Being Last (Matthew 20)
In Chapter 18, the disciples asked, “who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven”, and Jesus taught them that they needed to be like children, to humble themselves like children – to be unconcerned with position, place, or power. In Chapter 19, he repeated this teaching. The chapter ended with the disciples asking Jesus about the reward they will receive, and him confirming that they do have one coming, along with everyone else who has given up family and farms and things important to them for his sake. The last sentence turns the discussion of the reward upside down though, as Jesus tells them, “But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first”.
The chapter break interrupts this conversation. Chapter 20 is a continuation of the same discussion, and the pretty much whole chapter is about this whole notion of being “first”.
Yes, disciples, you’re in on the “ground floor” of this kingdom thing. The first to give up everything and jump on board. You have a great reward coming – Jesus tells them that they’ll sit on 12 thrones and judge the nations of Israel, and that everyone who has given up for him will receive a hundred times as much plus eternal life. At the same time, Jesus has told them not to be concerned with position – it isn’t about who is “greatest in the kingdom”.
He tells them a parable. It’s about a man who owns a vineyard and needs workers. He gets some from the market place early in the morning. As he goes through the day, though, he keeps finding more workers, and hires them all… four other times through the day – roughly 9am, 12 noon, 3pm and 5pm he brings more workers back to work. As night falls, he has them all paid. The workers who came last get paid first, and all of them get paid the same amount. The first workers are irritated that the ones who only worked an hour got paid the same thing as the ones that worked all day.
In the story, the landowner tells them that this isn’t unfair, because they received what they were promised. That he can do what he wants with what is his, and he is generous. They have no reason to be jealous.
It isn’t how long they worked that determined their reward, it is the generosity of the one that owns the vineyard.
Jesus’ simple comment to the disciples at the end is to repeat, “So the last will be first and the first will be last”. This is what the kingdom is like. Your reward isn’t based on you being first, you working the hardest, or anything else you do. It is based on the generosity – the grace – of the one who owns everything. God can do what he wants with what is his.
Matthew’s narrative then changes to a completely different scene, but what is told is still in keeping with the theme. They’re heading now for Jerusalem. The place where Jesus will die. This is the road to the end. Just as he’s told them before, he stops and tells them now about what will happen in Jerusalem, but in more detail than he has told before. It tells us for sure, that Jesus did have foresight into exactly what was going to happen to him, as he tells the disciples not just that he is going to die. He gives them the whole outline of what will happen. He will be betrayed. It’s the chief priests and scribes that will orchestrate what will happen. They will condemn him to death, and then turn him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him, flog him, and then crucify him. And then he will be raised from the dead on the third day.
The one who is God With Us, who was there in the beginning, The First, will be the last, out of the generosity and grace of the Father, for our sake. For those who don’t deserve it.
Then the mother of James and John comes to Jesus, kneels at his feet, and asks that her sons get to sit at Jesus’ right and left sides in the kingdom. She’s asking for them to have the place of greatest honor – to be first. The disciples get to sit on three thrones; she wants her sons to have the best thrones. I don’t know if the sons put her up to this. Maybe it was just the love of a mother wanting the best for her boys, especially after all they’d given up for Jesus. It makes the other disciples angry, and understandably so, though I wonder how much of their indignation was due to them wanting to have the “greatest” positions themselves.
Jesus directs his reply directly at James and John, which seems to indicate that they had prompted their mother to make this request. You don’t know what you’re asking, he tells them. He asks, “are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” Jesus has told them what he’s going to go through. He asks now if they are willing to go through the same thing. The cup of sorrow, the cup of pain, the cup of death. I’m not sure they understand the question. They say they are able, and Jesus tells them they will drink the same cup… but that it isn’t up to him to grant their wish. The Father (like in the story of the vineyard) gets to decide.
Jesus once again tries to teach them the lesson about being first, about “position” in the kingdom. They can see a great example of a desire for position and power run amok in the Roman rulers they have. Jesus uses that as an example of just what he doesn’t want them to be like. Instead:
…whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Jesus is, of course, the perfect example of what the kingdom heart is supposed to be like. Being in the very nature God, he did not consider equality with God something to hold onto. Instead, he emptied himself and took on human likeness, making himself the servant. The First became last.
Position, prestige, and power are not what the kingdom is about. The servant heart, grateful for the gracious gift of God, is what Jesus seeks of members of the kingdom.
I’m glad we don’t still struggle with that the way the disciples did.
