Pastor Scott Andrews | January 11, 2026
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Luke 13:1-9
In any tragedy – especially those bringing loss of life, whether caused by humans or the forces of nature – there are commonly asked questions, like why? Why did this happen? Who did it? Who was at fault? Did the victim(s) deserve it – that is, did they bring the tragedy by their actions? Were they asking for it? Was the “perpetrator” in the wrong, or in the right? You see, we are always seeking to assign blame somewhere, usually outside ourselves. Then of course, there are the often-asked questions of theodicy – that is, God’s involvement in the tragedy. It’s called a theology of evil. Why does evil happen? Why does God allow it? Why do bad things happen to good people? Bad things that, if there is a good God, He could have, and from our perspective, even should have prevented.
Now, in biblical times – in both the Old and New Testaments – there was a commonly and widely-held belief that if someone suffered a disaster – usually mortal – it was his or her fault. They got what they had coming. Evil finds its way to evil people. Consider, for example, Job’s friends. In the book of Job, probably the first biblical book written, Job was a godly, faithful, and wealthy man. On a single day, he lost it all – all his children, all his resources, all his wealth. He eventually even lost his health, and the support of his wife. So, a few friends showed up to comfort him in the midst of this great evil with words of great consolation. Their comfort is found throughout the book but consider the words of Eliphas in chapter 4, verse 7, “Remember now, who ever perished being innocent? Or where were the upright destroyed?” The innocent does not suffer like this, Job, what did you do? Own up to it. Clearly, you deserved this. We all know how this works, so spill the beans.
If indeed that was the first book written, then that prevailing thought goes back centuries, even millenniums. Roll the clock forward to the NT and the time of Jesus and His disciples. A familiar story appears in John 9. There was a man born blind. When the disciples saw him, they asked the question – one of the questions we all ask – why? Who did it? Who’s responsible? The disciples said, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?”
Do you see the prevailing thought? If this man was blind, somebody sinned. Somebody messed up. Somebody was evil, so he got what he deserved. Even later, when the blind now seeing man having been healed by Jesus, was questioned by the Pharisees, the blind man took them to task. It’s a great story – why do you keep questioning me? I already told you, a Man told me to go wash in the pool of Siloam, and I did, now I see. What, do you want to become His disciples, too? To which they responded, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us?” Even these OT experts held the common belief even though they had the book of Job by this time.
Well, let’s continue to roll the clock forward a couple thousand years – to our day. We’ve kind of swung with the pendulum, though. We talked about this recently, but on September 11, 2001, planes taken over by terrorists were intentionally slammed into the World Trade Center – which came down. On that day, almost 4,000 people lost their lives. As I recall, no one suggested the innocent people on the planes or in the towers deserved it. No – today, the question is almost never, did anyone deserve this tragedy – did evil find evil people? No, the question now is why or how? We know who was guilty – but the question now is why would God allow such an atrocity to happen? Why did these innocent people suffer so?
Three years later, on December 26, 2004, there was an earthquake deep in the Indian Ocean causing a destructive tsunami of such magnitude never seen before. A wave over 100 feet tall crashed into several countries, and almost a quarter-million people lost their lives. Unlike 9/11, this was an unmitigated disaster of nature. But did these 227k people deserve to die – no one would say yes. Did they deserve it – that is no longer the question, or prevailing thought.
Let’s bring it a bit closer to home. I could certainly talk about Hurricane Helene and western NC where over 100 people lost their lives. But a more current event from just last week – not intending to be political. But a tragedy happened last week on January 7 in Minneapolis when an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good. The politicians and news media for the rest of the week have asked and sought to answer the questions. Who is responsible? Did she deserve it? Was the ICE agent justified? We always want to assign blame – who sinned, her or the agent when she died that day? That’s ultimately the question we want to answer, isn’t it? Was justice met, or does someone need to be brought to justice?
We live in a broken world, where evil resides. As Christians, we understand it is a world of our own making. Tragedy, whether by humans, nature, or accident, or God was not the intended design for this world. When God created the world, it was good – more, it was very good. But those created in His image, with the intent purpose of reflecting His glory while in relationship with Him, ruined it. We brought the deserved tragedy and disaster upon ourselves. You see, the question is not, why do bad things happen to good people, but why do good things happen to bad people? We are the guilty ones. Oh, we don’t like to hear that. We want to make God, if there is one, the responsible party – especially for all misfortune and catastrophe. In millenniums past, it was the guilty party who deserved it – today, there is hardly anyone guilty so as to deserve such calamity. What are we to think about all that?
