So, those who are last now will be first then, and those who are first will be last.
Matthew 20:16 NLT
I go to Disneyland with my fiance a lot. As fun as it can be, there is one thing that I always dread: lines. Waiting in a line for an hour seems ridiculous, especially for a ride that is only a few minutes long. Yet, Disneyland continues to be a place where EVERYONE seems to want to take a vacation. Yes, we pay hundreds of dollars to go and stand in line.
Now, all sarcasm aside, the worst part of standing in one of those lines-or any line for that matter-is the moment when someone from the back of the line comes creeping up and says, “The rest of my group is just up there…” and then proceeds to slide past you to the front of the line. They haven’t waited, they haven’t been accidentally bumped into 38 times by the small child behind you, they haven’t been “leaning” awkwardly against a hand rail or chain, and most of all, they just have not earned the right to go before you in line.
We echo our desire to be first on the freeway. We are content traveling at whatever speed is comfortable to us, until someone passes us, or cuts us off. They can’t go before us, we have more important things to be doing than they do.
In Matthew 20, Jesus tells a parable about the owner of a vineyard and the day laborers he hires to bring in his harvest. The owner goes into town several times that day, looking for workers. He hires five groups of laborers: some first thing in the morning, then at 9:00, 12:00, 3:00, and finally 5:00. At the end of the day, the vineyard owner has his foreman pay the workers, starting with those hired at 5:00; they received a full days wages. In fact, everyone received a full days wages. The owner of the vineyard decided to pay everyone the same amount.
Obviously, this made those who were hired at the beginning of the day a bit upset.
Jesus follows this parable with the statement, So, those who are last now will be first then, and those who are first will be last.
For a long time, I would look at this verse of scripture and think-on a mostly subconscious level-that one day in Heaven, God was going to arrange everyone into a sort of hierarchy and that those who had the toughest go at life on earth would be those who would make it to the front of “the line.” Now, I see that this is not what Jesus was saying at all.
In fact, what Jesus is saying is that it doesn’t matter at what point you get into the line, everyone will receive the same reward. This is another example of Jesus being the great equalizer of humanity. Jesus is telling us that in the Kingdom of God, it doesn’t matter when you become a part, at the end of the day, you are going to receive the full reward. Or, you could say that no matter what you have done, we are all subject to the same grace and mercy.
Liars, murderers, gossips, know-it-alls, abusers, users, and generally nice people, we all receive the same grace. We all are granted access to an eternity with God through Jesus. The arms of the cross spread wide enough to embrace all of us, there is however, one requirement for receiving this grace: you must embrace the cross. Jesus gives us all the same opportunity to know God and be known by Him, we simply must receive it.
So, stop worrying about your place in line, your status in life, your reputation among your peers, just rejoice that you get to be in the line, waiting for an eternal reward that you couldn’t have earned. This is what it means to be Firstly-Last: you do not worry about who is ahead of you or behind you, instead you can celebrate being invited.
