Now on the same occasion there were some present who reported to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. And Jesus said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 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? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” 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. 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?’ And he answered and said to him, ‘Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; and if it bears fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut it down.’” (13:1–9)

We live in an era unlike any other in history, an era in which the media provides instant mass communication that keeps people in touch with what is happening all over the world. But the relentless ocean of detailed information, pictures, and videos that floods our TV screens, computer monitors, and cell phones also ensures that we are not isolated from calamities, no matter where they happen. Deadly natural disasters such as earthquakes like those in Mexico, Chile, China, or Japan, tsunamis in the Indian Ocean, volcanic eruptions in Iceland or the Philippines, hurricanes along the eastern seaboard and Gulf coast of the United States, typhoons in Asia, wildfires in Australia or the American Southwest, avalanches in Europe, epidemics in third-world countries, famines in Africa, as well as man-made disasters, such as wars, terrorism, genocide, crimes, riots, and accidents, along with social and economic crises throughout the world, all flood our senses, causing people everywhere to experience vicariously all the pain, sorrow, suffering, and death those catastrophes bring.

That life on this fallen, sin-cursed planet is filled with trouble, sorrow, pain, and suffering is more evident than ever, but has always been the clear testimony of Scripture. One of Job’s self-appointed counselors accurately declared, “Man is born for trouble, as sparks fly upward” (Job 5:7), an assessment with which Job agreed: “Man, who is born of woman, is short-lived and full of turmoil” (Job 14:1). “Why did I ever come forth from the womb to look on trouble and sorrow,” Jeremiah lamented, “so that my days have been spent in shame?” (Jer. 20:18).

Even more disturbing is the perception that God sometimes seems distant and unconcerned about the world’s troubles. Job cried out despondently, “Why do You hide Your face and consider me Your enemy?” (Job 13:24). The psalmist asked pensively, “Why do You stand afar off, O Lord? Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble?” (Ps. 10:1). Speaking for Israel the sons of Korah asked, “Why do You hide Your face and forget our affliction and our oppression?” (Ps. 44:24). Isaiah wrote, “Truly, you are a God who hides Himself, O God of Israel, Savior!” (Isa. 45:15). David too had moments of doubt and discouragement. In Psalm 13:1 he asked despairingly “How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?” (cf. Pss. 77:7–9; 88:14), while in Psalm 22:1 he expressed his anguish in words later uttered by the Lord Jesus Christ in application to His experience on the cross: “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” (cf. Matt. 27:46).

The universality of suffering and God’s seeming indifference to it prompts many to ask why He allows bad things to happen to good people. But that question misses the point. No one is truly good, because “there is no man who does not sin” (1 Kings 8:46); “there is no one who does good” (Ps. 14:1); in God’s “sight no man living is righteous” (Ps. 143:2); no one can say, “I have cleansed my heart, I am pure from my sin” (Prov. 20:9); “there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins” (Eccl. 7:20). Since “all have sinned” (Rom. 3:23) and “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23), everyone deserves death. The real question is not why bad things happen to good people, but why good things happen to bad people. That they do reflects God’s compassion, grace, and mercy to undeserving sinners.

Because redeemed sinners still live in a fallen world, bad things also happen to believers. But unlike what happens to unbelievers, when believers experience the same calamities, they are not judgments, but remedial trials to benefit them spiritually and bring honor to God. Scripture says that God permits this for several important reasons.

First, God allows bad things to happen to His people to test the validity of their faith. Not for His benefit since He, of course, knows every person’s heart (Ps. 44:21; Acts 15:8). But the tests and trials Christians undergo reveal to those being tested whether their faith is genuine. Peter wrote,

Second, God allows bad things to happen to His people to teach them not to depend on themselves, but on His divine resources. “For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren,” Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead” (2 Cor. 1:8–9; cf. 12:7–10).

Third, God allows bad things to happen to His people to remind them of their heavenly hope. Paul revealed the path of trials to hope when he told the Romans, “We also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint” (Rom. 5:3–5; cf. 2 Cor. 4:17–18). Trials take believers to the place where they hope for heaven, where none of the disappointments and suffering of this life will exist or be remembered.

Fourth, God allows bad things to happen to His people to reveal to them what they really love. Those who love the Lord will seek the proven character that suffering produces (Rom. 5:3–4), and willingly suffer in the process of being made more like the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Acts 5:41; 1 Peter 4:13). On the other hand, those whose affections are set on worldly things will react with disappointment, despair, and even anger when trials take those things from them.

Fifth, God allows bad things to happen to His people to teach them obedience. The psalmist acknowledged, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word…. It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes” (Ps. 119:67, 71). Trouble is discipline from the Lord, which God uses to help believers increase in obedience and holiness (Heb. 12:5–11).