We are not left to wonder. Today in our text – surprise, another difficult one – Jesus addresses, on the one hand, this idea that evil only finds the greatest of sinners or evil people; but, He also addresses the more contemporary idea that any tragedy is ill-deserved by most anyone – well, at least innocent or good people. And He has a purpose in addressing it – and let me tell you at the outset, the purpose, in the face of such tragedy, is to cause us to consider our own mortality, our own depravity, and the only hope we have. Read the text with me – Luke 13:1-9.
The only hope we, actually anyone has, is repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that repentance, according to the parable, must be demonstrated by fruitfulness.
While we have turned the page to the next chapter in this section which extends from chapters 9 to 19 in which Jesus determined to go to Jerusalem and complete the purpose for which He’d come, we are still in the context of the disciples and the ever-present crowds. This context and extended sermon or interchange with the disciples and the crowds began back in chapter 12, verse 1, “Under these circumstances, after so many thousands of people had gathered together that they were stepping on one another, He [Jesus] began saying to His disciples first of all.”
And that conversation goes through verse 12. But then, verse 13, someone in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” And so, Jesus began addressing the crowd, which took us all the way to verse 41, where Peter said, “Lord, are you addressing this parable to us, or to everyone as well?” Which directed Jesus’ attention back to the disciples, through verse 53. In verse 54, He turned His attention back to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming,’ and so it turns out.” Jesus then called out the crowd for being better weathermen than theologians. Called them hypocrites. This is important: He then encouraged them to read the signs – they’re everywhere. And when you see them and understand judgement is coming, settle with your opponent on the way to the magistrate. In other words, you have no case – you will be found guilty before the judge and be handed over to the jailer where you will spend the rest of your life in prison – until you pay every last cent.
That’s important, because throughout chapter 12, like a pinball, everyone is asking for Jesus’ attention – back and forth. And the last thing He said in that chapter was judgment is coming. He told His disciples to be ready for the return of the master – gird up your loins, be prepared with lamps lit. Now, He tells the crowds to be prepared for the coming judgment – don’t wait till it comes – makes things right before it arrives. So again, the context is the Master is returning, and judgment is coming. Be prepared.
Chapter 13 – with the topic of judgment rolling through their minds, on the same occasion, there were some who wanted to know how judgment comes and to whom it comes. Certainly, it comes to those who deserve it, right? Dirty, no good Galileans, right? This was the thought of the day. But what about Judeans – the ones who live right there in Jerusalem. So Jesus drives it home with His answers – and does away with the prevailing thought of their day, evil finds evil, and frankly the prevailing thought of our day, no one’s evil. The outline goes like this:
I. Judgment Comes to Everyone, so Repent (1-5)
II. In the parable, Repentance is Proven by Fruitfulness (6-9)
Listen to me very carefully this morning: the issue is not who is the worst of the worst, who deserves judgment. The issue is, we are all deserving of coming judgment, so we must repent, genuinely repent, and bring fruit in keeping with repentance.
On this same occasion there were some present – in the crowd – who reported to Jesus a seemingly current event. We shouldn’t think necessarily of something that happened yesterday or this week – but it was fairly recent. Remember, they didn’t have cable news or the internet. There were some Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Now, we know Galileans were not well-received by the Jewish Jews of Judea. This question, as Jesus’ answer demonstrates, was a bit accusatory. While Jesus Himself was a Galilean, between the lines, they were asking if this was a deserved judgment.
What had happened? Interestingly, this story does not appear in the Jerusalem Times or any other current source. It’s only recorded here in all the historical records, not even by Josephus. We can deduce some things, though, from the news report. Pilate was the fifth governor of Judea appointed by Tiberius Caesar. It was a challenging assignment because Israel was hotbed – the Jews were always stepping out of line – irritating their Roman overlords.
Pilate’s primary job was to keep the peace by keeping these pesky Jews in line. He stayed either in Caesarea on the Mediterranean coast, or in times of potential problems, in the governor’s quarters in Jerusalem. Those troubling times were typically during Jewish festivals. This particular event was probably Passover, because this was the only one in which the offeror of the sacrifice participated in the sacrifice. It’s possible it was during the previous Passover, some months ago.
We don’t much about the Galileans. Some suggest they were Zealots which is why Pilate killed them. But that’s just a guess – we don’t really know. Notice, they were there to offer sacrifice at the Temple in Jerusalem. And something caused Pilate to kill these guys – seemingly during the sacrifice, because their blood was mixed with the blood of their sacrifice. Hardly anything could have been more offensive than killing worshippers at the Temple during the sacrifice and spilling their blood on the Temple mount and mixing their blood. This was horrible.
