Luke 13:2

And he answered and said unto them, Think ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered these things?

Think ye ... ? Of course, this is exactly what they thought, having in themselves the ancient prejudices reaching as far back as Job, and which attributes every calamity upon men as the just punishment of their sins. Job's friends accused him of sin, their accusation being based on his sufferings; and likewise the citizens of Malta supposed Paul to have been a murderer, solely upon the basis of their observance that a poisonous serpent had bitten him (Acts 28:4). As Summers said, "This verse suggests that Jesus detected a note of pious superiority in the report";[4] inasmuch as Jesus' audience had not suffered such a terrible fate as the Galileans, they were glorifying in the misassumption that they did not deserve punishment. Even the Twelve were infected with the same false views, as evidenced in John 9:2; but whether in the Twelve or in the multitude, the false philosophy which came into view was vigorously condemned by the Master.

In that deep human prejudice to the effect that great sufferers are receiving only what they deserve lies a germ of truth, namely, that all human sorrow and suffering derive, in the last analysis, from human sin; but it is a gross untruth that all disasters befalling men must be attributed to their immediate, specific sins. Many suffer through the sins of others, and some for no apparent reason at all.