Sixth, God allows bad things to happen to His people so He can show them His compassion (Ps. 103:13). Believers never know God more intimately than when He comforts them in their affliction. It is then that the God of all comfort is near (cf. 2 Cor. 1:4–5).

Seventh, God allows bad things to happen to His people to prepare them for greater usefulness (James 1:2–4). The more they are tested and refined by trials, the more effective their service will be.

Finally, God allows bad things to happen to His people so they can be better equipped to comfort others in their trials, as was the case with Peter (Luke 22:31–32). Second Corinthians 1:4, 6 says,

And the overarching truth that covers all these purposes is that God, in these hard realities, “causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28).

To the Jewish people of Jesus’ day, the explanation of why bad things happened to people was singular and simple: calamities were always God’s judgment on sin. In the Old Testament Job’s friends reflected that mindset. They continually accused him of hidden sin and exhorted him to confess it. “Remember now,” asked Eliphaz, “who ever perished being innocent? Or where were the upright destroyed?” (Job 4:7; cf. 8:20; 22:5–10). The disciples asked Jesus concerning a man born blind, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” (John 9:2).

But their theology was wrong; calamities are not God’s way of singling out especially wicked people for punishment, as if those who die in a calamity are worse than those who survive. The truth is that all people are guilty sinners deserving of death, and everyone is living on borrowed time. God withholds judgment for a time because He is patient and merciful (Ex. 34:6; Num. 14:18; Pss. 86:15; 103:8)—even to pagan Gentiles (Jonah 3–4), while only those who fear Him savingly will experience God’s forgiveness and blessing forever (Ps. 103:17–18). His patience toward those who reject Him will eventually come to an end (Gen. 6:3; Hos. 4:17; 5:6; 9:12).

God’s patience provides an opportunity for salvation by giving people time to repent. Paul rebuked those who “think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads [them] to repentance” (Rom. 2:4), and offered himself as an example of Christ’s perfect patience toward those who believe in Him and receive eternal life (1 Tim. 1:16). Peter wrote that “the Lord is … patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

Jesus rejected the faulty theology that views calamity as God’s judgment on particularly wicked people and taught that all sinners are living on borrowed time. He did so both through direct instruction, and by means of illustrations.

THE INSTRUCTION

Now on the same occasion there were some present who reported to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. And Jesus said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 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? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” (13:1–5)

Christ’s instruction called to mind two sensational disasters with which His hearers were familiar. After discussing those calamities, the Lord turned His attention to the true calamity that faces everyone.

THE TEMPLE CALAMITY

Now on the same occasion there were some present who reported to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. And Jesus said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? I tell you, no, (13:1–3a).

The phrase on the same occasion connects this section of the Lord’s discourse with the preceding one, in which He had discussed judgment (12:49–59). This was the third time that this discourse, which began in 12:1, was interrupted (cf. 12:13, 41), as Christ’s teaching on judgment prompted a serious and real ethical query so that some of those present asked Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.

Pontius Pilate was the fifth Roman governor of Judea. He had been appointed by Tiberius in A.D. 26 and remained in office until he was removed in A.D. 36. Pilate was proud, arrogant, and cynical (cf. John 18:38), and at the same time weak and vacillating. The incident referred to on this occasion was typical of Pilate’s rule as governor, which was marked by insensitivity and brutality. Reversing the policy of earlier Roman governors, Pilate had made a grand entrance by marching his troops into Jerusalem carrying standards bearing images that the Jews viewed as idolatrous. The populace protested vehemently against what they viewed as a sacrilege. Pilate ignored their protests and ordered them, on pain of death, to stop the protest. But they called his bluff, and dared him to carry out his threat of execution. Sane enough to be unwilling to massacre many people, Pilate was forced to remove the offending standards. The story is indicative of his poor judgment, stubbornness, arrogance, and vacillation. Pilate again enraged the Jews by taking money from their temple treasury to build an aqueduct to bring water to Jerusalem. In the ensuing protest riots, his soldiers beat and slaughtered many of the protesters.

The specific incident mentioned here involving the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices is consistent with what is known of Pilate’s character. Such incidents were all too common at that time in Israel (cf. Darrell L. Bock, Luke 9:51–24:53, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996], 1205). These Galileans may have been involved in some rebellious act against the Romans, who then tracked them to Jerusalem and slaughtered them there. The incident took place in the temple grounds, since the temple was the only place in Israel where sacrifices were offered. It probably happened at Passover, when large numbers of Galileans would have been offering sacrifices. The constant tension between Jews and Romans, coupled with Pilate’s brutality, no doubt resulted in many similar unrecorded incidents. Whatever the particulars, Pilate sent his soldiers into the place of sacrifice and slaughtered the Galilean Jews. The ethical question was whether those poor Galileans were worse sinners than all the other people in the temple who were not killed. Their theology, as stated earlier, forced them to this dilemma. If suffering was always a judgment on sin, then these had to be the worst sinners. But they were in the very act of repentance and obedience to God’s command to sacrifice.

