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Commentary of the Gospell
Splitting
Jesus cautions his listeners about the dangers of splitting people into mutually exclusive categories of good and bad. Neither the Galileans killed by Pilate nor the eighteen crushed under the tower in Siloah were worse or more sinful than anybody else. None of us is totally bad or totally good; we are all shades of grey, with varying degrees of goodness and badness in us. Unfortunately, we still practice this primitive splitting in our interactions with people. It is easier to navigate a world where we can clearly label people, be they our neighbors or political leaders. However, Jesus invites us to don the gospel glasses and look at the positive potential in people who may currently be either non-productive or counterproductive – like the gardener in the parable who positively sees the potential of the currently unproductive fig tree and is willing to risk giving it yet another opportunity and to work towards helping the tree realize the potential.