Sermon for 4 Lent Yr. C: How to be Last

4 Lent Yr. C: How to be Last

Joshua 5:9-12; Corinthians 5:16-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

The Reverend Paul D. Allick, The Church of the Advent, March 30, 2025

In the 9th chapter of Mark, right after Jesus told his disciples that

he was about to sacrifice his life for them, he catches them

arguing over who is the greatest. Jesus introduces a core

principle of the Gospel to them, “the first shall be last and the last

shall be first.” (Mark 9:30-37)

I wonder how this message lands in Washington, D.C., in

Hollywood, Manhattan, Silicon Valley, or, dare I ask, San

Francisco?

Our economic life is based on competition. This is not bad in and

of itself. When any system becomes a warped version of itself,

then it becomes problematic.

One way our system becomes distorted by adopting certain

values. Such as when becoming famous for being famous is an

actual life goal. When we worship at the altars of Celebrity, Online

Influencers, Professional Sports, or Technology, we begin to think

only of those who are “first.”

Like the whole of the Gospel, this idea has always been

counterintuitive to our fallen human nature. Remember Jesus’

Parable of the Laborers, I work ten hours, you work one hour, and

we get paid the same? Not fair.

It isn’t fair. It doesn’t make sense to us. The grace of God in

Jesus Christ forever remains something completely new to us.

St. Paul exhorts the congregation in Corinth, if we are in Christ,

“we regard no one from a human point of view...everything old

has passed away; see, everything has become new!”

In Jesus’s parable of the Prodigal Son both sons, despite their

different behavior, are treated the same. In one interpretation of

this parable, they are treated equally because they are equally

flawed and so is their father.

Professors Bruce Malina and Richard Rohrbaugh in their Social

Science Commentary on the Gospels draw out the contextual

issues at play in this parable.

Now remembering that parables may have more than one

interpretation, Malina and Rohrbaugh’s summation is intriguing to

me.

They approach it from within the cultural setting of Jesus’ original

listeners. They conclude that this story may actually be “a warning

of the damage that can be done by those who seek to aggrandize

themselves at the expense of others.”

First, by asking for his inheritance early, the younger son is

basically wishing his father dead. And he is cutting himself off

from his family and his village. The father acts foolishly by

indulging his selfish son.

To make things worse, the older son does not protest. Being

vindictive he takes his share as well. And the father lets him do it!

Both sons bring shame to the family. They alienate the village by

breaking the community’s shared economic and familial

arrangements.

When the father runs to greet his younger son, he may be staving

off the angry villagers who want to give this guy the what not. The

father may have thrown the big party for the entire village in a

grand gesture to bring the community back together.

The older son further dishonors his father by making him beg him

to come to the feast and then not showing up.

Both sons end up last by fighting so selfishly to be first. All three

men are human beings struggling with relationships, greed,

restlessness, hurts, appearances, and community life.

It is only by God’s grace that any of us are saved. Every one of us

is the last becoming the first by the grace of God in Jesus Christ.

This is what we need to remember as we live in our families, local

community, parish, and nation. We forgive as we have been

forgiven by God. We make each other first as we realize our

ministry of reconciliation.

From the Book of Joshua, we heard about the Hebrews coming to

the end of their long exodus in the wilderness. Here is a whole

nation struggling with being human and staying in right

relationship with God.

They are finally settled in a new land. The religious customs of

circumcision and Passover are restored for those born in the

wilderness. They no longer need the manna eaten on their

journey. Now they feast on fresh produce. Those hard days of

divinely processed food are over!

The LORD said to Joshua, "Today I have rolled away from you the

disgrace of Egypt."

The horror of slavery is ended and also the disgrace of wandering

in the wilderness for 40 years fighting with God every step of the

way.

God has rolled back the troubles in their lives. They did not roll

them back. God did. They are not first. God is first.

When we find ourselves captured by the trespass of insatiably

trying to be first and then live with all the troubles which that

creates for ourselves and others, if we repent God will roll back

those troubles. God shows us how putting ourselves last with a

grounded humility makes us first in the Kingdom of God.

As we seek God’s Kingdom, self-centeredness is a barrier. That is

why we practice seeing things from a Jesus point of view not a

human one. As we grow into the likeness of Christ, we happily

embrace the mystery of the first being last and last being first.

Gospel Reference:

Social-Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels

(Pp. 290-291)

By Bruce J. Malina and Richard L. Rohrbaug

Fortress Press Minneapolis 2003