What Has Died?

SCRIPTURE: Luke 17: 26-37 (emphasis added)
²⁶ “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. ²⁷ People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.

²⁸ “It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. ²⁹ But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.

³⁰ “It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. ³¹ On that day no one who is on the roof of his house, with his goods inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. ³² Remember Lot’s wife! ³³ Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. ³⁴ I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. ³⁵ Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.”

³⁷ “Where, Lord?” they asked.

He replied, “Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.”

OBSERVATION: The Lord is speaking of his second coming to earth and what things will be like when that happens. He talks of how some will be taken to heaven and others left here on earth. All this will happen in the twinkling of an eye. Then the disciples ask an odd question. They ask where this will happen, not when. I would think that when would be the more obvious question. Jesus' response is just as strange. I have never really understood it. He says that where there is a dead body, vultures will gather. What? In all the westerns I have ever watched, vultures in the sky mean something has died, but what is he saying has died?

APPLICATION: I'm not really sure. I have no definite answer that God gave me as I pondered and asked him about this. There are a couple of possibilities that came to me. One is that the Church has died. Not that there are no Christians on earth when this happens; if that were true no one would be taken while others are left, as Jesus clearly says will happen. But maybe the organized Church is gone from the scene and those that are taken are those that have come to faith after what many call the rapture has taken place. Or, it could mean that when society has rejected God to the point that Christians go into hiding and the values that have always made society a civil place to live are "dead", that will be the time when God calls an end to the madness and takes those that still trust him out of this mess so that evil will face the final judgment of God before the Kingdom of God is established forever. In any case, it means I have a responsibility to try to persuade as many as possible to receive the love of Jesus before the vultures gather and time is up. I also have a responsibility to live a holy life before others. My life is short. Jesus may come before I die or he may not. But the most I have is a few more decades, and they go by fast. Is there any issue that surpasses this in importance? I think not.

PRAYER: Father, sometimes I feel so impotent in living my life in a way that will make ay difference in anyone's life. I have this physical weakness and pain that limits me (I continue to pray for your healing) and I am not around as many unbelievers as I used to be. I pray you will give me effectiveness in reaching others while there is still time. Make my life count for you. That is all I really have when all this life is over. I love you with all my heart. May I help others to do the same. In Jesus' Name, Amen.