Now at the same time there were present some who told him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled with [that of] their sacrifices.
Some people brought Jesus the news of the day: Pilate had killed a group of Galileans as they offered their sacrifices. They expected a verdict on the victims, but His reply turned the question back on them.
These Galileans died in the middle of an act of worship. They were at the one place where they had every reason to feel safe.
Here we learn of two events that took place in Jerusalem. Neither of them, it seems, is found in any other history. Pilate, the Roman governor, had killed some Galileans. It seems they were in the very act of sacrificing. They were outwardly worshipping God in the appointed way, and He had not protected them. God's altar was no refuge for them (Ex. 21:14). Their blood had been mingled with their sacrifices.
The other event was the tower that fell a few verses later. For this killing, commentators can only suggest a background.
Others have observed that this event may be connected with the revolt of Judas of Galilee (Acts 5:37). Galileans in that revolt refused Caesar's authority, and of course that would provoke Pilate. But the Galileans were Herod's subjects (Luke 3:1). So some have also supposed that this action of Pilate caused the quarrel between him and Herod that we read of in Luke 23:12.
The report is not offered out of pity for the dead. The interest lies in what the victims must have done to deserve it — a habit that costs the speaker nothing.
The Jews were not thinking so much of Pilate's cruelty. They seem to have been thinking of some special sin in the Galileans that deserved such punishment. How skilled we are at turning attention to the wrongs of others so as to avoid criticism of ourselves!
Another writer names what such talk reveals about the speaker.
There are quite a few in our day who are very fond of talking about other great sinners. When someone does this, it is a sure sign of a deceived heart. By telling of the sins of others, he is simply showing how much better he thinks himself to be than they are.
The chapter break hides a link with the case just before it.
The man who accused his brother to the Lord learned from Him that he himself was on the way to another Judge. So here, some tell our Lord of the special sufferings of certain Galileans, as though they must have been sinners above others (John 9:2). In the same way, they were bringing up their fellow men for judgment. But the Lord would have them know that they were under the same condemnation. If they did not repent, they would all perish in the same way.
Behind the report lies a real belief that God governs the world.
The Jews had the thought of God's government in their minds. That was not wrong in itself. They thought God could not let a guilty wretch like Pilate live, after he had mingled the blood of the Galileans with their sacrifices. But Christ brings them to a new principle for judging things. He tells them that Pilate is only an instrument in God's governmental dealings with the nation… For not only Pilate but God's Son was there, and in practice they were rejecting Him. And when Titus destroyed Jerusalem, how many of the Jews had their blood mingled with their sacrifices!
No one can measure another person's guilt by the size of his misfortune. Events like this one speak to those still alive.
This is God's voice to sinful man in the present disorder of the world. Man is no competent judge of this tangled scene. But such events call him loudly to judge himself before God — in short, to repent.
Pilate would soon hand another Galilean over to death.
The Lord answers them. He shows that the time for the judgment they had in mind, which sorts the guilty from the rest, has not yet arrived… He Himself was sent to die by the same governor who treated those Galileans so shamefully. He was sent to die by the highest men in Jerusalem too, and their sin was greater still. He was sent, not to have His blood mingled with sacrifices, but to be Himself the Sacrifice for sinners. This was the infinite grace of God to all, beginning at Jerusalem.
- The news — Pilate killed Galileans as they sacrificed. The altar gave them no protection, and no other history records it.
- The motive — the reporters graded the dead instead of grieving them. Talking about other people's sins is a way of avoiding our own.
- The correction — God does govern the world. But no one can read a person's guilt from his misfortune, and Pilate was only an instrument.
- The summons — such events speak to the living, calling every hearer to judge himself and repent.
- The contrast — these deaths point to another death. Christ's blood was not spilled by accident. He was sent to be the Sacrifice for sinners.
And he answering said to them, Think ye that these Galileans were sinners beyond all the Galileans because they suffered such things?
Some people bring Jesus news that the Roman governor Pilate has killed worshippers while they were offering sacrifices. Behind the report sits an assumption Jesus refuses: that such a death marks out unusually bad sinners.
The horror of the incident lay in where it happened. Pilate struck these men down in the middle of an act of worship, and the place they trusted gave them no protection.
Pilate, the Roman governor, had killed some Galileans while they were, it seems, offering sacrifices. They were worshipping God in the appointed way, at least outwardly, and He had not protected them. God's altar was no refuge for them (Ex. 21:14). Their blood was mixed with their sacrifices.
The report was also easy to make. It was about outsiders, not about the people telling it.
