Jesus told them a parable to help them understand the meaning of being last, even if one followed Jesus first (19:27, 30). A landowner went out in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard, promising a denarius in wages. He then went out several more times throughout the day, even at 5pm. The people who were standing at 5pm seemed to be lost (6,7), but he hired them anyway.
In the evening, the landowner started paying the people hired at 5pm first, a denarius each. When he also paid the people who were hired early in the morning the same wages, the workers were not happy, being paid the same one denarius, even though they had spent all day sweating with hard labor (13).
Most will feel that such treatment is unfair. However, the landowner explained to them that he had given them what they had been promised. His grace is generous and abundant. He gives and sustains our lives with sufficient grace (2Cor. 12:9). The Lord is just, and he treats one lost sheep as important as the ninety-nine sheep in the sheep pen (18:12). Each little one is infinitely precious to him, and no one can claim their right to be the first.
Jul 25, 2026
THE LAST WILL BE FIRST
Passage: Matthew 20:1-16
Key verse: 15
NIV
chapter 20
1. "For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.
2. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
3. "About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing.
4. He told them, ’You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’
5. So they went. "He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing.
6. About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ’Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’
7. "’Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. "He said to them, ’You also go and work in my vineyard.’
8. "When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ’Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’
9. "The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius.
10. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius.
11. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner.
12. ’These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ’and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’
13. "But he answered one of them, ’I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius?
14. Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you.
15. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
16. "So the last will be first, and the first will be last."
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Prayer: Father, you are the sovereign Lord. Thank you for allowing me to work in your vineyard. Please help me to be faithful to you as you are faithful.
One Word: The last may be the first