By the way, this was in keeping with the kind of guy Pilate was. He ruled from 26 to 36 AD. When he first became governor, he marched into Jerusalem with standards bearing an image of the emperor, which infuriated the Jews as they saw it, rightly, as idolatry. Pilate was warned not to do it – he did it anyway. It resulted in threats of Roman soldiers taking lives of the protestors – the protestors simply bared their necks and said, go ahead. Pilate finally had to relent. There was the time he took Temple money to build an aqueduct into Jerusalem, which infuriated them.
We could go on and on. He was eventually removed from power because of his ineptitude. Anyway, back to the story: these Galileans’ blood was spilled. What do you think, Jesus – did evil come home to roost? Did they deserve it? Look at Jesus’ answer in verse 2 – it’s shocking. “Do you suppose these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate?” Well yeah, that’s our question. This was the widely held belief at this time. Whether or not Pilate was the guilty party who ordered their deaths, they were killed, so they deserved it, right. As I suggested earlier, it would be like saying those in the World Trade Center, while the terrorists were responsible, those in the towers must have been worse sinners to suffer this fate.
But Jesus’ answer does away with that thinking – and takes it in a completely different direction. Verse 3, I tell you, no. No, they weren’t greater sinners and therefore deserved this fate. But He throws a curve – unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. What? His point is – they weren’t worse sinners, but they were sinners, and they did deserve this fate. Wait, was the answer yes or no? No, they weren’t worse sinners, but death awaits all those who sin. As one of my commentators pointed out, the death rate is still 100% for all people, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The circumstances of death may change, but death awaits everyone. The manner of death is not necessarily dictated by the depravity of the sinner, but death and judgment awaits.
Jesus says to these people who reported the tragedy, they didn’t suffer this fate because they were horrible sinners like many suppose. No, they suffered this fate because they were sinners, period. And the same fate – simply death, no matter how it comes, awaits everyone. So, the point of the conversation, for them and us, is to remember and consider your own mortality. And after death comes judgment, and if you are unprepared, you will perish. And perish here does not mean cease to exist – it means you will perish in the second death, the lake of fire. It’s an eschatological perishing.
And the only solution to that terrible fate is repentance. Unless you repent, you will perish. He does away with the prevailing thought of their day, and of ours. There are no innocent people.
Years ago, a big debate arose among evangelicals as to the necessity of repentance for salvation. The position that repentance was necessary was labeled Lordship Salvation. That in order for Jesus to be Savior, He must also be Lord. Those who argued only faith in the finished work of Christ was necessary were pejoratively said to teach easy-believism. To be clear, I came down on the Lordship Salvation side, since Romans 10 says, if you confess Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God Him from the dead, you will be saved. Notice, repentance and faith. It also seems clear here – you cannot simply pray a prayer of faith in the finished work of Christ with no expectation to repent from your sin and see your life changed. I don’t know how Jesus could say it more clearly – unless you repent, you will perish.
Well, if that’s true, what is repentance? Most agree it involves three things: confession, contrition, and a commitment to change. Confession is agreeing that we are guilty of what we have been charged. That is, we have violated, transgressed the law of God, and therefore stand guilty before Him. You see, it doesn’t really matter who is the worst sinner. All sin makes us sinners – and to offend in one point of the law of God is to be guilty of all of it. Yes, as we talked about, there may be levels of punishment. But the fact remains we are all guilty of sin, and as such, we should confess that we stand condemned by the perfect law of a holy God.
Second, not only do we confess, but we experience grief, deep sorrow, and remorse for our sin. Now, it’s not just because we have been caught or even faced consequences. No, we have sinned egregiously before God, and it drives us to our knees that we have offended the holy, righteous God, our Creator, and are therefore deserving of His righteous wrath.
And third, to repent is to commit to change. To turn away from our sin and to God. It’s a turning, a change of mind. To seek Him and by His indwelling Holy Spirit, to seek His righteousness. It is to forsake sin and follow Christ. It is to turn from the sins of commission – not doing what we should not be doing – and to turn from the sins of omission – to commit to do those things we should be doing. Now, to be clear, it is not our actions that save us – but they are proof that we have been saved. And we cannot be saved apart from repentance – this commitment to change.
The Westminster Confession of Faith says that in repentance “a sinner, out of the sight and sense not only of the danger, but also of the filthiness and odiousness of his sins, as contrary to the holy nature, and righteous law of God…so grieves for, and hates his sins, as to turn from them all unto God, purposing and endeavoring to walk with Him in all the ways” He commands.