The cruel, hard-hearted governor had acted with extreme brutality and had shown his contempt for the Galileans. This gave people something to talk about: it was a judgment. They could speak of it more easily because it concerned Galileans, whom the men of Jerusalem tended to despise.
The assumption costs the onlooker something. While he measures the victims, he forgets what he himself deserves.
Nothing is easier than to charge unusual wickedness to people who are overtaken by disaster. It forgets completely that man as man — man everywhere — deserves nothing but the judgement of God.
Circumstances are no evidence of a person's standing before God, because God is not yet ruling in righteousness as He will later.
The consequences of sin are not known yet. God is saving now, not judging in righteousness. There is the time coming when He will rule in righteousness. He is saving souls now for a better state to come... We cannot judge people's state of soul by their circumstances.
The verse is a question, and the Lord does not leave it hanging. His own answer takes in everyone listening.
They tell the Lord about the Galileans whom Pilate had killed at the very altar, as they were drawing near to God. He probes the thought of their heart with a question: was this, then, proof that they were greater sinners than others in the sight of God? He answers it Himself. They were not. But unless they repented, all would perish alike. Not one person could possibly deserve to escape.
The people raising this topic were not asking about themselves. Their choice of subject gives them away.
Plenty of people today are very fond of talking about other great sinners. When a person does this, it is a sure sign of a deceived heart. By telling the sins of others, he is only showing how much better he thinks he is than they are.
Their anger fixed on Pilate, the obvious villain. The Lord's answer moves him out of the centre and puts them there.
They thought God could not let a man as guilty as Pilate live... But Christ gives them a new principle for judging things. He tells them that Pilate is only an instrument in God's government of the nation... God had sent out His judgment and caught these Galileans, and would catch the Jews too unless they repented. For not only Pilate but God's Son was there, and in practice they were rejecting Him. And how many of the Jews had their blood mixed with their sacrifices when Titus destroyed Jerusalem!
The same governor would soon put Jesus to death. But that death would not be one more piece of political cruelty.
He was sent, not to have His blood mixed with sacrifices, but to be Himself the Sacrifice for sinners, in the infinite grace of God to all, beginning with Jerusalem... The Lord makes it an appeal to their own conscience. He shows that the light of Himself on earth reveals the wretched state of all men without exception, and that if there is a difference, it is the far greater guilt of the Jew in particular.
- Report — The killing arrived as a talking point, about a group the reporters looked down on. God's altar had given the victims no protection.
- Assumption — Behind the report lay the easiest conclusion of all: disaster proves unusual guilt. Circumstances tell us nothing about anyone's state of soul.
- Exposure — Talking about other people's sins reveals more about the speaker than the subject. The Lord aims His question at their own conscience.
- Equality — There was no difference. Not one person could claim escape by being less guilty than the rest.
- Grace — The same governor would soon condemn Christ. His blood was not mixed with sacrifices; He was Himself the Sacrifice, offered to all, beginning at Jerusalem.
No, I say to you, but if ye repent not, ye shall all perish in the same manner.
Jerusalem was talking about a massacre. Pilate had killed some Galileans while they were offering sacrifices, and when people brought the story to Jesus, His answer turned the question back on them.
The people who raised the story were not asking about themselves. One writer notes how easily the talk turned to someone else's guilt:
The Jews were apparently thinking, not so much of the cruelty of Pilate, but of some supposed special sin of the Galileans that deserved such punishment. How skilled we are at turning attention to the wrongs of others to avoid criticism of ourselves!
Another writer warns that this talk is not harmless:
There are quite a few in our day who are very fond of talking about other great sinners. When a person does this, it is a sure sign of a deceived heart; by telling of the sins of others, he is merely showing how much better he thinks himself to be than they.
The Lord's "No" breaks the link between suffering and special guilt. One verdict is left standing over everyone:
It is very easy to accuse people caught in a disaster of being especially wicked. Those who do it forget completely that man as man — man everywhere — deserves nothing but the judgement of God.
One writer hears in the answer the same principle Paul uses to open the gospel:
Here, very precisely, is Paul's teaching of "no difference," with which he opens the way for the gospel in his letter to the Romans. He probes the thought of their heart with a question: was this proof that they were greater sinners than others in the sight of God? He answers it Himself. They were not. But unless they repented, all would perish alike. There was not one possible person who could earn escape.
One writer ties this warning to what later happened to the nation:
They thought that God could not let such a guilty man as Pilate live, who had been mingling the blood of the Galileans with their sacrifices. But Christ brings them to a new principle for judging things. He tells them that Pilate is only an instrument in God's governmental dealings with the nation… It was not that they were finally condemned as sinners here. It was governmental judgment in this world, and it would overtake them all unless they repented… For not only Pilate but God's Son was there, and in practice they were rejecting Him. And how many of the Jews had their blood mingled with their sacrifices when Titus destroyed Jerusalem!
