There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
Luke 13:1-5
Jesus responds to these disasters in a different way to we might expect. First, he makes it clear that they did not occur as a direct punishment for those people's sin. But, secondly, he wont let anyone off the hook. Those people weren't any worse sinners than the rest of us, and their death should realise we need to repent before the same happens - that's not repentance to avoid the disaster, but to accept the one who determines what happens to us after the disaster. An early death may seem like a tragedy to us but the tragedy is death without Jesus, not the timing of that death.
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