The examples of people killed in Galilee and in Jerusalem almost read like newspaper reports of security crackdowns and an industrial accident. Jesus' world was in many ways not very different from our own. For example we do not know why Pilate killed people offering sacrifice. He was, however a cruel and quite incompetent administrator. He easily misunderstood and provoked his Jewish subjects. So it is not unlikely that he saw the group offering sacrifice as posing a security threat.

Jesus' reference to a falling tower seems almost like an accident on a modern day building site, a reminder of how many of our brothers and sisters live in daily danger in order to build our cities.

Jesus' point, however, is to correct a mistaken assumption about the people who were killed. Though it is easy to think so, Jesus is clear that we should not presume that suffering is a punishment for sin. In the overall development of Luke's Gospel, this passage reinforces Jesus teaching, which Luke recorded in an earlier chapter: "Do not judge and you will not be judged yourselves. Do not condemn and you will not be condemned yourselves" (Lk 6:36-37).