Commentators differ over how far the warning reaches. Some read it of God's dealings in this world. Others apply it to the sinner's eternal loss — "all is lost — for ever lost" (Andrew Miller).
So what does the Lord ask for? One writer, commenting on this verse, starts with what repentance is not:
When the Lord said, "unless you repent, you will all likewise perish," repentance did not mean believing a free gospel. It meant judging themselves and their sins with a heart turned to God.
Another writer gives the positive side:
Repentance in Scripture is nothing less than taking our stand with God in His judgment of our sins. It is taking His part against ourselves, and then bowing in the dust before Him in true self-judgment.
So why do people refuse grace? One writer points to pride:
To receive grace, he must give up self-righteousness. He must humble himself to receive what he has never earned; he must be content as a sinner to find the Saviour. And here fatal pride prevails to the ruin of how many souls! This is why the Lord insists that repentance is necessary. Repentance is just this: pride in the creature brought down, so that he receives God's salvation as one who needs it. And the tender grace of Christ goes after lost ones "till He finds" them. Those who own now that they are lost sinners are never finally lost.
Every reported tragedy carries a message for those still alive:
This is God's voice to sinful man in the present disorder of the world. Man cannot judge this tangled scene. But through such events God calls him loudly to judge himself — in short, to repent.
- Deflection. Talking about another person's sin keeps your own case off the table.
- No difference. Disaster does not rank sinners. No one can earn escape, so the same warning falls on everyone.
- Likewise. The warning was real. Judgment later overtook Jerusalem, a nation that kept on rejecting God's Son standing among them.
- Repentance. Not just believing good news, and not sorrow alone. It is taking God's side against yourself in honest self-judgment.
- Pride. Self-righteousness has to go. Only someone content to be found a sinner receives grace.
Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, think ye that *they* were debtors beyond all the men who dwell in Jerusalem?
A tower in Siloam fell and killed eighteen people. No soldier and no politics were involved — just falling stone. Jesus raises this case Himself. His question is not "why did it happen?" It is "what does this prove about the dead, and what does it ask of the living?"
People first told Jesus about a massacre. He answers that, then points to a second case where no human hand played any part. One writer notes the step from one to the other:
In answer, our Lord corrects their thought that these people were especially guilty. He warns them solemnly that unless they repented they would all perish in the same way. More than that, He points to the eighteen men on whom the tower of Siloam fell. No cruel and brutal Roman killed them. Yet were they debtors beyond all the men in Jerusalem? On the contrary He repeats, "unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." This is God's voice to sinful man in the present disorder of the world. Man is no fit judge of this tangled scene. But such events call him loudly to judge himself before God — in short, to repent.
Readers often ask what this tower was and why it fell.
Nothing is known of the falling of this tower except what the Scripture states in Luke 13:4.
Some translations render the word as "debtors," people who owed God more than their neighbours. One writer shows that Jesus does not soften the charge against these eighteen. He changes the whole basis of the argument:
Note that the Lord says not a word about them to lessen the thought of evil in them: that is not the point. On the contrary, make of it as much as possible — the lesson is only deeper. For the question is not, were they sinners beyond others? but, does the hand of God upon them prove them to be that? And if they had not been such, could they have claimed to be free from God's judgment on that ground? And to this He answers, No: judgment from God, and even to perdition, will come upon all, unless they repent. Admitting the ruin we all share alike is what throws us, as sinners, on unfailing mercy. It brings us out from under judgment — this, and this alone.
If sudden death marked out the worst sinners, the world would be a readable ledger. It is not, because God is not settling accounts yet:
The consequences of sin are not known yet. God is saving now, not judging in righteousness. There is a time coming when He will rule in righteousness. He is saving souls now for a better state hereafter... We cannot judge people's state of soul by their circumstances. We cannot say that those on whom the tower of Siloam fell were worse than everyone else living in Jerusalem.
The people brought Jesus the news of the day. A commentator reads the motive behind that kind of conversation:
There are quite a few today who are very fond of talking about other great sinners. When a person does this, it is a sure sign of a deceived heart. By telling of the sins of others, he is only showing how much better he thinks himself to be than they are.
So the Lord's answer looks past the victims entirely:
Those events had a voice for the living, and concerned not only the dead.