The Lord understood the thoughts and replied, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? That is exactly what they thought. But He said, I tell you, no.” That answer had to have caught them off guard, since it emphatically rejected their conventional theological wisdom. (Both here and in verse 5 ouchi [no] is in the emphatic position at the beginning of the sentence.) According to that view, the Galileans in question were worse sinners than others in the temple, or for that matter in Galilee, therefore God allowed them to be slaughtered.

It is true that God sometimes immediately judges sinners for a specific sin, as He did Herod (Acts 12:21–23). There are also built-in judgments for sinful behavior, such as alcohol abuse leading to cirrhosis of the liver, immorality leading to sexually transmitted diseases, or criminal behavior leading to a violent death. Those judgments are not in view here. Jesus was not referring to the inevitable consequences of sin, but rather to catastrophic calamities that fall on people seemingly without discrimination.

For example, half a century after this incident the Roman town of Pompeii would be destroyed by a cataclysmic eruption of Mount Vesuvius. In modern times it was excavated, revealing pornographic images and brothels that testified to its immoral lifestyle. Some might therefore consider its destruction to be God’s judgment. But the surrounding towns were no less immoral, and not all of Pompeii’s residents engaged in that sordid lifestyle. There may even have been some Christians there who perished along with the rest. Throughout history accidents, natural disasters, crime, and war have killed unbelievers at all points of the moral spectrum, as well as believers. For the unbelievers this means eternal judgment in hell, but for believers it brings eternal blessing in heaven.

The Lord’s point is that those who perish in such calamities are no worse sinners than those who survive. Those who live do so because though they deserve to die, God withholds what they deserve for a time in mercy. He allows sinners to live because He is compassionate, gracious, merciful, and “patient toward [them], not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). But God uses calamities to remind all people that death is often an imminent surprise for which they need to be prepared. The exhortation of Jim Elliot, missionary and martyr, is fitting: “When it comes time to die, make sure that all you have to do is die” (cited in Elisabeth Elliot, Through Gates of Splendor [Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale, 1981], 253).

THE TOWER CALAMITY

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? I tell you, no, (13:4–5a)

The people of Jerusalem and Judea looked down on the Galileans as inferior (cf. John 7:52). But Jesus’ follow up question, 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? referred to an incident involving Jerusalemites. Like the previous one involving Galileans, nothing further is known about this incident. Siloam is a section of Jerusalem near the southeast corner of the city wall. Water flowed into the pool of Siloam (John 9:7) from the Gihon spring in the Kidron Valley through a tunnel constructed by Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:20). (The pool of Siloam has recently been rediscovered. See “The Pool of Siloam Revealed” [www.bibleplaces.com/poolofsiloam.htm].) A tower, perhaps associated with the construction of the Roman aqueduct, fell and killed eighteen people. That tragic calamity did not happen to them because those folks were the dregs of Jerusalem’s society, since Jesus specifically declared that they were not worse culprits (lit., “debtors”; i.e., to God for violating His law) than all the other men who lived in Jerusalem. This second illustration reinforced the Lord’s point that natural calamity is not simply God’s way of singling out particularly evil people for judgment.

THE TRUE CALAMITY

but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish (13:3b, 5b)

This twice-repeated phrase introduces the inevitable calamity that everyone faces. That most severe judgment, from which no one escapes, is that unless people repent, when they die they will all likewise (not in the same manner, but with the same certainty) perish eternally (cf. Heb. 9:27). In the terms of the Lord’s analogy, they need to settle their case before they face the divine judge and it is too late (see the exposition of 12:58–59 in the previous chapter of this volume).

Most of the Jewish people were caught up in a works-righteousness system that forced people to view themselves as good based on selective and superficial perception. Consequently, they refused to see themselves as sinners and therefore rejected (Matt. 11:20) Jesus’ call for them to repent (Matt. 4:17), just as they had John the Baptist’s before Him (Matt. 3:2). Ultimately, it was because Jesus rejected the Jewish people’s hypocritical self-righteousness, categorized them as spiritually blind and impoverished, and boldly confronted their need for repentance that they plotted to murder Him.

Repentance involves two elements. First, sinners must change their mind about their sinfulness. They must acknowledge that God’s law is absolutely holy and binding on them, that they have violated it, and deserve eternal punishment in hell. Repentant sinners must first agree that God’s diagnosis of their wretched, sinful condition is just and accurate, and that they are powerless to deliver themselves from sin’s death grip on them.

