But many who are first will be last, and the last first — the first-last reversal closes the rich man section and is also the theme of the parable of the vineyard workers in Matthew 20. The reversal is not merely rhetorical but eschatological: the present ordering of status (first = great, last = nothing) will be inverted in the kingdom's final accounting. The disciples who left everything are not in the first position they might assume; the rich man who went away sad is not in the last position he might fear.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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