Where Buzzards Circle

"He said to them, 'Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather'" (Luke 17:37).

How do you find a dead cow? You look for circling vultures, of course. They're a dead give-away, so to speak. 

Jesus used that folksy metaphor—it must have been a popular saying—when asked about his return. "How will we know that you've arrived?" his disciples asked. “When you see vultures circling," Jesus replied.

"Just as the location of a corpse in the wilderness is obvious from the crowd of circling vultures, so the Son of Man will appear in an unmistakable manner, and there will be no need to ask where he is" (Scottish theologian, Ian Howard Marshall).

Jesus' coming will be as unmistakable as circling vultures, sheet lightning (Luke 17:20), or the nose on your face, leaving us with a principle that applies to eschatological questions as well as all future uncertainties: You may not know the answers to tomorrow's questions this morning, or this afternoon, but when you need to know them you will know.

David Roper

3.1.19