Philip Ryken says further, “Confession is the intellectual aspect of repentance: we know in our minds we have sinned. Contrition is the emotional aspect of repentance: we feel in our hearts that we have sinned. Change is the volitional aspect of repentance: we resolve in our wills that we will go and sin no more. All three aspects are essential for our repentance to be genuine. It is one thing to know that we have sinned, and another thing to grieve for what we have done. But even that is not enough. We have not truly repented until we have started turning away from sin and towards the righteousness of God.”
Well, we must move quickly. The first example was the death of some Galileans, whom many undoubtedly thought deserved judgment and death. So, Jesus, without being prompted, moves to the second example. Verse 4, “Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits that all the men who live in Jerusalem?” Don’t miss it – He moves from Galileans to Judeans, and not just any Judeans, but those from Jerusalem. They didn’t deserve this, right?
This is another event for which there is no historical record except here. Siloam was located on the southeast corner of Jerusalem. There is a pool there – some of you have been to it. It’s the pool where Jesus told the blind man to go was his eyes in John 9. The southern and eastern walls of the city met there, and there may have been a tower there. Or, others suggest this was where the aqueduct Pilate built passed by, and the men could have fallen to their death while building it.
The point is, these were Judeans of Jerusalem – so they didn’t deserve death, right? But perhaps they were more guilty than other men in Jerusalem, so they deserved it. But Jesus says the same thing of these men that He had said of the Galileans, “I tell you, no” – they weren’t worse. In fact, the word for culprits is actually debtors – they weren’t worse debtors – they were not more in debt to God because of their particular sin. They were just your regular run-of-the-mill sinners. And He drove the same point home – the deaths of others should cause us to consider our own mortality and coming judgment. Unless you repent, you will likewise perish. Again, He doesn’t mean you’ll face some gruesome physical death – He means you will face a gruesome spiritual death. Your only hope is repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Bringing us to the parable in verses 6-9 where we see that this repentance brings change which produces fruit. It’s a simple parable. A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard. Throughout the Scripture, the fig tree or a vineyard is often used as a metaphor or symbol of the nation of Israel. And that’s possible here, after all, He was talking to Jews, and the nation of Israel had been unproductive for centuries. But, that nation is made of individuals, and what Jesus said is applicable to individual people – to include us.
The man planted a fig tree, with the expectation the tree produce fruit. For three years, he came, expecting to harvest the fruit. But for three years, the intended fruit-producing tree bore nothing. Notice the man’s initial patience. He waited for three years, to no avail. So he said, “I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?” It’s worthless – not producing what is expected. It was time for judgment.
We are reminded of the words of John the Baptist in Luke 3, “the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; so every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” You see, John’s message, in preparing the way for the Messiah, was repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And repentance includes a change of heart with a desire to turn from sin and turn toward righteousness, producing the fruits of righteousness.
But notice, the vine-keeper, the gardener, appeals to the man to give him one more year. He would dig around the tree – that is, loosen the soil to allow more water and nutrients to penetrate the roots. He would provide more fertilizer – literally, manure to encourage the tree to produce fruit. And if the tree responded, good and well – for us and for its future. If not, cut it down.
Remember, this is a parable, and not an allegory where we try to assign meaning to every point. Some have wanted to suggest the man is the Father, the vine-keeper is the Son who just spent three years with the nation of Israel, and they were rejecting Him as the Messiah. It’s possible, but likely taking the parable too far and treating it as an allegory.
Rather, the simple point is this: God expects fruit-producing repentance. But He is also patient. He is allowing time for true repentance, which would produce fruit in keeping with repentance. You see, II Peter 3 tells us the so-called delay in the second coming of Christ is simply the patience of the Father, who desire all to come to repentance. But don’t miss the point – more time was given, they were given one last chance, but the next year, if the tree did not produce fruit, it would be cut down. Meaning, there is a limit to His patience. The Master will come back, and judgment will commence.
I’m out of time, but close with these thoughts. In Jesus’ day, if something particularly bad happened to people, the thought was, they were particularly bad and deserved it. They had it coming. Today, the thought is almost the opposite. While there are exceptions, most people think way too highly of themselves. They don’t think themselves that bad, deserving of tragedy of any kind. Deserving of judgment. We’re basically good. If this text teaches us anything, it is that we are all sinners in need of a Savior. And our salvation is dependent on repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I’m quite concerned that many today think God will grade on some kind of celestial curve. Since we are better than most, as if God’s judgment is based on our goodness, we will be okay. Most people think they are just not that bad, certainly compared to most people. But the truth of this text is, we are all sinners. We should contemplate our own mortality – death, after all, the wage for our sin. Romans 2:4 says, “do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” And our only hope is Jesus Christ.