“And they answering say to him, “Where, Lord?” And he said to them, “Where the carcase (body) is, there will the vultures also be gathered together.”
This then raised the obvious question among His listeners. Where then would they be taken? The reply is a vivid one. The vultures gather to their food supply, and in the same way the people of God will be gathered to the One on Whom they feed, the One Who gave His body that they might become one with Him and live by their partaking of Him as the bread of life (Luke 22:19; John 6:35; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17; 1 Corinthians 12:12-27). This is a picture of those who have ‘come' and ‘believed' (John 6:35). We might not have used this picture of Jesus, but He clearly had no problem with it. After all He was quite ready to use the pictures of ‘an unrighteous steward and ‘an unrighteous judge' as pictures of His Father. And like many of Jesus' parables it could give an immediate meaning, with a deeper meaning in it once more was known.
Some see the question as referring to those that are left. But it is difficult to see why that was a problem. They were left where they were. The puzzle was as to what happened to those who were taken.
Others would, however, soften the interpretation, taking the question as meaning, where will this take place? They therefore take it to mean ‘at the place of carnage', or that ‘where the conditions are fulfilled, there the revelation of the Son of Man will take place', or that ‘like vultures they would go to their natural gathering place', or that ‘where the dead body of human nature is, there the judgments of God will come', or that ‘doom will fall inevitably on those who are left', or ‘where the spiritually dead people are, there the judgment will be executed'. Some point out that the picture is similar to that in Revelation 19:17-18, while others would see ‘the eagles' as referring to Roman eagles. But the verse does seem to suggest that the picture points to those who will be taken, and that the question is asking where they would be taken.