Last

Were any of you ever the last to be chosen? School PE lessons were always one place where someone would be picked last. The two captains would take it in turns to choose their teams, so those who were good at games, or those who were popular, would get chosen first. Some of us were always the last to be chosen. We were not any good, we were not popular and we certainly were not wanted. It is not a good way to encourage children to exercise. But this is not about sport or lessons. It is about being the last. It kind of picks up from last week’s blog, but comes from later on in Matthew’s gospel: Matthew 20: 1-16, the parable of the labourers in the vineyard. Some of those labourers were chosen last as well. I’m not an historian of Ancient History, but it seems that labourers would gather in market place to be hired by the day. This is the scenario in the parable, where the vineyard owner goes out throughout the day and hires those who have not found work. (I wonder why he didn’t just hire everyone standing idle when he went out at the third hour, but I suppose that would kind of ruin the message of the parable).  I also wonder how often it was the same men who were employed early on, and how often it was the same group left to stand idle all day, knowing they would struggle to feed their families, yet again? I wonder how it felt to be those who were last, those who knew they were unlikely to find work, how soul destroying it was, how it must have become a self-fulfilling prophecy? I wonder how others thought about this group: were they looked down upon as layabouts, or were they helped and supported during hard times when it was acknowledged that there was not enough work for everyone?

Whatever happened, we know that in the parable the vineyard owner went out at successive times of the day to hire workers who were still waiting to be hired. Eventually, when he went out at the eleventh hour and finds workers still standing idle, he asks why. I can imagine a kind of sarcastic response: we don’t have work, why do you think? We’ve seen you hiring others throughout the day, have you not seen us? Or maybe they were more polite than that, seeing in this man their one chance of earning anything that day. However they framed their answer, they, too, are hired and go to work in the vineyard for the last hour of the day. They cannot have expected much in the form of wages, so imagine their surprise and joy when they are given the full daily wage. This was far more than they had earned, but it must have been necessary. We need not imagine what the other labourers thought; those who had been working the entire day were indignant. They should receive more, for they had been working all day, all through the heat, and it was not fair that they received the same wage as those who only worked for an hour. Not fair at all! The owner points out to them that this wage was what they had agreed in the morning, and they had been given what they had earned. It was his decision to give the last workers the same wage; they should not be disgruntled because he was generous. Jesus finishes the parable with the words: so shall the last be first and the first last.  

But I wonder what we think about where we stand? Are we one of the first or one of the last? What will those of us who have been following God all our lives feel when we see others, much more recent followers, entering the kingdom ahead of us? Will we react like those workers: we’ve been doing this longer; we should be honoured for that? Or will we be able to rejoice at the numbers of those coming? that those who have spent their lives without God are now able to see, and enter the kingdom – before or after us, it does not matter. Can we rejoice when people come to know God, at whatever age? Do we give thanks if those who come after us seem to go ahead of us? Or do we stand on ceremony, and insist that we know better, for we have worshipped for longer? These questions are not to be answered at once, but to be pondered and come back to over our lives. Will we rejoice that we are entering the kingdom – how, when or where does not matter, so long as we are with our God? Or do we focus far more on others, where they are going, how and when they enter the kingdom? If the latter, it would be worth pondering the words of Jesus in John 21:20-23. What Jesus is saying to Peter is not that the disciple whom Jesus loved would not die, but, in effect, that is not your business, you must follow me.

In our following of Jesus, do we strive to find the place we think we deserve, to ensure that we are not last in line? Or can we encourage others ahead of us, rejoicing that they are entering the kingdom, and secure in our knowledge of the love of God, that our place is in the kingdom, and that it does not matter how and when we get there? Can we work for the kingdom, and celebrate that others who have come later are entering before us? Can we accept that last place as a place of honour rather than one of humiliation? In choosing a sports team, to be picked last is to be the one no-one wants; this is not the case for the kingdom of God. Jesus, who loves us whatever our place,  is calling us to follow him; to follow where we are called, and not to be where others may be asked to go.