to prune and straighten and purge and feed – while His warning continues to go out to all who will hear and respond in faith, unless you repent, you will perish.
Did you hear? Then it is not too late. Bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance, and live.
