On that day a person out on the deck of a roof must not go down into the house to pack. A person out in the field must not return home. Remember what happened to Lot’s wife! If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it. That night two people will be asleep in one bed; one will be taken, the other left. Two women will be grinding flour together at the mill; one will be taken, the other left. ” [Two men will be working in the field; one will be taken, the other left.]1
Luke 17:31-36
“Don’t go down into the house to pack” – The picture in this segment is still focused on those whose thoughts are toward their possessions. If you are up on the house top don’t go into the house. You will not have time. There is no point grabbing your stuff anyway. The scene is one of the roof top deck or terrace in the middle eastern house. When the Son of Man comes don’t play around. There is no point in grabbing your stuff and there is no point trying to run from the Son of Man. He is omnipresent. You can’t run and you can’t hide. It’s over. Judgment time. Given Luke’s developing theme of the misuse of riches I think it safe to assume there is a continuation of the theme here. Notice the words “go down into the house to pack”. It’s pretty clear where the focus is. Other translations have ” down for the goods in the house” or “go down into the house to get anything”. I rest my case. It is futile to try to preserve material possessions when the Son of Man is standing there with His eye on you.
There are some who debate whether this section is about the coming of the Son of Man. They cite the references in Matthew 24:15 onwards and Mark 13:14-20 to suggest that the context is calamity in Jerusalem. All I would say to that is read Luke’s passage again. Clearly the context of this section is the Coming of the Son of Man.
The man working in the field must not go back to the house. He must not turn back. Go back to the house [for his stuff]. The bracketed element is not in the text but it is inferred from the sentence before it. No turning back; no looking back. “I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back.” But when Luke writes this verb, no turning back, I think his mind goes back to the classic example of one who turned back – Lot’s wife.
When they were safely out of the city, one of the angels ordered, “Run for your lives! And don’t look back or stop anywhere in the valley! Escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away!”
Genesis 19:17
But Lot’s wife looked back as she was following behind him, and she turned into a pillar of salt.
Genesis 19:26
Her look was likely one of a hankering look back to the trappings of pleasure and possessions although it is not stated as such. Luke’s point is no long lingering looks to the past when you are confronted with the Son of Man. If you cling to your old life of pleasure and possessions you will lose it all. The word [peripoieomai] here translated “cling” holds the sense acquire, keep alive or win. In essence it means to hold on to what one considers real life. To devote one’s thoughts and attention to the animate body and its pleasures. How sad when face to face with the Son of Man. That sure indicates a value system that is screwed up. Rather be willing to lose this earthly body and the pleasures of the flesh in order to gain the permanent life.
Now we move on to some fascinating verses. One will be left and one will be taken, repeated a number of times. Most interpret these verses as set in the context of the Rapture. That time when the Son of Man will appear when you least expect it, like a thief in the night and will separate close friends and family in order to whisk away the believers. There are some who believe that the rapture will occur in the night. The Son of Man will come under cover of darkness like a thief chooses the night time to operate. Let me tell you clearly and categorically that is not what is being said here. Both verse 34 and verse 35 must be viewed together here. Some think that “in that night” by using the demonstrative ‘that’ is definitively setting the scene to be night time. But the use of both is saying a night time parousia [appearing / rapture] will see one taken and one left behind. A daytime parousia will see one taken and one left behind. Jesus doesn’t have to sneak around in the night time to maintain the element of surprise. He can surprise us in the brightness of the midday sun. Besides which it would be ridiculous to think that the parousia is going to happen either in total darkness or in the bright sunlight. The parousia will be live across the globe. If He appears in one place at night, by definition it will be day time somewhere else on the other side of the globe. After all this will be a global event at one particular moment in time. We might see and understand for the first time what it means to be omnipresent.
What is in focus here is that the coming of the Son of Man will divide between close relationships. Men and women, husbands and wives, work mates, two men, two women. No relationship is beyond the possibility of being divided by the Parousia. Note too that it is not on the basis of what they are doing at the time. Both are sleeping and unconscious at the time, the two at the mill are both grinding with the same millstone, the two in the field are both doing the same work. No, His Appearing is not going to catch you out by what you are doing at the time. His appearing will catch you by reason of who you are, or should I say whose you are. It is all dependent on whether you are in Christ or not; covered by His righteousness or not. To be totally blunt, you will not be able to work or earn your way into heaven. Neither will you be able to buy your way into heaven. Gold is valueless there; they use it for the streets. You will only be taken if you are His. If Jesus can say over you – He is paid for. She is paid for.
There are other things that I could comment on with these verses but I am going to keep it short and not give you a long winded run down. One noteworthy detail is that the words “two people” will be asleep in bed – they are actually two males. The Greek does not use the word “men” here but the adjective ‘two’ is masculine. However that construction may mean two men or may be a general use of the construction meaning two people. The “two women” follows the same grammatical construction: women are not mentioned but the adjective “two” is feminine.
These verses are then followed by the line – [Two men will be working in the field; one will be taken, the other left.] There is no surprise in this verse as the idea has adequately been emphasized by the repetition in the verses before it. Some feel this third line is there to provide the contrast of men and women, but in actual fact it is there in the first line of the couplet as explained above.
1 This verse is omitted in a number of manuscripts. It is omitted from most Greek texts. The whole verse is omitted in the following Uncials A B E G H K L Q S, and from more than fifty ancient versions like the Coptic, Ethiopic, Gothic, Slavonic, and many of the early church fathers. It is also omitted from the Byzantine readings and from Westcott and Hort’s text as well as the Majority Text family of manuscripts but present in Scriverner’s Textus Receptus and in the KJV family of versions. It is most likely to be a harmonization from Matt 24:40. Griesbach thinks it might have been omitted on account of the similar ending when the scribes eye has gone to the other verses with a similar ending and missed this one. It ought to be footnoted or put in the text with the square brackets indicating it is not found in all manuscripts. However although purists may debate this verse long and hard, nothing is actually lost in meaning if it is omitted. It merely emphasizes the point already made. [If this paragraph is gobble-de-gook to you and you don’t understand it – don’t worry about it. Just skip it; you won’t lose your salvation.]
We will explore an interesting alternative in this section then we will move on to verse 37.
You can make progress or you can make excuses, but you can’t do both.
Anon
The real measure of your wealth is how much you’d be worth if you lost all your money.
Anon
Yesterday is history, tomorrow’s a mystery, but today is a gift… that’s why it’s called the present.
Anon
And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.
Abraham Lincoln