It
will be the same way in the day that the Son of Man is revealed. In that day, he who will be on the housetop, and his goods in the house, let him not go down to take them away. Let him who is in the field likewise not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife! Whoever seeks to save his life loses it, but whoever loses his life preserves it. I tell you, in that night there will be two people in one bed. The one will be taken, and the other will be left. There will be two grinding grain together. One will be taken, and the other will be left.” They, answering, asked him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the body is, there will the vultures also be gathered together.”
Luke 17:30-37
Luke 17 [22.] He said to the disciples, “The days will come, when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. They will tell you, ‘Look, here!’ or ‘Look, there!’ Don’t go away, nor follow after them, for as the lightning, when it flashes out of the one part under the sky, shines to the other part under the sky; so will the Son of Man be in his day. But first, he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. As it was in the days of Noah, even so will it be also in the days of the Son of Man. They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ship, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise, even as it was in the days of Lot: they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but in the day that Lot went out from Sodom, it rained fire and sulfur from the sky, and destroyed them all.
Luke 17 [30.] It will be the same way in the day that the Son of Man is revealed. In that day, he who will be on the housetop, and his goods in the house, let him not go down to take them away. Let him who is in the field likewise not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife! Whoever seeks to save his life loses it, but whoever loses his life preserves it. I tell you, in that night there will be two people in one bed. The one will be taken, and the other will be left. There will be two grinding grain together. One will be taken, and the other will be left.”
Luke 17 [37.] They, answering, asked him, “Where, Lord?”
He said to them, “Where the body is, there will the vultures also be gathered together.”
Luke 18 [1.] He also spoke a parable to them that they must always pray, and not give up, saying, “There was a judge in a certain city who didn’t fear God, and didn’t respect man. A widow was in that city, and she often came to him, saying, ‘Defend me from my adversary!’ He wouldn’t for a while, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God, nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will defend her, or else she will wear me out by her continual coming.’”
Meaning:
Jesus has been teaching his disciples about “the days of the Son of Man.” He has compared that coming day to the days of Noah and the days of Lot, when people went on eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting and building, until judgement suddenly came (Luke 17:22-29).
- “It will be the same way in the day that the Son of Man is revealed.”
The Son of Man is now hidden in humility, and must first “suffer many things and be rejected by this generation” (Luke 17:25). One day he will be revealed openly in glory.
- “he who will be on the housetop … let him not go down to take them away”
Houses in Israel had flat roofs. Jesus says that someone on the roof should not even go inside to rescue his possessions, and the worker in the field should not go back. Matthew and Mark record similar words about fleeing from the coming distress in Judea (Matthew 24:17-18; Mark 13:15-16). In Luke the emphasis is on the heart: on that day nothing in this world must hold us back.
- “Remember Lot’s wife!”
When the angels led Lot’s family out of Sodom, they warned, “Escape for your life! Don’t look behind you.” “But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt” (Genesis 19:26). She had left Sodom with her feet but not with her heart. Her backward look showed that she still longed for what God was judging. Jesus had said something similar to a would-be follower: “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for God’s Kingdom” (Luke 9:62).
- “Whoever seeks to save his life loses it, but whoever loses his life preserves it.”
Lot’s wife tried to hold on to her old life and lost everything. Jesus repeats a principle he taught earlier: “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever will lose his life for my sake, the same will save it” (Luke 9:24).
- “The one will be taken, and the other will be left.”
Two people share one bed at night; two women grind grain together in the early morning. Outwardly they are alike, doing the same tasks side by side, yet they are separated in an instant. Matthew records the same picture (Matthew 24:40-41). Some manuscripts add a third example of two in the field.
- “Where the body is, there will the vultures also be gathered together.”
The disciples ask where this will happen. Jesus answers with a proverb. Vultures circling in the sky show clearly where a carcass lies. In the same way, judgement will fall wherever there is spiritual death, and when it comes, it will be unmistakable. Matthew records the same saying (Matthew 24:28).
The Significance of Luke 17:30-37
- Readiness every day
The day of the Lord will come suddenly, in the midst of ordinary life. Followers of Jesus live each day ready to meet him.
- Holding this world loosely
Possessions, homes and plans are not evil, but they must not hold our hearts. Paul wrote of “forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before” (Philippians 3:13).
Cross-References:
Genesis 19:26: "But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt." The example Jesus tells us to remember.
Luke 9:24: "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever will lose his life for my sake, the same will save it." Losing life to find it.
Matthew 24:40: "Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and one will be left;" The parallel in Matthew.
Matthew 24:28: "For wherever the carcass is, there is where the vultures gather together." The same proverb.
Conclusion: Jesus warned that the day the Son of Man is revealed will come as suddenly as the flood and the fire on Sodom. On that day no one should turn back for possessions. Lot’s wife is a lasting warning. People side by side will be separated, and judgement will be as plain as vultures over a carcass. Those who lose their lives for Christ will keep them.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible