Kingdom Order

Kingdom Order

Matthew 20:16, NIV

So the last will be first, and the first will be last.

Setting the Scene

At the end of this week’s parable, Jesus, as the landowner, asks two unsettling questions: “Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?” (Matthew 20:15, NIV). When God poses questions like those, we are most likely to answer, “You can do whatever you want with your money as long as it benefits me” and “I’m not envious when you are generous as long as you are generous with me”—which was precisely the problem of the first workers in the parable: They couldn’t see beyond themselves far enough to appreciate all that they had been given.

The order of things in the Kingdom of Heaven consistently reverses the worldly order. Those who are first here or demand to be first will be content with last place in the Kingdom of Heaven, or they perhaps will not even be there.

Our response to Jesus’ echoed statement “The last will be first and the first will be last” (Matthew 20:16, NIV; see also 19:30) will depend on whether we see ourselves primarily as first or last in this life. Unfortunately, this doesn’t prepare us for a healthy translation into Kingdom values. In the Kingdom of Heaven, the last discover that being first is really no different from being last, so it doesn’t matter. Heaven isn’t payback; heaven is an order of existence that never steps on someone else to get ahead or to feel greater.

Getting Personal

How has this parable given you a new anticipation of what it means to work for God now and be with God later?

How might learning to be content with “last” in this world be good preparation for heaven?

If our overwhelming reason to reach for heaven is so that we can demand justice, we will be disappointed (and we may not even get there). Everything lacking in this world because of sin will be settled in heaven, but grace, mercy, and access to God will make everything else fade to insignificance.

Talking to God

As you focus on the holiness and goodness of the Lord, your focus will shift away from others and what they are doing or not doing for the Kingdom. Thank God for his “unfair” generosity to every person who comes to him for salvation.