The Last Will Be First

Jesus said, “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” Matthew 20:1-16 

The Last Will Be First 

The belly is empty now
 a child without parent or home
 they knows the names you call them 
treating them like dirty animals.

Your children sit at palatial tables
educated by expensive vetted tutors 
your walls are so high so well protected
you cannot see the rot that is everywhere.

This little one embodies Christ's love
he who was a exile in Egypt
lives within the shunned, disregarded
among "criminal" people He is found.

The people who walked in darkness
are these who look across our borders
they ache for freedom and a home
they desire only peace and safety.

Remember you who gloat and preen
your position of first is secured now
yet the true kingdom of the Creator
you will serve the ones you rejected.