Matthew 20:16 Commentary: The Last First, the First Last

Matthew 20:16 closes a parable that Jesus tells immediately after Peter’s question about rewards (Matthew 19:27). The disciples had left everything and expected precedence. The parable pictures a landowner hiring workers at different hours of a twelve-hour workday, from early morning (about 6 a.m.) to the eleventh hour (about 5 p.m.). He pays each the standard daily wage, a denarius, enough to buy a day’s food for a family. The workers hired first grumble that those hired last receive the same pay. This setting would resonate with any first-century listener familiar with day labor: standing in the marketplace until hired meant insecurity and anxiety, especially in an agrarian economy where a missed day’s work could mean hunger.

The vineyard itself carries Old Testament weight. Isaiah 5 pictures Israel as God’s vineyard, and the landowner’s generosity subverts expectations of merit. The concluding proverb, ‘the last will be first’, reappears in Matthew 19:30 and Mark 10:31, forming a bracket around this section. Jesus speaks these words while heading toward Jerusalem and the cross (Matthew 20:17-19), a context that makes the warning even sharper: earthly status, even among disciples, will be overturned by the suffering and glory ahead.

The phrase ‘many are called, but few are chosen’ echoes a rabbinic saying quoted by Gill: ‘I have seen the children of the world to come, and they are few.’ In Jesus’ mouth, it challenged Jewish assumptions that national identity guaranteed God’s favor. Later Christians would apply it broadly to all who hear the gospel: the invitation is wide, but the response of faith and obedience is narrow.

The second clause, ‘for many are called, but few are chosen’, is absent from some important early witnesses. Adam Clarke notes it is ‘wanting in BL, one other, and in the Coptic and Sahidic versions.’ The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges states that the verse ‘is omitted in the best MSS’ and is ‘probably interpolated’ from Matthew 22:14. The first part of the verse (‘So the last will be first, and the first last’) is textually secure and appears in all manuscripts. Scholars today are divided: some follow the shorter reading, while others see the longer reading as original, noting that Matthew often repeats key sayings. The UBS Greek New Testament includes the clause but puts it in brackets, indicating some doubt about its authenticity. Because the verse is integral to the parable’s conclusion in most traditions, it continues to be treated as canonical.

This verse has been a touchstone in debates over divine election and human free will. Augustine and later Reformed theologians used it to argue for God’s sovereign choice in salvation. The phrase ‘few chosen’ was seen as a sobering reminder that not all who hear respond savingly. In contrast, Wesleyan interpreters such as John Wesley emphasized human obedience: ‘few chosen, Only those who obey it.’ The early Methodist tradition read the verse as a warning against nominal Christianity. The reversal of first and last also shaped missionary spirituality: late converts like the apostle Paul were held up as examples of God’s grace overriding a person’s past. In the modern period, the verse has often been applied to the relationship between the church and Israel, with some seeing a promise that Gentiles would be included and many Jews temporarily set aside. The phrase itself, ‘many are called, few are chosen,’ has entered common speech as a proverb about selectivity, though often stripped of its original theological context.

Three-point outline

1. The parable exposes our sense of entitlement. The first workers agreed to a denarius, yet they grumbled when others received the same. Their complaint reveals a heart that measures grace by comparison. Jesus uses their murmuring to hold up a mirror to anyone who thinks their longer service deserves more than God gives to latecomers.
2. God’s generosity is not unfair, it is free. The landowner answers, ‘Is it not lawful for me to do what I want with what I own?’ The parable does not teach that all receive equal reward, but that God’s grace cannot be put under obligation. No one deserves anything; the denarius is sheer gift.
3. The reversal reorders our priorities. The ‘last’ and ‘first’ are not just Jews and Gentiles, but every person who stands before God. The call is universal, all who hear the gospel are invited. The choosing is God’s sovereign work, producing the humility and faith that characterize true disciples.

Five-point outline

1. The danger of comparing our service to others’ (Matthew 20:11-12)
2. The generosity of the landowner toward the latecomers (Matthew 20:14-15)
3. The warning against an ‘evil eye’ of envy (Matthew 20:15)
4. The mystery of divine election: many hear, few respond (verse 16b)
5. The call to trust God’s justice and mercy rather than our own calculations

Illustration hooks

• Same pay, different hours. Think of a workplace where a new hire gets the same bonus as a veteran who has worked overtime for years. The frustration is real, but the owner has the right to be generous. Grace is not about fairness; it is about gift.
• The late convert’s joy. A person who comes to faith late in life often experiences a depth of gratitude that long-time believers can lose. The parable warns those who have served many years not to resent the joy of the new believer.
• The line at the gate. Jesus pictures a kingdom where the last people you would expect, tax collectors, prostitutes, Gentiles, enter ahead of the religious elite. That reversal is both a warning and an invitation to humility.

Questions your congregation is asking

• Does this verse mean that only a few people will be saved? How does that square with God’s love for the world?
• If many are called but few chosen, how can I know if I am among the chosen?
• I have been a Christian for decades. Does this parable say my long service counts for nothing?

Jesus ends the parable of the laborers with a statement that has puzzled and comforted readers for centuries: ‘So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few are chosen.’ This passage challenges our assumptions about fairness, reward, and God’s ways. As you discuss, keep in mind that the parable was Jesus’ response to Peter’s question about what the disciples would get for leaving everything. The reversal Jesus announces is not about God’s injustice but about grace that defies human expectations.

Discussion questions

1. Read Matthew 19:27-30 and 20:1-16. What is the connection between Peter’s question and the parable? Why might Jesus have told this story right then?
2. Why do the workers hired first react with anger? What does their complaint reveal about how they understood their relationship to the landowner?
3. The landowner asks, ‘Is your eye evil because I am good?’ (Matthew 20:15). What does this question teach us about envy and God’s generosity?
4. In verse 16, Jesus says the last will be first and the first last. How have you seen this principle at work in your own life or in the church?
5. The second half of verse 16 adds, ‘For many are called, but few are chosen.’ Based on the parable, what does ‘called’ mean? What does ‘chosen’ mean? Does this verse describe two different groups, or two aspects of one reality?
6. Some early manuscripts omit the second clause. Why might a scribe have added or removed this phrase? How does the textual question affect how we read the verse?
7. How does this passage give hope to someone who feels they have come to faith ‘too late’? How does it challenge someone who has been a believer for many years?