There must have been excitement among the disciples
of Jesus when news arrived about what Pilate had done in the Temple
courtyard. They told him of the
Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. This is all we know about the incident.
The Temple had an outer court for the Gentiles,
but they were prohibited from entering the court of the Jewish women, or of
course the deeper court of the Jewish men, or certainly the priestly court
where the altar of burnt offering and laver were located just outside the Holy
Place. Occasionally a non-priest entered
the court of the priests to fulfill the legal requirements of certain
sacrifices. Apparently these Galileans
were doing precisely that, placing their hands on the sacrificial animal
confessing their sins before slaughtering the animal offered in sacrifice for
their sins. For whatever reason, the
soldiers passed the barriers intended to keep the Gentiles and all the unclean
or unqualified out. They marched
directly into the courtyard of sacrifices with swords drawn and struck down the
worshippers.
That is pretty
frightening. You might suppose that they
were in a pretty safe place doing only what pleased God. Why weren't they protected by that same God? The prevailing thought among the Jews was
not to address the sinfulness of the soldiers but rather the guilt of the
worshippers. They must have been great
sinners for God to have permitted their slaughter, right?
Jesus said, no! "Suppose ye that these Galileans were
sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye
shall all likewise perish." (Luke 13:1-5) Even some modern commentators
assume that these must have been agitators and they had this coming.
I suppose, we feel that if we are faithful
Christians, God will keep the evil men from hurting us and incidents such as
these upset our sense of security. Then
again, if evil men don't hurt me, that must be proof that God is protecting me
because He accepts me as righteous, or at least righteous enough. So if I am safe and secure, what do I have to
repent of? If I am happy and content,
why do I need to listen to someone who corrects my sins? Jesus answers, "Not at all!" ... "and
unless you repent, you can be sure of a much worse fate than those
Galileans!" Bad things happen to
good people. tp
No comments:
Post a Comment