Where there is smoke, there is...

WHERE THERE IS SMOKE, THERE IS…

Where there is smoke…there is fire, so where there is suffering…there is sin?

That is a question of reading the story at one level. Bad things happened to people, was it because they were bad sinners?

First notice the beginning, “There were some present at that very time…” Remember how Jesus just told people to “read the signs.” These folks were trying. But there is more. In verse 1 we read of Pilate mixing some Galileans blood with the sacrifice. So here is the background. Pilate was not a nice man. We do not need the New Testament to learn this. The annals of history chronicle many things he did to harass and persecute the Jews. And in this Gospel we learn there were a party of Galileans who made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, to the Temple…and he killed them in the Temple so that as their blood ran, it mixed with the blood of the sacrifice.

So now consider Jesus is from Galilee. He is leading Galileans. Where is he leading them? Jerusalem and the Temple. This is not an abstract hypothetical question!

Regarding suffering, this question of why bad things happen has been asked since time immemorial. The Job and Jesus agree…sometimes people’s suffering has nothing to do with sin.

Interesting though, Jesus says “Repent (turn around) or you will perish.” So if their sin did not cause the tragedy, then what is Jesus asking them to repent of? Perhaps it is what they think they are going to Jerusalem for…do they think they are going there to crown Jesus political king? If so, he definitely is telling them to change their ideas, or they will perish at the hands of Pilate.

Take a read through the text and see what you make of it. Some additional comments are below.

13 There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. ² And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? ³ No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 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 others who lived in Jerusalem? ⁵ No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

The Parable of the Barren Fig Tree

⁶ And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. ⁷ And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’8 And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. ⁹ Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

Fun with figs. Let me ask you a question. In the parable is Jesus the vinedresser and God the man who planted the tree? Or is Jesus owner and vinedresser. He has been looking for the fruit of repentance. Either way we end up at the same place. There is given some time for people to repent.

In both the tragedies and the fig tree Jesus is inviting repentance. In the first case, it is a repentance from false, even wrong goals, for following him. In the second, it is literally repentance from hearing him and doing nothing (as was the case of the religious of his day).

What is our goal for following Jesus…and what have we heard him say…and yet we are not doing?