6. A call to repentance 13:1-9

Another comment by some people in the crowd led Jesus to give further teaching that He illustrated with another parable. The connecting idea with what precedes is judgment.

 The need for repentance 13:1-5

13:1 Luke linked this incident chronologically with the preceding one. Apparently messengers from Jerusalem had just arrived with news about Pilate's act. This is the usual force of the Greek verb apaggello, translated "reported"or "told."Some Galileans had been in Jerusalem offering sacrifices at the temple. This may have been at Passover since only then did non-priests offers sacrifices.³¹⁸Pilate, the Roman governor of the province of Judea, may have killed them beside the altar in the temple courtyard. However the figure of speech that Luke used to describe Pilate's action permits a somewhat looser interpretation. There are no extra-biblical references to this event currently extant.

13:2-3 Many of the Jews in Jesus' day believed that tragedy or accident was the direct result of some personal sin (cf. John 9:1-3). Thus they concluded that the Galileans who had perished must have been great sinners. They based this view on a faulty theory of divine retribution (cf. Job 4:7; 8:20; 22:4-5). Jesus repudiated this theory and viewed the death of the Galileans as the consequence of sin generally. Jesus stressed the error of their view by placing the word "no"(Gr. ouchi) first in the sentence for emphasis (cf. v. 4). He then drew a conclusion. Therefore everyone needs to repent because everyone is a sinner, and all sin brings judgment.

13:4-5 Jesus reinforced His point by citing another apparently recent tragedy and repudiating the common view of judgment again. The pool of Siloam lay in the southeastern quarter of Jerusalem.³¹⁹The Greek word opheiletai("culprits"or "more guilty") means debtors. The Jews used this term as a synonym for sinners (cf. Matt. 6:12; 18:24). Jesus asserted that people who experience calamities are not necessarily worse sinners than people who do not. More important all people face God's judgment unless they repent.

 The parable of the fruitless fig tree 13:6-9

This parable illustrated the need for repentance, but it also drew attention to God's grace in allowing time for repentance.

13:6-7 The parable as a whole is very similar to Isaiah 5:1-7, though there the plant in view was a grapevine. The fig tree was another popular symbol of Israel (cf. Hos. 9:10; Jer. 8:13; 24:1-8; Mic. 7:1). By referring to a fig tree and a vineyard together Jesus left no doubt that He was speaking of Israel. God expected to find the fruit of repentance in Israel but found virtually none. He had not found fruit in it for a long time, so He planned to judge it because it was not fulfilling its purpose.

13:8-9 God was gracious with Israel and gave it more time to bear fruit. The implication seems to be that Israel was in this grace period during the ministry of Jesus. His ministry stirred up the nation and infused elements that should have resulted in fruit. Israel's response to Him would determine her national fate. Therefore repentance was crucial immediately since the grace period was relatively short.

Perhaps Paul had this parable in mind when he compared Israel to an olive tree and revealed Israel's fate further (Rom. 11:17-24).