The Last Shall Be First

Day 223: Matthew 20

It's interesting that this passage about the parable of the vineyards where the first shall be last and the last shall be first came today. Tonight, we went to a memorial service for a man who went to our church for a little over a year, and Shane read this exact same passage at his funeral. This man was in his early 80s and had spent decades of his life in jail. I don't know what he did to get there, but it had to be something big since he had spent so much of his life there. His family didn't have much to do with him, and they really didn't care if we had a memorial service for him or not. I can understand that. For most of his life, he was a bad man, not just in the moral sense but also in the legal sense.

During his time in jail, he must have become a Christian because the moment he got out, he wound up at our church. And he was a faithful Christian for this past year. He even helped another young man, also an ex-con, who started coming to our church. He was a changed man.

But his family didn't want to forgive him. His daughter didn't come to the funeral. They didn't want to show him grace; he didn't deserve it. But in God's eyes, he has just as much of a place in the kingdom of heaven as anyone else does--those who come early in their life and who don't commit felonies, and those who come later on. God is holding a spot for this man, too. He's holding a spot for all of us. In his eyes, we're all the same--no matter when we respond to the call. Those of us who have been faithful Christians as long as we remember may not see this practice as just. But we know that God is a just God, and this form of justice is one that we should implement as well. Loving people and forgiving their past is God's way of justice. He did it for all of us, and extending this same grace to others--no matter when they might come to believe--indicates that we are living out God's form of justice.