Are you ready to come in last place? To stumble over the finish line after the the winner and runners up have collected their awards and gone home? The answer, of course, should be obvious. No, we don’t want to come in last place. Not in any sporting event, contest, fundraising activity, career- not anything. We strive for excellence in order that we may spread the gospel and one day hear the Lord say, “Well done good and faithful servant”. If this applies to all that we do for Christ, and even all that we do in secular activities, then why would the Lord tell us that we are to be glad to accept a last place position at the end of our lives? The answer is one of the mysteries that the gospel sometimes presents to us that really get us confused. It’s sort of like “pluck your eye out and cast it from you” or “eat my flesh” and ” drink my blood” We quickly learn it’s meant to be taken symbolically. But is that so in this case? Is this another case where the meaning is used more symbolically to indicate the condition of a man’s heart rather than a comment on his abilities and efforts to succeed? One might argue that this could be a reminder of the necessity of humility and its importance in our standing before God. And that is a very valid point, since Christ told us that the greatest among us would be a “servant to all”.
The Parable of the Laborers
The answer to this perplexing verse lies in one of the gospel’s often neglected and misunderstood parables: the parable of the laborers. Its short message is tucked in the twentieth chapter of Matthew, where it sits in relative obscurity. It is not studied often because it is so mysterious and seemingly, contradictory to other gospel tracts. A brief summation of its contents goes like this: A land owner is hiring people to work on his land. Some applicants arrive early in the morning to work, while others stand idly by and wait to be given a chance to work. The workers are promised a denarius (or penny) for a full day’s work. Then, as the day drags on, and the finish is in sight, the landlord brings some of the ones standing on the sidelines to come in and work for the last hour. He hires them and offers to pay them one penny, just as he did for the others. When the workers who worked all day heard this, they protested, and charged the master with unfairness for paying the one hour workers for a full day’s work. The master replied that he was paying them just what he agreed to at the beginning of the day, and that he had done them no wrong He goes on to say, that he was justified in paying whatsoever he pleased. Then he replied with our key verse, “the first shall be last, and the last, first” Mt. 20:16. Ah, but that is not the end of the verse. As with many famous verses of scripture, there is a follow up phrase that helps explain it better. The master continues this verse with ” for many are called, but few chosen” What just happened here? We have suddenly gone from the fairness of an honest day’s wage for an honest day’s pay to the question of choosing positions in God’s kingdom. To say that “few are chosen” indicates that those who are merely called may not be the ones who are the most productive.
It should be said here that God is not against fairness in the workplace. He is emphatically in favor of fair work compensation and labor conditions. He speaks for working men and women when he says “the sleep of a laboring man is sweet; whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep” Eccl.5:12. He rewards those who work hard, and not only that, he blesses the industrious with greater talents and opportunities for advancement. Riches acquired through fraud or theft are never rewarded will exact a heavy penalty for anyone involved in such transactions, and his foolish greed and arrogance will surely catch up with him. Likewise, the slothful and indolent will also have their day of reckoning, as scripture warns, ” If a man will not work, neither shall he eat”. Those who are watching the signs of the times know full well that a worldwide financial depression is coming. They are making the necessary preparation, while the greedy and the slothful either trust in their own riches and cunning, or they are looking to the government to give them handouts. Little do they suspect, that the government supplying all their needs will one day be the antichrist.
There are other clues in this parable that tell us more about the ones who were on the sidelines. First, the comment made by the master “why do you stand here all day idly?” is misleading. They were not just hanging around, smoking cigarettes and loafing. They were in fact, ready and able to work. They responded that they had simply not been hired yet or given any job to do. We see at the end of the parable that they were actually watching and waiting for their opportunity to come along. The master told them to go out into the field and do whatever they could. They had been willing-but they had never been called. The master recognized their willingness to work and granted it to them. It is also important to note that this had occurred at the last hour of the day.
Three points should be noted here that give practical wisdom to this parable. They are:
1- The master described in the story is clearly recognized by scholars to be Christ
2-The ones working at the last hour are clearly the ones previously described as “chosen” (Many are called, but
few are chosen)
3-Since we are living in the last of the last days, it must be assumed that the last hour of the day refers to the last
opportunity that believers will have to spread the gospel before night falls when “no man can work”.church
It becomes clear that it was not the length of time that was spent working; rather it was the importance and the mission of the work. We have seen throughout all of church history that there have been many periods where the church has failed to fulfill its mission. This has never been more so than now, as we have seen the church fall away radically from the truth. Before that, we saw it fall into a deep sleep of papacy, when common people were not even permitted to own Bibles and read for themselves with instruction on interpreting what they read And of course there is the ever present scourge of antisemitism that plagued the body of Christ for all of the church age.
The book of Joel promises to ” restore the years that the cankerworm has eaten”. There can be no doubt that most of the years of Christendom have been spent in foolish, and even sinful endeavors. While it is true that many mission groups and charitable organizations have worked worked long and hard and deserve our credit, the true impact of the church as formed in the first century was never realized. Dead and lifeless organized religion quickly took its place, and frequently worked to keep many true Christians outside the door. How did they do this? Through endless rules and regulations of legalistic policies. With things like big buildings, with big staff members having high salaries , and things like cleaning committees, board groups of funding and research and choir robes and church committees formed to decide earth shattering decisions like what color to have for the new carpet in the nursery. Christ Himself would certainly never be invited into such a church- a church that is more like a social club than a house of prayer. And we who are pre-tribulation Rapture believers don’t have any place in such churches today, and never really did. We are clearly the ones on the outside, standing by waiting for some truly meaningful work to do. We would like to give knowledge and wisdom, and strengthen other believers, but they are not interested. Not interested in prophecy, true healing, true knowledge and understanding, and true selfless service. The ridiculous “prosperity preacher” who crowds the airways and lulls a sleeping public into thinking that true wealth is only riches and comfort is only the extreme example of the current church. It is a church that has no backbone or spine in the face of mounting attacks from the devil and his legions in the media and the general population.
In summary, if you have arrived to perform service for the spread of gospel, you have come at the best time It is because the previous workers in the field were the truly lazy and disobedient ones. Instead of reading scripture honestly and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, they chose teachers who hijacked the Word and perverted it for their own purposes- for money, social status, power and the love of people, rather than God They ignored the warnings from Jesus and Paul about the ravenous wolves that would enter the flock as soon as the shepherd had gone. There is a saying regarding the spouses of military personnel on deployment. “They also serve who watch and wait”. Sometimes waiting is the hardest part, as we all know so well. Now, as Isaiah said, it is truly our time to rise and shine