How Jesus reacted to an oppressive, godless regime
It was a time of brutal oppression by an evil, godless regime. The people were treated as slaves. Some rose up and resisted, and they all prayed for deliverance.
Tensions were already flaring when the regime committed a horrifying atrocity in the people’s holiest place:
“There were present at that season some who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices” (Luke 13:1).
That describes a Roman massacre of Jewish worshipers from Galilee at the temple in Jerusalem. What made it especially outrageous was that Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, had their blood mixed in with the blood of their sacrificed animals.
This was an extraordinarily heinous act, even for the Romans. That’s why people were talking about it, and that was the point of it — to send a message in the most offensive, violent way possible. This wasn’t just about punishing those Galileans, for whatever reason; it was about threatening and terrorizing all the Jews.
Word of this got around, and inevitably, it got to Jesus — the “Him” in that verse.
Jesus’ shocking response
Remember what the people’s messianic expectations were at the time. They longed for their champion to overthrow the Romans. They wanted a warrior, someone who would fight back. They saw the world as an existential battle between them and their enemies, like a lot of people do today. And they wanted the Messiah to lead them to victory.
This incident must have greatly stoked that. As they told Jesus about this, some no doubt wanted Him to lead them in an uprising of vengeance and punishment.
Jesus’ response was shocking:
“Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.”
It’s shocking because it’s not about the Romans at all. He doesn’t talk about the atrocity. He doesn’t talk about vengeance or politics or their enemy. He doesn’t talk about what everyone else was no doubt talking about.
He puts the focus back on the people, those who told Him about the Roman massacre. He doesn’t call for the Romans to repent; He says, YOU repent. You worry about you.
We’re no better
Some of them, as Jesus anticipated, thought God was punishing those Galileans because they were “worse sinners.” Why else would He allow such a horrible and humiliating massacre at the hands of their hated enemy?
This general belief is still around today. After 9/11, there were Christians who said that happened because God was judging America over certain specific sins — abortion, homosexuality, taking prayer out of schools, etc. Some Christians still talk about God bringing judgment to the nation over certain sins, like the transgender movement.
But no, Jesus said. You’re no better off than them. You’re no better off than the godless Romans who slaughtered them. You deserve judgment just as much as they do. Your sins send you to the same death. You need to repent just as much as the worst sinners.
Jesus’ answer encapsulated what the message of Christianity is and isn’t. It isn’t a resistance movement that fights our enemies; it’s a call for all of us to turn away from our sinful lives and to the Savior of our souls. This is the faith preached and practiced by Jesus and His church in the New Testament, in which they never fought back against the tyrants who hunted them to death.
This faith knows no distinctions — left or right, Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative, we all, equally, need to repent and trust in Christ to be saved.
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