Some people had come from Galilee to offer their sacrifices in the temple at Jerusalem, and Pilate the Governor had had these people killed, apparently right at the moment when the Galileans were slaughtering their sacrificial animals (Luke 13:1).

We don’t know why Pilate ordered this, and it’s quite possible that the people who told Jesus about it didn’t know either. Perhaps they were warning Jesus – or taunting Jesus? – that since Pilate seemed to think it was open season on Galileans, Jesus might well be the next target. Yet I suppose they were mostly captivated by the irony: in the moment of making a sacrifice to atone for your sins, God lets you get struck down for your sins.

Jesus asked them if they thought these particular Galileans must have been particularly evil to have died this way: because they weren’t, he continued, and “unless you repent, you will all perish as they did” (13:3). And he offered another contemporary news item, about how a tower had collapsed and eighteen people were killed (from Jerusalem this time, by the way): were they particularly wicked, too? Again the answer was No; and again he warned that “unless you repent you will all perish just as they did” (13:4-5).

The way Jesus rebuked them fits us pretty well, too. It’s hard to accept that we would merit destruction on the basis of our own wrongness. On the other hand, it’s easy to say “serves them right” when people we don’t like get in trouble. It’s easy to justify ourselves by saying, “Well, I may have my failings, but at least I’ve never been as bad as they are.” It’s easy to think thereby that we must be kind of okay.

* * * * *

But that won’t work, will it, Lord? You don’t grade on a curve where even though we fail, we can still pass, as long as other people fail worse. No, all we can do is repent for our own transgressions. So we turn to you, in repentance and faith: in your mercy, O Lord, hear our prayers, and heal our souls.