Luke 13:1  “…whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices”
Some Pilate had killed in something of a dramatic way.  According to commentaries, the event isn’t mentioned elsewhere.  Assumed they were involved in insurrectionist activity, and Pilate had them killed while they were offering sacrifices so their blood was mingled with that of their sacrifices.  Pilate was definitely Roman.

2  “…Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners…”
Commentaries brought out the point the people must have wanted Jesus to comment on the sinfulness of the Galileans or the ruthlessness of Pilate.  He did neither.  He apparently saw their true intent, that of judgment on others, and addressed that.

5  “…unless you repent you will all likewise perish”
Sin is sin.  You can’t gain any advantage by comparing your sin to others’.  All sin must be confessed, repented of, and forgiven.  Also, you can’t judge someone’s heart content by their circumstances.  God makes the rain to fall and the sun to shine on all men.  I’m afraid it is all too easy to make a judgment of others by what we see happen to them, or sometimes by what doesn’t happen.  We fall into the trap of Job’s friends.

9  “…But if not, after that you can cut it down”
Sounds like Jesus was saying you don’t have all the time in the world to show growth.  Commentaries agree.  Taken with what was just said, the point is repentance.  Repent before you run out of time.  There is also the warning that to fail to repent means disaster.  Brings to mind another important aspect of scripture interpretation.  You have to compare what is said by the surrounding verses, the chapter, the book, and the Bible as a whole.  Commentaries gave several notions that men have come up with which show they were taking bits and pieces from the text and trying to assign meaning.  Scripture has unity of thought.  It’s not just a bunch of unassociated parts.

11  “…spirit of infirmity eighteen years…”
Woman had suffered this long.  Shows the great compassion of Jesus in relieving her suffering and the lack of it of the synagogue ruler.

17  “…when He said these things, all His adversaries were put to shame…”
At least they realized their mistakes.  It is somewhat mind blowing.  Jesus pointed out their hypocrisy exactly.  They thought nothing of taking care of their animals on the Sabbath, yet considered it a great sin to heal a human being.  Which is greater, an animal or a child of God?  And He didn’t even mention the part about a miracle of God being performed.  Makes you want to ask what was wrong with those people.

19  “It is like a mustard seed…”
Smallest of the seeds, but can grow into something large enough to provide homes for the birds.

21  “…till it was all leavened”
Same idea.  Something small growing into something large.  The gospel message may seem simple and not accomplishing much when shared between two people.  But as those share with others and those others share with others, the kingdom of God grows and becomes large.  If we were to work as God instructed, the entire world would have at least heard the gospel by now.

I hope you enjoy reading and studying His word.  May it accomplish what He desires.  Please feel free to comment or post questions.  Thanks for reading!

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.