Luke 17:37

Luke 17:37. "And they answered and said unto Him, Where, Lord? And He said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together." This is an enigmatical answer to their question; but yet by giving diligent heed to this answer, with due care to understand it, together with a diligent observation of events to be determined by it, when and where, Christ's answer is that these things that He speaks of shall be when and where they shall see the eagles gathered about the dead carcass. Now, the Roman armies bearing an eagle on their ensign, this might naturally lead them to think that the Romans were the eagles Christ spoke of. But what should lead them to think that Jerusalem was meant by the dead body? I answer, Because, when Jerusalem was besieged by the Roman armies, the city was filled with dead carcasses. What innumerable multitudes were there that died in Jerusalem during the siege, by famine and by killing one another! When the Roman armies were gathered together about Jerusalem, then was it fulfilled that the eagles were gathered together about the dead carcasses: or rather, by the carcass He means His own dead body that was killed at Jerusalem. And after this the Jewish nation were like Christ's dead carcass, and not His living body as the true Church is; for His Spirit thenceforward left that Church and the Temple and typical ordinances of their worship; thenceforward it became as Christ's dead body. The Church, with its ordinances of worship, is the body of Christ. The Church, with the presence and Spirit of Christ, is His living body; but when deprived of it, His dead body. The Jews, therefore, killing Christ's body, killed then their own Church: by this means became a dead carcass and a fit prey for eagles. From the time the Jews killed Christ, the Jewish Church was dead and putrefied till they became a stinking carcass, before the time of their destruction, and their stink called the eagles together upon them.

Luke 18:35