So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” (Matthew 20:16)
Jesus told an extremely offensive story about a landowner (representing God) who hires some men to work in his vineyard. (Matthew 20:1-16) He hires some guys early in the morning and agrees to pay them a day’s wage, which at that time equaled one denarius. The landowner goes on to hire more guys at 9:00 am, 12:00 pm, 3:00 pm, and then at 5:00 pm, and tells them he’ll pay them what is right. So far, so good.
But here’s the kicker: at the end of the day, the landowner tells his foreman to begin paying the workers, beginning with the last ones hired. The guys hired at 5:00 pm get a full denarius, and so the guys that were hired early in the morning, who’ve been busting their cabooses for 10 hours, naturally expect more than that. But the landowner pays them what was agreed upon and not a shekel more. Needless to say, they grumble and complain, as I know I would. 
Hadn’t Jesus read the Fair Wage Act of 15 A.D.? The landowner appears to be terribly unjust. His bizarre behavior is not only an affront to our enlightened 21st century sense of fairness and common decency – it was even offensive to the “primitive” folks in 30 A.D. So we almost expect that Jesus will launch into a stern rebuke of the landowner and tell him in unambiguous terms the unpleasant future awaiting him. But in fact, it’s just the reverse: Jesus rebukes the grumbling workers who slaved all day long for that single measly denarius!
I think this is one of those times where you shake your head and walk away, or you conclude that Jesus really is God. To me, this story is evidence that the gospel isn’t a human invention. Any sensible public relations firm in Jerusalem would have strongly advised against the telling of this parable, had Jesus bothered to consult one. And what would the Wise Men have thought upon hearing such unguarded, reckless, and irrational remarks?
Well, I think they would have gotten it—they were wise men, after all. Unlike me, they would have figured out quickly that this story is about grace, an idea that rankles proud folks like us. Jesus is telling us that God’s unmerited favor often comes to the least likely and the most undeserving of people. You can be galled by that (revealing your spirit of entitlement and self-righteousness) or rejoice in it. I recommend the latter. If you are galled by it, consider the landowner’s response to the grumblers who resented getting the same as those who worked far less than they had: “Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?” (Matthew 20:15)
Jesus is telling us we’ll either get exactly what we deserve (so no one can complain of unfairness) or we’ll get something that is far better – forgiveness and eternal life – on the basis of Jesus’ own perfect record and His Cross. Justice is getting what you deserve. Grace is getting what you didn’t earn and don’t deserve, which bugs people who live by the rules, or at least think they do.
Consequently, these folks tend to recoil at the kind of people God saves, which includes crooked government officials, serial killers, drug lords, adulterers, drunkards, crackheads, tax cheats, and practitioners of unwarranted serial marriage.
And good upstanding folks like you and me? We who have “earned” heaven by virtue of our respectable lives and good works? Funny, we didn’t choose our parents, where we grew up, our intellect and educational opportunities, our temperament and personality, our talents, our capacity to work and make money, etc, etc., but we’re more than happy to take credit for anything good that our lives may produce. The fact we “good folks” typically credit ourselves for how wonderful we are just shows how lost we are.
You might think that “truly bad” people would be more apt to recognize their moral bankruptcy and seek God’s forgiveness. Yet, what makes them “truly bad” is an underdeveloped moral sense, or the inability to recognize their behavior as evil, making it even harder for them to repent and seek God’s forgiveness than it is for us “good folks.” So, it is not a person’s degree of “badness” that reveals the need for repentance, although God often uses the consequences of badness to break people’s pride and draw them to Christ.
Moreover, the truth is, we good folks are only “good” in comparison to truly bad folks. If we examined ourselves honestly in the light of God’s holiness, we’d discover we’re truly bad, too. So why don’t we? Because, like the last folks chosen to work in the the vineyard, it is by grace alone that anyone — good or bad — seeks God’s forgiveness through Christ.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, in this parable we find that the last ones hired had been standing out all day waiting for someone to hire them. No one wanted them: these folks are passed over because they don’t measure up by the world’s standards. They are the emotionally broken, the physically and cognitively disabled, the socially awkward, the physically unattractive, and assorted rejects, misfits, outcasts and losers. Many who are last in the sight of men are first in the economy of God.
So, we discover in this parable that God delights to save “the last,” purely by grace. As the Apostle Paul tells us, “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.” (1 Corinthians 1:27) Ponder that if you will.
(This reflection is adapted from our article, “The Cutting Edge of Christmas,” previously published in Touchstone magazine.)
SpoofsandProofs.com is written and produced by David Culver Brenner. For a free subscription to SpoofsandProofs.com, enter your email in the “Subscribe” box on the right sidebar. To learn more about his novella illuminating the dangers of socialism, go here.