On First and Last

AM Psalm 101, 109:1-4(5-19)20-30 • PM Psalm 119:121-144
Num. 16:36-50 • Rom. 4:13-25 • Matt. 20:1-16

On my first reading of this parable, I did not understand its meaning at all. It certainly seemed unfair of the landowner to give the same wages to laborers who had worked all day as to laborers who had only worked a short while.

Of course, there are deeper meanings than the obvious. One can interpret it as representing our tendency to covet another’s circumstances. Also, life can often seem unfair. And, certainly, the landowner had the right to use his money as he wished. Finally, God’s love and mercy are given freely; they are not earned.

I was also struck by the closing of the parable, when Jesus quotes the landowner: “So the first shall be last and the last shall be first.”

As well as being to me the summary of the parable, this element of the first being last—and vice versa—is an important aspect of New Testament theology. It appears in Mark 9:35, when Jesus tells His disciples, “Whoever wants to be first shall be last of all and servant of all.” And in Luke 13:30, Jesus says, “Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

In closing, I offer another scriptural juxtaposition of the words “first” and “last.” From Isaiah 44:6: “I am the first and the last.” In Revelation 22:12, a vision of Christ says, “I am the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection are—to me—the consummation of God’s dealings with humanity throughout all space and time.

Written by Christopher Koppel

Christopher is happy to be spending his senior years in Fayetteville, with his husband, Dennis, and his pooch, Milo.