Luke 13:1-5

     Then some people came who told Jesus about some Galileans who had been killed by Pilate while they had been offering sacrifices to God.
     This is the only place in the gospels where this story is told about Pilate and the murdered Galileans. And this event is not recorded in Roman or any other historical records. That doesn’t mean that it did or didn’t occur, only that no one else wrote it down. Pilate himself is not found in roman historical records, only in the histories of the Jewish people. Historians do tell us that it was not an unlikely occurrence. Pilate was not known to be a lover of the Jewish people and could well have found a reason to have ordered a killing. One commentator on the passage, however, points out that this is the kind of story that oppressed people often told, sometimes growing each time it was repeated and passed on.
     It is hard to say what were the motives of the people who told the story to Jesus. They might have hoped Jesus was a Zealot (he did number them among his followers) who wanted to fight and over throw the Romans. They may have simply wanted to share the grievance of oppression.
      Jesus did an interesting thing with this story. He asked if they thought the Galileans had been more guilty or worse sinners than other Galileans. He answered his own question.  No, if they didn’t turn from their own sins, they would die also.
     In a general sense, as the Cambridge Bible Commentary discusses on this passage, it is easy for some to believe that misfortune comes to others because they somehow deserve it, that others are more sinful than we are. Jesus didn’t seem to think that misfortune was a punishment. In fact, he said that the rain falls on the just and the unjust, which seems to contradict the concept of worldly problems being directed by God to punish us for our misdeeds. He further recognized that people could actually be persecuted because of their righteousness or their faith. In responding as he did, Jesus may also have been contemplating the coming violence and fall of Jerusalem. It wouldn’t happen for decades, but Jesus clearly understood the path his people were taking, and the power of Rome which they would not be able to defeat.
     Beyond all this is another truth. When people are oppressed, it is tempting to consider the enemy as the sinful one and the oppressed as righteous. Too often, “blessed are the poor” has been taken that way, as though poverty by its very nature and the suffering it inflicts makes the poor into the good side, with the rich as the sinful evil side. Yet the poor can be as obsessed with money as the rich, and the poor can be just as sinful while the rich can uphold goodness.
      The people of Israel weren’t automatically good simply because Rome was oppressing them. Israel wasn’t righteous simply because it was suffering. Another thing to consider--of the oppressed don’t look to their own faults and sins, when they get power they often turn out to be as bad or worse than the original set of oppressors. A study of history tells us this. Victims often become victimizers.
      As one scholar points out, Jesus was taking the hard road of calling the oppressed and downtrodden to recognize and repent of their own sinfulness.
     Jesus further drove his point home by referring to an architectural disaster, when the tower of Siloam fell and a large number were killed. The first story was one of a tyrant killing people by choice. The second was the story of an accident. Were those 18 people being punished for their sins? Jesus says clearly that they were no more sinful than others who were not killed. Everyone is in need of repentance.
     Repentance may not be the favorite topic of the modern world. Yet even psychiatry has been described as helping to free people from the tyranny of their past. Repentance means being sorry for wrong doing, and changing direction so that the individual seeks to live in such a way that the mistakes are not repeated. It means accepting forgiveness so that the individual is free for an improved life.
      Another aspect of the story is that the people who carried that story to Jesus may have been wanting confirmation of their goodness and therefore of their safety. One of the things when misfortune occurs is that people sometimes start looking for “why.” Interestingly enough, one path this takes is to try and assign blame to the victim. They made an error driving and therefore had an accident. They didn’t take care of their health, that’s why they’re sick. While this can be the explanation, it can be very disturbing to some people when they learn that something happened without the fault of the victim. What that means is that life isn’t in the control of humans; it means that we can’t be smart enough, good enough or skillful enough to avoid all problems. That sense of powerlessness can be terrifying. So some who suffer misfortune are further afflicted by well-meaning “friends” who try to assign blame.
    
How tempting is it to emphasize the mistakes or sins of others, but find reasons to accept our own?
What tyranny of the past do you struggle with?
What would you say to someone who wonders if they can be free?