The warning "you will all likewise perish" fell on a whole nation. History caught up with it:
They were not finally condemned as sinners here. This was God's judgment in His government of this world, and it would overtake them all unless they repented. God had sent out His judgment and caught these Galileans, and would catch the Jews also unless they repented. For not only Pilate but God's Son was there, and they were in practice rejecting Him. And how many of the Jews had their blood mingled with their sacrifices when the Roman general Titus destroyed Jerusalem!
- Two deaths, one lesson. Pilate's killings and a falling tower had nothing in common in cause. Jesus draws the same conclusion from both. How a person died says nothing about who they were.
- The wrong question. "Were they worse than others?" assumes disaster measures guilt. Jesus replaces it: does God's hand falling on some prove that the rest are exempt? No.
- No ledger yet. God is saving now, not judging in righteousness. So no one can read a person's circumstances as a scoreboard of their standing with Him.
- The talk that exposes us. Talking about other people's ruin is a quiet claim that we are better than them. The Lord turns the news of the day back on the listener's conscience.
- The only escape. Admitting the ruin we all share throws us on mercy. Those who would not repent saw the warning come true when Jerusalem fell.
No, I say to you, but if ye repent not, ye shall all perish in like manner.
The second disaster Jesus names is a fall, not a massacre — eighteen people crushed under a tower at Siloam, a pool in Jerusalem. People brought both stories to Him as news about other people's guilt, and both times He turned the question back on them with the same warning, word for word.
The crowd assumed that a violent death exposed unusual sin. One writer separates two very different questions, and then points to the only way out.
He does not leave the answer to others; He answers it Himself, in the same way as before... The question is not, were they sinners beyond others? It is this: does God's hand falling on them prove that they were? And if they had not been such sinners, could they have claimed exemption from God's judgment on that ground? To this He answers, No: judgment from God, and even to final ruin, will come on all, unless they repent... Owning the ruin we are all alike in is what casts us, as sinners, on unfailing mercy and brings us out from under judgment: this, and this alone.
The first story was about Galileans, at a distance from Jerusalem. The second lands closer.
They had spoken of Galileans; He reminds them of a case nearer home — men of Jerusalem, eighteen of whom had died some time before when a tower in Siloam fell on them... That a special disaster struck Galileans, or men of Jerusalem, is not what is most serious before God, nor what touches man's danger and best interests most closely. What Jesus shows is the certain ruin of all who do not repent.
Reading the news is not the same as hearing God in it. One writer notes that these tragedies "had a voice for the living, and concerned not only the dead" (C. E. Stuart).
The word asks for more than regret. One writer, on this very sentence, marks off what the Lord was not asking for and what He was.
When the Lord said, "Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish," He did not mean believing a free gospel. He meant judging themselves and their sins, with a heart turned to God.
The same writer tests a familiar definition: "the definition that it is merely change of mind is not enough... it is the soul judging itself before God — the eye turned inward, not outward" (J. N. Darby).
Commentators differ on what is mainly in view. Some read it as God's dealing with the nation in this world. They point to what happened a generation later, when Roman armies destroyed Jerusalem.
They were not finally condemned as sinners here. This was judgment in God's government of this world, and it would overtake them all unless they repented. God had sent out His judgment and caught these Galileans, and He would catch the Jews too unless they repented. Pilate was there, but so was God's Son, and they were in fact rejecting Him. And how many of the Jews had their blood mingled with their sacrifices by Titus in the destruction of Jerusalem!
Others take the word "perish" at its full weight.
"You will." If someone keeps refusing to repent and rests in mere outward religion, there is no hope for the future: the soul must "perish." What a dreadful thought that dreadful word "perish" carries. It means all is lost — lost forever! The soul perished, hope perished, everything perished forever, body, soul, and spirit, in the place of misery.
The warning is not the last word. Jesus goes straight on to the picture of a fig tree with no fruit.
He does grant that there was a time of delay. In fact it was He Himself, the Lord Jesus, who had pleaded for a further trial. If after this the fig tree still bore no fruit, it must be cut down. And so it happened: judgment came after grace, not law.
- Others — We want to measure the guilt of people hit by disaster. God's hand falling on them proves nothing about how they compare with anyone else.
- Yourself — Such events carry a voice for the living, not just a verdict on the dead. Turn the eye inward.
- All — Galileans and people of Jerusalem stand alike, and so does everyone else. Ruin is certain for all who do not repent.
- Repent — Not just agreeing with a message, and not just regret. It is judging yourself and your sins, with the heart turned to God — and owning the ruin we all share is what casts us on unfailing mercy.
- Now — Commentators read "perish" as the judgment that fell on the nation, and as the soul's final loss. Either way, the time left is a respite Christ pleaded for, not a permanent stay.