The First being Last Doesn't Mean You Should Try to Be Last

I remember playing dodgeball in middle school and never being really great because I had the muscle strength of a 3rd grader.  I was agile but not a threat which made me get really good at avoiding lots of fast approaching balls at once.  This tactic often caused me to get out quickly.  Getting out first in dodgeball was like coming in last for a race.  Something I would say to myself is that the "last will be first and the first will be last". 
As I was reading Matthew's account of Jesus' teaching about the first being last I had a total paradigm shift.  Maybe I haven't been reading the passage close enough but I realized that when Jesus says "the last will be first, and the first last" it is a statement of equality.  If you grew up like me you always interpretted the scripture as an instruction to be ok with being the last one to get food, or the last one to get a gift.  My interpretation of this saying was infused with years of hearing it out of context and so I thought I needed to be ok with finishing last which a lot of times is just an excuse to not strive as hard.  Shame on me(can I get a witness or at least someone who is with me).  And how was this statement logical?  If the last will be first what happens when the last gets to the first position.  According to the saying the "first will be last" so there is this tragic cycle of never being able to be first and so it seems first should be avoided.
When Jesus wants to explain what this first last business means he tells a parable about a master of a house who went out early to hire people to work for his vineyard for him.  Going through the market place he hired people who needed work and agreed to pay them a days wage.  The problem was that this master payed everyone the same wage no matter when He hired them.  So at the end of the day, the laborers who worked the whole day were upset that they received the same pay as those who had only worked an hour.  The workers who had worked all day approached the master angrily saying "you have made them equal to us ".  The reply of the master uncovers a great truth about God's Kingdom that is true today.  The master replies:
  
Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last.”  -Matthew 20

The first will be last is not a trading of positions but a promise of God that no matter when you choose to follow Him and do the everlasting work of laboring in His kingdom, he will give you just as much as he does those who you see as "Jesus Superstars".  The first will be last means that the pew is just as sacred as the pulpit, the children's minister is just as critical as the executive pastor, the student leader is just as valued as the campus minister and the faithful neighbor just as important as the civil rights icon.  In God's kingdom he rewards us for our faithfulness no matter how long we've been laboring.  This is good news for us who have chosen to give our lives as missionaries.  And I am talking about the everyday missionaries who have chosen to be intentional at their jobs, in school, in their homes and in their neighborhoods.  This is good news for those who are thinking about following the call of Jesus to start something that God has called them to.  You may feel that you are "last" in someways.  Know that you are first in an eternal way.