This passage in Luke about people being taken and left is certainly one that has had many interpretations. Often, this visual gets lumped into the “left behind” discussion, the spiriting away of the church as many believe. It’s possible that’s what it means, but the passage sits in the midst of many parables where Jesus uses the image of a person to unveil a deeper truth. I looked to some of the writers of the early church (Cyril of Alexandria and Ambrose) who lean toward the idea that these “taken and left” folks are more than just random people. People in bed may mean people who have a good life and rest easy, perhaps the wealthy. Two women at a grindstone may indicate two people who must labor even for their bread, perhaps the poor. The “field” may mean those outside the Jewish faith.

Rapture or symbolism, we can perhaps agree on this common ground: those who find themselves in the Kingdom are not there because of status or family name. The moving of the Holy Spirit and the gathering of the church by Christ is his own work, and our response is worship and praise.