Guest Blog: John Wayland - The Last Will Be First

My name is John Wayland and I’m a hospice chaplain. Keep in mind I have only been a hospice chaplain a few months but what I have learned already may take the rest of my life to process. I will limit all the things I have learned to this one brief statement: God’s generous grace is absolutely mind blowing. 

In Jesus’ parable about the workers in the vineyard (see Matthew 20:1-16 below), there are some workers who “began to grumble” against the landowner. They were angry because the ones who came to work at the end of the day were paid the same amount as those who started work in the morning. They got the same pay, a denarius. They were basically mad because the landowner was generous. Jesus concludes the lesson with His repeated phrase from Matthew 19:30 about “…the last will be first and the first will be last.” 

Matthew 19:30 concludes a discussion about heavenly rewards for a life well lived by those of faith. Jesus talks about those who will receive “a hundred times as much” of what they left behind because of their service for Jesus. He talked of “inheriting the Kingdom of God.” The Bible makes a clear distinction between what it takes to “enter” the Kingdom of God and what it takes to “inherit” the Kingdom of God. It takes faith to enter the Kingdom and it takes faithfulness to inherit the Kingdom. The first is about salvation and the latter is about rewards. In both cases, we can find ways to apply “the first will be last and the last will be first.”

Let me share an example of the first one: “salvation.”

This story is about a man admitted to the hospital and immediately entered into hospice care. He will be referred to as The Patient. I serve on a team comprised of a Doctor, a Nurse, an Aide, a Social Worker, and a Chaplain. For The Patient, each team member has seventy-two hours to meet and assess him. I met and assessed The Patient on Day 1, which was a Friday night. 

The Patient was alone. I don’t mean he was alone in the room, I mean he was alone in life. He was a widower, his relationship with his son was broken and they had not spoken in four months. His son didn’t know he was dying. There was only one person in his life who knew he was dying. He had a childhood friend he called to ask to be his power of attorney. The childhood friend agreed to help but he was not there. The Patient was alone and he had a burden.

He asked me if I thought God would forgive him for his many sins. In reviewing his life, he admitted to me he did not live life well. He felt guilty. He knew he had missed the mark. He wanted to die knowing he was forgiven. I read Scripture to him that spoke of God’s love, grace, His willingness to forgive, and His willingness to give the gift of eternal life to “anyone” who “believed in his name.” I read John 1:12 to him.

12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

The Patient communicated to me, and later to our Social Worker, that he had “received Christ” and that he was confident God had forgiven him for his sins.  He said he was no longer afraid to die. He was at peace. The burden had been lifted.

Six days later, at 3:00 pm, I went to see The Patient. Thirty minutes later, I was sitting on the edge of his bed holding his hand when he took his last breath here… and his first breath in paradise.

When I became a hospice chaplain, I had a feeling I would meet a lot of “thieves on the cross.” I knew I’d meet people who would admit they lived their life with their back turned to God but somehow knew Jesus could be generous to them. People who knew they did not deserve “paradise” but, by faith, accepted the invitation. The Patient was my first encounter. 

The afternoon The Patient died, I immediately thought of the parable of the workers of the vineyard. Some started working at 8:00 in the morning and some started working at 5:00 that same day. All the workers got paid the same. The early ones were not happy about the late ones. They grumbled. They were mad. They cried, “Unfair!”

I accepted Christ’s invitation to “paradise” at age 13. I have been following Him, in various degrees of faithfulness, for 50 years. The Patient walked with Jesus for 6 days. As it relates to me and The Patient, he saw Jesus’ face before me. He felt Jesus’ loving embrace before me. He feels no pain while my shoulder is killing me. He will never cry again. My tears still flow. “Struggle” is no longer in his vocabulary. I’m still paying bills and raking leaves! 

In the case of me and The Patient, the last to come to faith is the first to see the Savior and the first to come to faith is the last to see the Savior.

Am I screaming, “Unfair”? Am I bitter? Am I mad? Absolutely not! I got to hold The Patient’s left hand as  he received his denarius with his right. 

My only regret is for what he missed by only walking with Jesus for 6 days.

He missed the promise of “life to the full” (John 10:10). 

In the parable, the workers who showed up at 5:00 pm missed so much. They missed a day’s worth of newly formed friendships. They missed story after story of amazing experiences. They missed laughing at the practical joke played on that one guy during the lunch break. They missed the compassion and help offered to the guy who cut his hand. They missed everyone teasing the guy whose wife packed him a veggie sandwich. They missed everyone talking about what it will be like when they each own their own vineyard one day. They missed life!

The Patient and I are getting the same denarius and I am not bitter at all. As a matter of fact, I am thrilled. 

I am thankful for 50 years of walking with Jesus. I do hope The Patient and I get to meet and spend time together in paradise. I have so many years of amazing stories to tell him about what it was like to walk with Jesus through life. 

But no worries, we’ll have plenty of time to visit.

Matthew 20:1-16

“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[a] 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.”