Thursday, March 10
Scripture: Matthew 20:1-16

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same.  And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last.”

THE LAST SHALL BE FIRST

“So the last will be first, and the first last” (Matthew 20:16). I have so much to learn about God’s economy, both on earth and in the kingdom of heaven. Over the years, I have read this passage and assumed the workers “standing idle” might be to blame for their idleness. But upon deeper reflection it would seem, and make far more sense, that the workers hired later in the day might represent individuals who are unable to find work in our world - the sojourner, the immigrant, the outcast, the former prisoner, those with limited physical capacity (individuals who are stigmatized in our societies). They had been waiting, passed by for work, not knowing how they would feed themselves or their families, and this situation might have been ongoing for many days, weeks, months… Perhaps Jesus was reminding us that the kingdom of heaven is about uncommon grace to those whom the world has forgotten or treated as invisible. Perhaps the landowner’s act to hire and provide a full day’s wages in the last hour was a restorative act of justice.

“You have made them equal to us” (Matthew 20:12), the early workers grumble, questioning the decision of the landowner to provide equivalent pay. Where are the places in my life and heart where I am like these workers -- seeking to be first and justifying a privileged place, rather than cultivating the generosity and humility of Christ to give to and receive from others? How do I need my vision of human dignity to be redeemed in order to see with the eyes of Christ, bringing justice and healing that demonstrates the work of Christ on earth? For those of us who identify with the outcast and forgotten in this parable, what does it mean that the kingdom of heaven is like a master who pays the unwanted laborer first? How does this vision of the kingdom create hope for the future, on earth and in heaven?

The artwork featured in today’s devotional, Jesus in the Breadlines, may create dissonance for some who see it. But in Matthew 25, Christ reminded us that what is done or not done for those who are “hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison” (Matthew 25:44) is done or not done for Him. Jesus identifies with the weary, the hungry, the mourner, the prisoner. The least of these. “So the last will be first, and the first last” (Matthew 20:16).

PRAYER

Jesus,
Give us hope toward a kingdom that is to come, where the first will be last and the last first. Help us to embody that kingdom in the here and now, seeking ways to receive and demonstrate uncommon grace from the hand of Christ. Give us eyes to see where we identify with those in power rather than with those who are weak. That we might say: “Yet sometimes, when I feel my strength/most weak, and life most burdensome/I lift mine eyes up to the hills/from whence my help shall come/yea, sometimes still I lift my heart/to the Archangelic trumpet-burst/when all deep secrets shall be shown/and many last be first.”
Amen.
- The Lowest Room, Christina Rossetti

Carrie Stockton, Dean of Student Success