Where the body is, the vultures will gather

Matthew

Mt 24:23-28.

²³ If anyone says to you then, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it.

²⁴ False messiahs and false prophets will arise, and they will perform signs and wonders so great as to deceive, if that were possible, even the elect.

²⁵ Behold, I have told it to you beforehand.

²⁶ So if they say to you, ‘He is in the desert,’ do not go out there; if they say, ‘He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it.*

²⁷ For just as lightning comes from the east and is seen as far as the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.

²⁸ Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.

Mt 23:28

ὅπου ἐὰν ᾖ τὸ πτῶμα, ἐκεῖ συναχθήσονται οἱ ἀετοί.

Luke

Lk 17:31-37.

³¹ On that day, a person who is on the housetop and whose belongings are in the house must not go down to get them, and likewise a person in the field must not return to what was left behind.

³² Remember the wife of Lot.

³³ Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it.

³⁴ I tell you, on that night there will be two people in one bed; one will be taken, the other left.

³⁵ And there will be two women grinding meal together; one will be taken, the other left.”

³⁶

³⁷They said to him in reply, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the body is, there also the vultures will gather.”

Lk 17:37

καὶ ἀποκριθέντες λέγουσιν αὐτῷ· ποῦ, κύριε; ὁ δὲ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς· ὅπου τὸ σῶμα, ἐκεῖ καὶ οἱ ἀετοὶ ἐπισυναχθήσονται

Exegesis

What does the question in Luke mean?

"Where will the people be taken?"

"Where will you appear in glory?"

What might the answer mean?

The saying is something of a riddle. To solve the puzzle, we have to find two realities to substitute for "corpse" and "vultures." No substitution is without difficulties.

corpse	vultures	evaluation
Jesus	disciples	The picture of Christian disciples feeding on the dead body of Jesus is not very pretty. Who wants to be called a vulture?
sinful humanity	judgment	This solution reverses plurals and singulars. The singular "corpse" becomes plural "humanity," while the plural "vultures" becomes the abstract singular, "judgment."
Body of Christ	raptors who carry off some and leave others	Scavengers eat the whole corpse. They don't leave much behind.
Body of Christ	raptors who gather together in one place	As long as we shift focus away from the purpose of the gathering (totally consuming carrion), the image of great birds gathering together from the four winds is impressive.

Suggested resolution

John Topel, "What Kind of a Sign are Vultures? Luke 17,37b," Biblica, Vol. 84 (2003) 403-411.

"For the plurality of recent commentaries, when the Son of Man appears the disciples will be as sure of where he is as vultures are sure of the place of the cadaver, i.e. they will no more need a special sign than do the vultures" (404).

"Contemporary exegetes who relate the proverb to its immediate context in 17,34-35 assert that Jesus is telling the disciples that the quest for a certain place is unnecessary. They will no more need a special sign than do the vultures: they will recognize the Son of Man wherever he appears with the same surety with which the vulture finds the carrion. In that way, Jesus' proverbial response echoes the response he gives to the Pharisees' question: the specific place is irrelevant" (410).

"There are no prior signs of the arrival of the final reign of God. They will know the when and where of it, but only after the process has irreversibly begun" (411).