There is a competitiveness between our two boys...they each desperately strive to be first in everything they do! Whether it is the first one to the dinner table, the first one to finish his peas, or the first one in the tub; they will do whatever it takes to be first. My wife and I have tried to teach into these moments, often after an argument breaks out or tears are rolling off our four year olds cheek. So we began teaching this biblical principle of the first is last and the last is first. The heart of the principle is humility. But our boys use it to justify their ‘second place’ finish!
In Matthew 20, Jesus gives the parable of the workers in the vineyard. The story involves a landowner who puts people to work at various times throughout the day. Then at the end of the day, the master pays his workers all the same, regardless of the number of hours they put in. The plot thickens as dissention breaks out among the workers who had been there all day. It’s unfair in their opinion for those who worked only one hour to receive the same pay as those who worked the whole day.
They have a point.
But the landowner reminds them that they received exactly what he promised at the start of the day. And it’s solely up to him who he pays what amount. He says “are you envious because I am generous?” Ouch.
I’ve spent my entire life following Jesus. Certainly there have been times I’ve been more faithful in certain aspects of my walk than others…but I am blessed to have been given a good spiritual foundation early on in life, and God’s grace to keep me on the ‘straight and narrow’ for my thirty four years on this earth. It’s easy for me to expect my ‘days wages’ for serving the Master of the vineyard.
But what about those ‘deathbed conversions’? The Jeffery Dahlmer story…where the man killed hundreds of people in the Oklahoma City bombing, but on his final hours before he was executed, accepted Christ as His Lord and Savior. People have a hard time thinking that a man who did such awful things in this world, could ‘squeak’ into heaven under God’s grace.
Yet if you understand God’s grace, that’s exactly what it’s about. Even my four year old will tell you that “All have sinned” and “The wages of sin is death”. We all deserve an eternity away from the presence of the Lord. Yet Christ died, once for all, as Hebrews points out. His grace is sufficient, Paul writes. For the ones who joined the Kingdom forces at the beginning, to the ones who jumped in as the sun was setting.
Jesus closes the parable by saying “So the last will be first and the first will be last.” – 
Matthew 20:16.
Being a Kingdom minded person means you rejoice when someone (anyone) receives the Gospel, and welcome’s Christ into their lives. Today, my heart is praying for more workers in the vineyard. The sun is setting, and I know our Master is generous. Will you join me in welcoming new workers? Don’t use the principle to justify a second place [bad attitude] finish! Receive all those who come into the Kingdom with a heart of gratitude, for we serve the same generous Master.