Exhortations to Repentance. The theme of Luke 12:57-59 is continued and illustrated by references to two incidents and by a parable. The section is peculiar to Lk. A company of Galilean pilgrims had come into collision with the Romans and had been massacred by Pilate's orders while they were sacrificing in the Temple courts. A garrison was always kept in the Tower of Antonia to quell disturbances. Neither Josephus nor any other writer refers to the affair, but it is quite in the line of Pilate's policy and conduct. Jesus, hearing of it, declines to admit that the calamity implied exceptional sin on the part of the sufferers, but emphasizes instead the truth that sin involves calamity, and warns His audience that unless they repent they will surely be overwhelmed in the coming disaster. He repeats the warning by reference to an accident that had recently happened in Jerusalem. Eighteen workmen building aqueducts at the Pool of Siloam (on the south side of the city) had been buried under some falling masonry. They were not necessarily the worst men in Jerusalem. Note the word Offenders or debtors; there is a suggestion that they are so styled because Pilate paid them with Sacred money from the Temple treasury. Jesus-' point is that all His hearers are debtors to Divine justice (cf. Luke 12:58). National sins, if not repented of, will lead to national destruction.
Luke 13:5. repent: the tense of the Gr. verb marks the need of immediate repentance; likewise denotes more exact similarity than in like manner (Luke 13:3).
Luke 13:6-9. In the parable of the Barren Fig Tree the lesson is taught that those who are spared for a (short) time should not miss the opportunity of repentance. The parable, with which cf. Isaiah 5:1-7, may well have been the source of the miracle of Mark 11:12-14; Mark 11:21 f.*, Matthew 21:18-21 *. The three years (Luke 13:7) is not to be pressed as an indication of the duration of Christ's ministry. Note that the tree not only yields no fruit, it nullifies or sterilises the ground, making good soil useless.