“But first must he suffer many things and be rejected of this generation.”
But He must first suffer on earth. That He is unquestionably speaking of Himself now comes out (although those who had heard His inner words to the disciples earlier could hardly have doubted it). For He now declares that before that glorious appearing must come the times of suffering. For He Himself (the Son of Man - Luke 17:24; compare Luke 9:22) must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. First He must be manifested in suffering and then He will be manifested in glory. So this is the way in which the days of the Son of Man must end, in the Day of suffering that will culminate in the Day of glory. And for the disciples, in between the suffering and the glory, will be the days of longing for the days of the Son of Man, both past and future.
The Crucifixion and Coming of The Son Of Man In Glory Will Issue In The Final Judgment and The Final Consummation (Luke 17:26-37)
In the Section chiasmus this parallels Luke 17:20-21. It expands on the idea of the Kingly Rule of God being among them by pointing out that one day will come the great day of separation between those in the Kingly Rule of God and those who are not. In that day those in the Kingly Rule of God will be take out from among those who are not, and then those who are left will be judged.
Analysis.
a As it happened in the days of Noah, even so will it be also in the days of the Son of man” (Luke 17:26).
b “They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all” (Luke 17:27).
c “In the same way even as it occurred in the days of Lot. They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built, but in the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all” (Luke 17:28-29).
d “In the same way will it be in the day that the Son of man is revealed. In that day, he that will be on the housetop, and his goods in the house, let him not go down to take them away, and let him that is in the field similarly not return back” (Luke 17:30-31).
e “Remember Lot's wife” (Luke 17:32).
d “Whoever will seek to gain his life will lose it, but whoever will lose his life will preserve it” (Luke 17:33).
c “I say to you, In that night there will be two men on one bed, the one will be taken, and the other will be left” (Luke 17:34).
b “There will be two women grinding together, the one will be taken, and the other will be left” (Luke 17:35).
a “And they answering say to him, “Where, Lord?” And he said to them, “Where the carcase is, there will the vultures also be gathered together” (Luke 17:36-37).
Note that in ‘a' the scene is set and in the parallel we are given the end solution. In ‘b' some were saved and some were destroyed, and in the parallel the same applies. In ‘c' we have the same situation connected with Lot and the same parallel. In ‘d' men must do the opposite of normal and in the parallel the same applies. In ‘e' central to all is the injunction to ‘Remember Lot's wife' who preferred the worldly city of Sodom to security with God and perished. The previous passage had centred on ‘remember that there will be false messiahs'. Here the warning goes even deeper, ‘remember Lot's wife'.