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The Last Will Be First
I came across this cute post-Christmas story the other day and thought I should share it with you.
One year after Christmas a pastor was cleaning up decorations when he noticed that the baby Jesus was missing from the nativity scene.
Just about that time a little boy came walking up pulling a little red wagon.
As the boy got closer the pastor noticed that the figure of the infant Jesus was there in the wagon.
So he asked the boy, “Hello there, young man.
Where did you pick up your passenger?”
“I got Him here, from the church.”
“And why did you take Him?”
“Well, about a week before Christmas to the Little Lord Jesus, and told Him that if He would bring me a red wagon for Christmas, I would give Him a ride around the block in it.”
I have one more nativity scene joke, then we will move on.
This one reminds me of my friend, Chris, because he moved out here to the country from the big city.
So he isn’t familiar with many of the “country-isms” that we are all used to out here.
There was a small rural church that decided to do a living nativity scene one year in the front lawn of the church.
It quickly became the talk of the community and everyone was driving out to see it.
A family from out of state who were new to the area took particular interest in the three wise men who were dressed as firemen carrying canvas hoses.
Perplexed, they finally asked someone in the crowd about them, “Why do the wisemen have fire helmets and hoses?”
Frustrated, the lady standing next to them answered quickly.
“Have you never heard the story?
Or at least sang songs about it?
Everyone knows that the wisemen came from afar!”
The video we just watched is the latest video from the Bible Project team called, “The Last Will Be First.”
This topic is one that we could spend forever studying.
Not only is the topic itself one that is full of interesting thoughts and scripture, but like most things in the bible, diving into it will lead you down countless interesting trails.
Today, I want to focus on what Jesus taught about being first.
Despite having all of these thousands of years to be better people than we started out as, the world really hasn’t changed much.
Really, when it comes down to it, about the only thing that has changed are the creature comforts.
We traded in the camels for cars and the smoke signals and stone tablets for cell phones.
Beyond that, the world is still full of people trying to get to the top of the ladder and gain more power.
The people with the power tend to rule it over the people below them.
The less fortunate tend to get taken advantage of for someone else’s gain.
These are the same problems that God has been addressing since the beginning of time.
We see it reflected over and over again, both in Jesus’ time, and in the OT.
I love the examples that the Bible Project give with Cain and Abel, then Ishmael and Isaac, and Esau and Jacob.
In biblical culture, the firstborn were given unique privileges and responsibilities.
Very much like a monarch system where kingdom rule is passed down to the oldest child in a royal family.
In each of those 3 stories, God flipped their world upside down by overturning their status and giving it to the younger.
Why would God do that?
It just seems so mean.
While I can’t tell you what God is thinking, I can tell you something that I have learned.
When I read the bible it’s easy to notice a lot of selfishness.
Most of what God teaches His people to do works toward developing them into more SELFLESS people.
A great example of this is in chapter 20 of Matthew.
One might think that hanging out with Jesus every day would make you the ultimate Jesus follower.
Trump would even say that you were the BEST Jesus follower.
You would never say that because you could be the best, but being the best you could never say that you were, in fact, the best.
But others have said it, so you just might be the best.
However, the disciples were still human and making mistakes.
In fact, even after spending so much time with Jesus, they argued about who was the best in front of Him at the last supper.
Jesus’ response to them that night was similar to His response to them in the story in Matthew.
Starting in verse 20 in chapter 20 of Matthew, the two disciples that were brothers, James and John, approached Jesus with their mom.
You KNOW it’s serious when mom walks up to the teacher with her two kids to have a little chat about their status in the group.
Fortunately, the other disciples had learned a lot about being servants, so they were cool with it.
The especially didn’t want to have another Jacob and Esau situation within their group, so they were like, “Yeah, that would be cool.
Both brothers on either side of Jesus as He rules in His kingdom.”
YEAH RIGHT!
Verse 24...
They were angry!
Those two think they are better than us?
They need their mommy to come in win them special privileges with Jesus?
That’s not fair!
I’ve been here longer!
I work harder!
You remember that guy a few miles back that was texting on his papyrus and almost walked into that street sign.
You guys were laughing at him, but I ran over and stopped him from hurting himself!
Earlier I said that Jesus response to the disciples was similar to the next time they would have this argument.
Here is what He said to them…
The first will be last.
The Father has been trying to teach humanity this from the beginning, but we keep selfishly taking whatever we think belongs to us.
Firstborn rights, seniority, stature, whatever it is that makes us say, “I’ve earned that.
I deserve it.
It’s mine.”
Though we don’t vocalize it like Randy in the movie “A Christmas Story” we often think or act much like he did on Christmas morning as he jumped from present to present that sat under the tree and repeated, “COOL!
Look at that, that’s mine!
WOW! Look at that, that’s mine!”
Jesus taught the disciples that it shouldn’t be that way with them.
As followers of Christ we don’t rule over other people with our authority, we serve them.
If you want to be #1, you have to be a slave.
Like Christ Himself did.
The King of kings, came to serve and give His life.
That lesson went over the heads of Cain, Ishmael, and Esau when God tried to teach it to them.
Cain got angry, just like the disciples.
Only, when God told him to cool it, he didn’t listen.
He lured Abel out into a field and killed him.
Ishmael persecuted Isaac.
Even at a very young age, he mocked Isaac.
Esau was just as angry as the others and planned to kill Jacob.
That bitter rivalry spanned generations as their children fought each other.
As a side note, something that is super interesting to me is who Esau partners with to attack Jacob’s descendants.
It’s super confusing and difficult to study, but if you look through the names of the descendants of Cain and Ishmael, you will come to the women who Esau marries.
He literally partners with Cain’s bloodline and Ishmael’s bloodline to attack Jacob’s descendants.
God is continually challenging our idea of first and last.
Then Jesus continues the theme and teaches that principle face to face.
When I look at each of these stories, and even more examples in scripture that we didn’t look at, one thing becomes abundantly clear to me.
Going from wanting to be first to wanting to be last is very VERY difficult.
Who WANTS to be last?
Who WANTS to be a slave?
Who WANTS to just serve other people ALL… THE… TIME…?
If I look at this idea of the first being last, and it isn’t difficult for me to do, or it just feels like it comes natural to me, then I must not be doing it right!
It’s not a natural thing.
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