In Luke 17:31 Jesus seems to be speaking of the days were coming when the Jews and Rome would be at war. This war would come as one of Jesus’ first acts of judgment against those who judged him and refused to repent (Matthew 26:64; Mark 14:62). The war would come as judgment that would destroy both the city of Jerusalem and its Temple (cf. Daniel 9:26).
One of the purposes of owning a staff was to defend oneself from an enemy. If the disciples chose to defend the Jewish nation, they would be placing themselves against the verdict God intended to carry out. Therefore, if they joined in the war against Rome, Jesus assured them that they would be judged with the Jewish nation. We are able to see this as Jesus pointed to Lot’s wife (Luke 17:32), who mourned over the loss of Sodom. She desired to stay or at least take some of Sodom with her. Perhaps, she turned back to retrieve some of her treasures obtained in Sodom. Therefore, she was judged with those who lived there. So, too, would Jesus’ disciples be judged, if they chose to defend Jerusalem against Rome.
In Luke 17:33 Jesus told his disciples that, if their lives are important to them, exercising the means normally practiced in this world won’t get it done. It would be natural to take up arms against a foe, but such a thing would end in death, because God has pronounced his judgment upon the nation. Therefore, to seek to save the nation would end in failure and death. Rather, let one’s life as a citizen of the nation pass away, and one would be apt to preserve his life. Rome didn’t seek to destroy the Jews of the Diaspora.
To the surprise of many, the Diaspora didn’t join in the struggle to preserve the Jewish nation and the Temple. It may be they recognized, through the preaching of the Gospel, that the event was of God. Certainly, Stephen’s original claim (Acts 6:14) had come true in 70 AD. Whatever a practicing Jew in the Diaspora thought of the Gospel, the prediction that Jesus would destroy Jerusalem and the Temple did, indeed, come to pass.
It seems the two people Jesus mentioned in Luke 17:34 and the two in Luke 17:36 were living their lives in a normal way, either with family and friends on the housetops or working in the fields (cf. Luke 17:25-30). Judgment between one and another would come suddenly and without warning. One would be taken, while the other would be left. The text isn’t clear who the two might be. They could represent the believer and the unbeliever or two unbelievers in the land where one would die and the other would be taken captive.
Sometimes this scripture is interpreted to mean that the one taken is the believer who is taken in the rapture to be with Jesus, but this doesn’t fit the context. The apostles asked Jesus in Luke 17:37 where the one would be taken. Jesus replied by pointing to a type of eagle[1] that is known to come to the carcasses of animals to feed (cf. Job 39:27-30; Habakkuk 1:8; Hosea 8:1). It might seem mysterious how vultures can “spot” something dead, for they do so from miles high in the sky (cf. Matthew 6:26). Similarly, the picture Christ seemed to paint is that the unbeliever, i.e. the dead body (cf. Matthew 13:38-41), will be judged by God, and the eagle (also a symbol of Rome) will come to feed upon its carcass (spoil his goods; gold of the Temple etc.).
____________________________________
[1] Perhaps vultures and eagles were lumped together as a type of bird in ancient times.
Smoodock's Blog 