The second element of repentance is to affirm that Jesus Christ is the only Savior (cf. Luke 24:47). Repentance is not merely turning from sin, but also turning to God through Christ (cf. 1 Thess. 1:9–10). (I discuss repentance in my books The Gospel According to Jesus [Revised and expanded anniversary edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1988, 1993, 2008] and The Gospel According to the Apostles [Nashville: Word, 1993, 2000].)

THE ILLUSTRATION

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. 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?’ And he answered and said to him, ‘Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; and if it bears fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut it down.’” (13:6–9)

This penetrating parable concludes Luke’s record of the Lord’s monumental evangelistic sermon that began in 12:1. It reinforces Jesus’ point that everyone is living on borrowed time.

A parable is an extended analogy or illustration intended to elucidate one point, not an allegory where most or all of the elements carry a symbolic meaning. This is a simple and straightforward analogy that would have been readily understandable to those in an agrarian society. Fig trees were common in Israel (fig trees and figs are mentioned more than fifty times in Scripture). Under favorable conditions, they could reach a height of twenty-five feet. In addition to providing fruit, fig trees were an excellent source of shade (cf. John 1:48).

The Lord’s story opens with Him inventing a man who had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard. Since it was protected, well-watered, and fertilized, a vineyard was an ideal place to plant a fig tree. Repeatedly, at the appropriate season, he came looking for fruit on it, but to his dismay he did not find any. This was an unexpected turn of events, since fig trees normally bore fruit every year, and this one was planted in an especially favorable location. In frustration, he expressed his disappointment and 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?” The last statement was not an expression of concern that the barren tree was wasting nutrients that other plants could use. It was rather an expression of disgust over the fruitless tree’s uselessness.

But the keeper interceded and said to him, “Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; and if it bears fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut it down.” He proposed giving the tree one more year to bear fruit in which he would work on it by cultivating and fertilizing the soil around it. Then if it bore fruit the next year, fine; but if not, he agreed that it should be cut down. The Greek grammar of those two clauses provides a key to understanding the parable. The fig tree represents Israel (see below). The first conditional clause, if it bears fruit, is a third class condition, which expresses something that is unlikely to happen. The next conditional clause, if not, cut it down, is a first-class condition, which expresses something likely to happen. The parable illustrates the tragic reality that Israel would continue to fail to bear spiritual fruit even after the arrival of Jesus as Messiah, and would finally be destroyed. Like the tree in the parable, Israel was living on borrowed time and demonstrated little reason to hope for anything different in the future.

Five implications, which sum up the Lord’s teaching in this section, may be drawn from this parable.

First, the solitary fig tree has an individual application, both national and personal. The national application is to Israel, which like this tree was planted in very fertile, well-tended ground (Isa. 5:1–2). The people of Israel had received continual blessings from God, including “the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises … the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh” (Rom. 9:4–5). But despite those rich privileges Israel, like the fig tree, failed to produce spiritual life (Isa. 5:3–4; cf. Matt. 21:18–20). The nation was already apostate before Jesus began His ministry. His forerunner John the Baptist had denounced the people as hypocrites (Matt. 3:7), and warned of coming judgment (v. 10). And nothing changed during our Lord’s time in the land.

In fact, in the last year of Jesus’ ministry, the people remained fixed in unbelief and judgment was fast approaching. There was still time to repent and live before the crucifixion; time for them to hear and believe teaching from Jesus and to repent in the face of more displays of His miraculous power—including one of the most remarkable of all, the raising of Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1–45). But because of their hardened hearts, there was little hope that they would bear the fruit of repentance (cf. Luke 13:34–35; 19:41–44; 20:9–18; 21:20–24). The axe of divine judgment would fall and Israel would be destroyed in a holocaust by the Romans a mere four decades later.

The final four implications are personal. The second one is that those who fail to produce the spiritual fruit that accompanies salvation will be cut down in judgment.

Third, judgment is near; next year in the parable. At any moment the unsaved could perish, lose their last chance of salvation, and face eternal punishment.

Fourth, the delay in divine judgment is not due to any worthiness on the part of sinners, as the vineyard owner’s disgusted statement, Why does it even use up the ground? illustrates.

Finally, God’s patience with those living on borrowed time is not permanent. Therefore the Bible exhorts sinners to “seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near” (Isa. 55:6). Jesus warned that generation, “For a little while longer I am with you, then I go to Him who sent Me” (John 7:33); “I go away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come” (John 8:21). For those living on borrowed time “now is the acceptable time, behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2), before their time is up and their eternal destiny sealed.