The First Will Be Last

“Many who are first will be last, and the last, first.”

- Jesus Christ (Matthew 19:30)

~~~

In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus says that all who leave brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, houses and farms for His sake will receive a hundred times as much and inherit eternal life - but many who are first will be last, and the last will be first. He explains this with a story in which a man hires workers in the morning, afternoon, and evening yet pays them all a full day’s wages. Those hired first complain that they have been treated unfairly, but the man who hired them says that he gave them what he had promised them and that his generosity toward the men who had been hired later was none of their concern.

Compare: As Jesus hung on the cross, He turned to the criminal who believed in Him and said, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.”

Is Jesus not the worker hired in the morning? Is the criminal not the worker hired in the evening? Yet Jesus loved the criminal and did not resent him.

How many times did Jesus chastise the disciples for their lack of faith and understanding? Yet during the last supper, He tells them, “You are my friends.” In John’s Revelation, Jesus says to the church in Laodicea, “Because you are lukewarm, I will spit you out if my mouth,” but then He urges them to repent and says, “He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.”

David and Paul tell us that we are judged and rewarded by God according to our deeds, so there must be a kind of inequality after death, and yet Christ’s parable of the workers promises a kind of equality as well. Latecomers have a reason for joy (and we are all latecomers to some degree), and both the parable and the example of Jesus teach us that, to the degree that we are morning hirelings (which we all are more or less) we ought to purge ourselves of jealousy and share in others’ joyful receipt of the Master’s grace.

In this way, we will be one with each other as we are with Christ - and full of His joy.