The first will be last.

It’s a great little phrase for arrogant humility.

Hey Buddy. Go ahead, you can cut line, but remember, the first will be last and the last first.

It’s okay, little Timmy. Don’t worry about the attention they are getting, remember, the first will be last and the last first.

I know that you were picked last on the team. I always was, too. But remember, Jesus said that the last will be first. You’ll get them, when it counts.

We are so good, we followers of Jesus, of taking what he said and using those words to our own emotional needs.

I think sometimes we have the wrong story.

In Matthew 20, Jesus tells a story about a guy who owns a vineyard, a guy who needs the grapes picked. He hires some people first thing in the morning. He hires people at three other times during the day, including near the end of the workday.

At the end of the day he pays them all exactly the same amount.

The people hired first, who had been working all day, who had figured out the routines, who had told the new people how things worked, who had become pretty confident that they would make out pretty well in the payment market, in the status market, in the “you are great workers” market, were pretty ticked.

The owner would take none of it. “We had a deal,” he said. “It’s my field, not yours. You work. I own, risk, pay, hire, fire, decide, manage. You only thought you were first.”

And then Jesus says, “So the last will be first and the first last.”

Be glad that those who got to the end of the day and wondered how to feed their families received grace. Like you.