Matthew 20:16

The first of these lessons is, "Many first will be last, and last first" (Matt. 19:30). It plainly shows the failure of nature, the reverse of what you would expect. The second is, "So the last will be first, and the first last; for many are called, but few are chosen." It is the power of grace. God delights to pick out the very last for the first place, and to put down those who are first in their own strength.

While we labor, our labor is not to be for the sake of reward, as one who is hired for a certain sum of money. We are to be laborers with no trace of legality about us. The servant or laborer who aims to earn something by his service and sacrifice lives only for himself. He would be only a hired servant, which the believer is not… The Lord wants us to trust grace. He wants us to leave the rewards, the recompense, to Him and to His will to give as it pleases Him, and to think nothing of our service. So the parable appears as a rebuke to Peter, who was occupied with what he had given up.

Here we find, not the principle of rewards, or righteous recognition of the service done by His people, but God's own rights, His own sovereignty… God will certainly acknowledge every service and every loss for the sake of Christ. Yet He still keeps His own title to do as He will. Some poor soul may come to know Christ on the day of his death. God claims His own title to give what He pleases, to give to those who have not worked at all — as we may think — just what is good in His own eyes.

The last are those who do not bargain for their own rights. In genuine faith they depend on the grace of God, and God will see to it that they become first. The first are those who put themselves first, using the legal principle of demanding justice. So they receive justice: they are made last.

Compared with Matthew 22:14, the same general principle holds in both cases: a contrast between the outward result and what makes it real. The Gospel call goes out to "as many as you find," and the outward result is that "the wedding hall was filled with guests." But verses 11-13 there prove that being present, and blessed in reality, is not of man's will but of God's calling in grace. The principle is the same in 20:16 — only there it is a question of labour and reward that introduces it.

"The first will be last" — so the parable began, and it shows the human failure. At the end the order turns around: the last will be first. The Lord, in His sovereign grace, will lift up those who trusted in His grace. "Many are called, but few are chosen" — this has nothing to do with salvation. It is connected with rewards.

This shows the Lord's saying, "So the last will be first, and the first last" (Matt. 20:16). The Jews were called first in time, but they will be last in coming into their promised earthly blessing. The Christian, called last, will be first in coming into heavenly blessing.