So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen. Matthew 20:16
I played basketball from 5th grade to 12th. I wasn’t the best player, but I was pretty good for a short white girl in a small town, and I was sometimes a starter. I loved being on the team.
But sometimes we would also play basketball in gym class. What I did not like about this was that awful way the gym teachers had of picking teams. Two people would be called on to choose players one by one. The same people were always called on first and the same people were always called on LAST. I felt bad for them. And plenty of teen angst movies confirm that for those chosen last, this way of picking teams is humiliating.
So, one day I was called on to choose players, and I decided to pick all those “last girls” first. No, I wasn’t piously thinking about when Jesus had said that “the last will be first,” (e.g. Matthew 20:16). I just wanted to buck the system. But I will never forget the look on the girl’s face—the lowliest girl of the whole bunch— when I picked her first. She absolutely beamed as she bounded over to stand next to me. The other team captain proceeded to pick the better players while I proceeded to pick the less athletic gals who were normally not chosen until the end. I assume we lost the game. I really don’t remember. What I remember is that girl’s face. It was totally worth any outcome of a game of girls p.e. basketball.
Now, I don’t tell this story to toot my own horn for being a nice person. I got to thinking about this little event after reading Luke 21:36, where Jesus said:
Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.
I notice here it says we should pray to be counted worthy. It isn’t that we’ll ever be worthy to stand before the Son of Man in judgment. But, like that homely, gangly girl on the basketball court, we can be chosen and accepted in spite of our shortcomings.
Jesus also had a way– a divine and perfect way– of bucking the system. We humans have so many things backwards; it seems God calls attention to that fact by often turning our human expectation on its head.
So the last will be first, and the first last… Matthew 20:16a
Two verses before he made the statement about being “counted worthy,” Jesus said this:
But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. Luke 21:34
Unfortunately many of us are so “weighed down” with our own sins and worries, that when Jesus calls our name for his team, we look up at him with a blank stare. We make excuses. We procrastinate.
…for many are called, but few chosen. Matthew 20:16b
When I called out that “last girl’s” name first, I did it on a whim. I hadn’t thought about how she would react. But it’s her reaction that has stuck with me for forty years. She didn’t procrastinate. She didn’t make excuses for her lack of basketball skills. She came running with a huge smile on her face. She didn’t care if she deserved it or ask why I chose her first. She was just so happy to be chosen rather than rejected.
You may feel like you’re the last one this world ever chooses for anything. But Jesus is calling for you. And it’s not on a whim. It’s been his plan from eternity (Ephesians 1:4).
Against all odds, against all expectation, God is calling for you and for me.
And how should we come when Jesus calls us? Without excuse and without hesitation. We should come running with huge smiles on our faces. We should stand up beside him, ready to follow his lead, thankful to be counted worthy.
Dear Heavenly Father, in Your kindness You have chosen to love us and accept us. Because of Jesus, You count us worthy even though we really are not. Help us to remain humbled by this knowledge, and help us to treat every person as worthy of hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ. May we always choose to follow you joyfully. In Jesus’s name, Amen.
by Christie Cole Atkins
Related Reading:
Walk Worthy 