Saturday in the 29th Week of Ordinary Time

Luke 13:1-9

Some people told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. He said to them in reply, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did! Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them— do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!”  And he told them this parable: “There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none, he said to the gardener, ‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. So cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?’ He said to him in reply, ‘Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down.’ ”

The literal Greek, “And there were present, at that very time, some that told him of the Galileans, etc.”, indicates that those who told the Lord of this event had witnessed it themselves.  The event sounds horrendous in these words, yet no contemporary outside reference is found for it.  Many scholars assume that this corresponds with a massacre that the Jewish historian Josephus describes, but the many differences in detail between the two makes this very unlikely.  It seems as if this massacre took place while the Lord traveled to Jerusalem for the last time.  From what we are told here, a group of Galileans — pointedly, not Judeans — were slaughtered in the Temple area as they were bringing their sacrifices to the altar or while the sacrifices were proceeding.  No explanation for the killing is given.  This raises the questions of why Pilate’s forces in the Temple area at all, and whether the murders were committed by Pilate’s direct order.  At least one of the Fathers, Cyril of Alexandria, thought that the Galileans here were followers of Judas the Galilean, mentioned in Acts 5, 37.  There may be something to this.  Judas began an uprising around the time of the Lord’s Birth in reaction to the census of Quirinius.  He did not engage the Romans directly, but only those whom he considered to collaborate with them — by registering for the census, for instance.  It is not clear when he died, but his sons were said to have been killed in 46 AD.  Josephus blames the Jewish insurrection against the Romans on the movement he founded.  Cyril postulates that those who told Jesus about the massacre were in fact trying to see how he would react.  It seems also possible that Pharisees were telling him this, seeking to enrage him at this slaying of his fellow countrymen so that he would lead his followers in an attack the Romans in vengeance, but before he was fully ready to do so, as they supposed.  They would have thought to rid themselves of Jesus easily in this way.

The Lord seizes on this news in order to teach, not to stage an uprising.  “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans?  By no means!”  Far from praising or even condoning the actions of the Galileans, whatever they might have done, Jesus refers to them as “sinners”.  He could be approaching the subject from the Jewish point of view that something as terrible as this could have happened only to sinners.  Whatever the case, he does not speak of the Romans or Pilate, but of the Galileans.  He points out that they were no different, in terms of sin, than other Galileans.  This could have happened to anyone, in essence.  Then he says, “But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!”  He teaches about spiritual death by speaking of physical death.   He seems to indicate here that the Galileans in some way could have avoided getting killed, for he tells the crowd that if they repent of their sins, they may yet escape damnation.

“Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them.”  The fact that Luke recounts the episode of the Galileans and this one with the tower of Siloam in such detail tells us that these events must have still been remembered and talked about at the time he was writing his Gospel.  Since he was writing it for Gentiles in Syria, the effects of these catastrophes must have been felt beyond Israel.  We have no information of the disaster involving the tower.  It may have been part of a fortress, but not even its location in Jerusalem is certain.  While the killing of the Galileans was murder, an accident seems to account for this loss of life.  The Lord’s point remains the same: we are all sinners and we must all repent or suffer eternal death. 

Luke informs us that the Lord next told a parable, and it directly connected to what he has just taught.  He speaks of a farmer who went out to a fig tree which he owned, and: “He came in search of fruit on it but found none.”  The farmer knows when it is the season for figs, and so he went to the tree in full expectation that he would find some hanging on the tree’s branches.  He then registers his frustration with a handy employee, who is actually a vine-dresser, not a “gardener”: “For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none.”  He gives a command: “So cut it down.”  By way of explanation, the farmer says, “Why should it exhaust the soil?” which literally means, from the Greek: “Why does it bring the earth to nought?”  That is, the tree fights against the purpose of the earth, which is to bring forth fruit.  Why does it do this?  In the farmer’s mind, it seems to have deliberately chosen to thwart the purpose for the earth’s creation.  

“Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it.”  The vine-dresser, who has no stake in the existence of the fig tree, intercedes on its behalf.  He will take on additional work in order to attempt to get fruit on it.  He will dedicate himself to this.  He lays out for the farmer the specific measures he will take.  It may bear fruit in the future.  If not you can cut it down.”  The Greek says, “You shall cut it down”.  The vine-dresser is not telling the farmer what he can or cannot do; he is saying what he knows he will do.  The farmer is the Lord Jesus.  The vine-dresser is the Church of the Gentiles.  The fig tree signifies the Jewish people, just as the cedar tree signifies the people of Lebanon.  The Lord is saying that for three years he has searched for “fruit” — faithful people — among the Israelites and has found “none” (a slight hyperbole, since a few — the Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, the Apostles, and others — followed him).  The Gentile Church pleads with the Lord to give it time to preach to the Jews.  We do not hear from Jesus what the “farmer” decided, but we know from history that this was the case.  Gentile Christians like Luke did preach to the Jews, but to little avail.

We can learn from these verses how necessary repentance is for our salvation, and that we must repent now while we can, for we do not know how long we have.  The fig tree was utterly oblivious to how close it came to its absolute end, and that only earnest pleading saved it — for a short time, unless it changed.