Luke 17:31-37

“ In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. 32. Remember Lot's wife. 33. Whosoever shall seek to save his life, shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life, shall preserve it. 34. I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. 35. Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. 36, 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. ”

Here is the practical conclusion of the discourse. Jesus describes that disposition of mind which, in this last crisis, shall be the condition of salvation. The Lord passes with His heavenly retinue. He attracts all the inhabitants of the earth who are willing and ready to join Him; but it transpires in the twinkling of an eye. Whoever is not already loosened from earthly things, so as to haste away without hesitation, taking flight toward Him freely and joyously, remains behind. Thus precisely had Lot's wife perished with the goods, from which she could not part. Agreeably to His habitual method, Jesus characterizes this disposition of mind by a series of external acts, in which it is concretely realized. The Revue de Théologie (passage quoted, p. 337) condemns Luke for here applying to the Parousia the counsel to flee, which has no meaning, except as applied to the destruction of Jerusalem (Matthew 24). This accusation is false, for there is no mention of fleeing from one part of the earth to another, but of rising from the earth to the Lord, as He passes and disappears: “ Let him not come down (from the roof); but, forgetting all that is in the house, let him be ready to follow the Lord!” So he who is in the fields is not to attempt to return home to carry upwards with him some object of value. The Lord is there; if any one belongs to Him, let him leave everything at once to accompany Him (Matthew 24:18: the labourer should not even return to seek his dress, which he laid aside to work). This saying, especially in the form of Matthew, evidently referred to the Parousia, which shall come suddenly, and not to the destruction of Jerusalem, which will be preceded by an armed invasion and a long war. Luke's context is therefore preferable to Matthew's.

Ver. 33. To save one's life, by riveting it to some object with which it is identified, is the means of losing it, of being left behind with this perishing world; to give one's life, by quitting everything at once, is the only means of saving it, by laying hold of the Lord who is passing. See on Luke 9:24. Jesus here substitutes for the phrase to save his life, the word ζωογονεῖν, literally, to give it birth alive. The word is that by which the LXX. express the Piel and Hiphil of חָיָה, H2649, to live. Here it is having the natural life born again, that it may be reproduced in the form of spiritual, glorified, eternal life. The absolute sacrifice of the natural life is the means of this transformation. Here is a word of unfathomable depth and of daily application.

At this time a selection will take place (Luke 17:34), a selection which will instantaneously break all earthly relations, even the most intimate, and from which there will arise a new grouping of humanity in two new families or societies, the taken and the left. Λέγω ὑμῖν, I tell you, announces something weighty. Bleek thinks, that as the subject under discussion is the return of the Lord as judge, to be taken is to perish, to be left is to escape. But the middle παραλαμβάνεσθαι, to take to one's self, to welcome as one's own, can only have a favourable meaning (John 14:3). And St. Paul certainly understood the word in this sense; for it is probably not without relation to this saying that he teaches, 1 Thessalonians 4:17, the taking up into the air of the believers who are alive at the return of Christ; it is the ascension of the disciples, as the complement of their Master's. ᾿Αφιέναι, to forsake, to leave behind, as Luke 13:35. The image of Luke 17:34 supposes that the Parousia takes place at night. Luke 17:35, on the contrary, supposes it happening during the day. It matters little. For one hemisphere it will be in the day; for the other, at night. The idea remains the same: whether he is sleeping, or whether he is working, man ought to be sufficiently disengaged to give himself over without delay to the Lord who draws him.

Handmills were used among the ancients. When the millstone was large, two persons turned it together.

Ver. 36, which is wanting in almost all the Mjj., is taken from the parallel passage in Matthew.

Thus the beings who shall have been most closely connected here below, shall, in the twinkling of an eye, be parted for ever.

The apostle's question (Luke 17:37) is one of curiosity. Although Jesus had already answered it in Luke 17:24, He takes advantage of it to close the conversation by a declaration which applies it to the whole world. The natural phenomenon, described by Job 39:30, is used by Jesus to symbolize the universality of the judgment proclaimed. The carcase is humanity entirely secular, and destitute of the life of God (Luke 17:26-30; comp. Luke 9:60, Let the dead...). The eagles represent punishment alighting on such a society. There is no allusion in this figure to the Roman standards, for there is no reference in the preceding discourse to the destruction of Jerusalem. Comp. also Matthew 24:28, where this saying applies exclusively to the Parousia. The eagle, properly so called, does not live in flocks, it is true, and does not feed on carrion. But ἀετός, as well as ‡ ֶנשֶׁר, H5979; Proverbs 30:17, may (as Furrer shows, Bedeut. der Bibl. Geogr. p. 13) denote the great vulture (gyps fulvus), equal to the eagle in size and strength, which is seen in hundreds on the plain of Gennesareth. Some Fathers have applied the image of the body to Jesus glorified, and that of the eagles to the saints who shall accompany Him at His advent!