Who is On First?

Matt. 19:30; 20:1-20; Mark 10:31

You've heard the words before of Jesus, "But, many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first."

This passage is found exclusive to the Gospel of Matthew. Part of the explanation is more difficult than the thing to be explained. As a result, many interpretations have been made. But this one is more to the understanding of what Jesus was trying to teach...

1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.

2 “When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard.

3 “And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the market place;

4 and to those he said, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ And so they went.

5 “Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same thing.

6 “And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around; and he *said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day long?’

7 “They *said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He *said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’

8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard *said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.’

9 “When those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius.

10 “When those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius.

11 “When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner,

12 saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.’

13 “But he answered and said to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius?

14 ‘Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you.

15 ‘Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?’

16 “So the last shall be first, and the first last."

17 As Jesus was about to go up to Jerusalem, He took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and on the way He said to them,

18 “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death,

19 and will hand Him over to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be raised up.”

 New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Mt 20:1–19.

"Three things must be taken into to account in order to form a just estimate of men's works, viz. the quantity of the work done, the ability of the worker, and the motive... when the ability is equal, quantity view meantime the motive: when the ability is equal, quantity determines relative merit; and when ability varies, then it is not the absolute amount, but the relation of the amount to the ability that ought to determine value." The Training of the Twelve, A. B. Bruce, pg. 273.

Zeal is what drives the amount of the quality of the work, not motives. This is what the first laborers had in their minds. Their motives gave them the idea that they were more highly respected because they were the first to be selected. But they did not realize their works meant nothing to the Lord, unless their was zealously performed. 

Until all the vainglory of what we do is cast aside, the Lord will not accept our works; it must come from a well-spring of "good impulses; cleared of all smoke of carnal passion- a pure flame of heaven-born devotion. A base motive vitiates all." Bruce, pg. 274.

The Master hired the last group to go out into the field and paid them first. Why? This was because He was excited to see them again and wanted to be the first one to reward their honest and sincere works as they came off the work field. This small quantity of work done in the right spirit was of greater value than a large quantity done in a wrong spirit, however zealously it might have been performed.

Bruce comments, "The first and the last, then, represents two classes amount the professed servants of Christ. The first are the calculating and self-complacent; the last are the humble, the self-forgetful, the generous, the trustful." Bruce, pg. 275. 

"The last are paid first to signify the pleasure which the master has in rewarding them. They are also paid at a much higher rate: for, receiving the same sum for one hour's work that the others receive for twelve, they are paid at the rate of twelve pence per diem." Bruce, pg. 275.

What does your work ethic look like? Is it a case of "Who is on First?" or "Who is First, period?" In my reading today, this area is one which I know it bears more inspection... I truly enjoy the Word of God when we allow it to get in our faces. We all need it. The question is whether we are teachable to receive it and learn.

Ask the Lord today to inspect your heart and ask the hard question of, "What does my work look like to you Lord?"