Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last. – Luke 13:30

Today's Scripture Reading (December 3, 2020): Luke 13

The idea of Kingdom or nation is essentially a social concept. It describes how we relate to each other and the role that we play as we make this journey through life together. At the top of this hierarchy is usually some sort of political leader. Sometimes it is a Royal who rules because they have been born into the position. Other Kingdom's include a dictatorial leader who leads, either for good or evil, through the support of military power. The Kingdom that I am most familiar with is ruled by a democracy and includes leaders elected every four to six years. But there is always a hierarchy. Smart people, influential people, the lucky, and sometimes the ruthless rise to the top and rule over the society. They are first. Most of the rest of us exist in various levels of the middle; it only seems sometimes that we are the last. The last, the real ones that exist on the lower levels of our Kingdom and our societal experiment, are the ones that we don't even see. They exist on the margins and in the grey areas. They are the last.

So, it is a radical concept when Jesus argues that last will be first, and the first will be last. Even inside the walls of Christendom, I am surrounded by people who seem to be working hard trying to be important, to rise in the hierarchy so that they can be the first.

But Jesus began a societal experiment that concerned the upside-down Kingdom, one where the meek inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5) and where the poor in spirit inherit the Kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:3). I have always loved the way that Eugene Peterson translated the first of the Beatitudes. "You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule" (Matthew 5:3). You are blessed, not when you have it all together and make a massive difference in the society in which you live. You are blessed when you have given everything, when you have failed in every way imaginable, and when everyone has given up on you because it is then that God can get through.

Our idea of success and power is messed up, even in the church.

When I was sixteen, my family moved to a small rural community and a country church that was essentially run by one prominent family. They were the important ones, the ones who mattered. They were the first. There was another couple who attended the church who seemed to exist on the margins. They didn't seem to do much to command the attention of the others who participated in the church. They were, essentially, the last.

After I had attended this church for about a year, the church held a homecoming event. People who had long ago moved away returned to the small town to celebrate the church's life. And I was amazed as people from the past poured into the church, and person after person thanked the second couple, the ones that didn't seem to make a difference in the church's spiritual life, for the difference that they had made in their lives. For decades, they had worked on the edges, always quietly and behind the scenes, changing the lives of people who needed help. They didn't say anything, nothing was advertised, but they were there if you were in trouble.

In this couple, in this corner of the Kingdom of God, in this portion of the social experiment, the last really were the first. And like in the rest of Christendom, unless we were in trouble, we didn't even know that they were there.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Luke 14