The Tower, and the Barren Fig Tree
1 Now there were some present at the same time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered such things? 3 I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all perish in the same way. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the men who dwell in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no, but, unless you repent, you will all perish in the same way.” 6 He spoke this parable. “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. 7 He said to the vine dresser, ‘Behold, these three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and found none. Cut it down! Why does it waste the soil?’ 8 He answered, ‘Lord, leave it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit, fine; but if not, after that, you can cut it down.’”
Two disasters are brought to him as evidence about the victims, and he refuses the inference twice.
Now there were some present at the same time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.
The atrocity is recorded nowhere else. Pilate had pilgrims killed in the temple courts while they were offering, which is why the phrase is so appalling — their own blood and the blood of the sacrifice on the same floor.
The report is brought as news, and the question underneath it is the ancient one: what had they done to deserve it?
2 Jesus answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered such things? 3 I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all perish in the same way.
The inference is refused flatly. Suffering is not evidence of guilt, and the assumption that it is — the assumption Job's friends made at length — is denied in four words.
Then he supplies a second case himself, and it is a different kind. "Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them" Luke 13:4. The first was murder by a governor; this is an accident. Neither carries the meaning people want to read into it.
"But unless you repent, you will all perish in the same way" Luke 13:3 Luke 13:5.
The refusal is not the end of the answer, and what follows is sharper than what was refused. The right conclusion from a disaster is not a verdict about the victims but a question about the observer. What such news establishes is that people die without notice, which is information about everybody in the room.
He spoke this parable. “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none.
The parable that follows is this Gospel's alone, and it answers the obvious objection: if judgment is deserved, why has it not come?
A fig planted in a vineyard occupies good ground that could be growing vines. Three years is beyond the point where a verdict is reasonable, and the owner's instruction is not harsh — cut it down! Why does it waste the soil? Luke 13:7.
He answered, ‘Lord, leave it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it.
The vine dresser does not argue that the tree deserves more time. He asks for a year and offers to spend it working — digging and manuring, the two dirtiest jobs in the vineyard, on a tree with no record.
If it bears fruit, fine; but if not, after that, you can cut it down.’”
The reprieve is real and it is not indefinite, and the parable is honest about both halves. What the delay is filled with is care rather than mere postponement — which is the answer to why judgment has not fallen on anyone in that crowd.
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