The Last Shall Be First

​There’s a growing branch of 'Christian' thinking that suggests Jesus’ love follows a hierarchy—and that He commands us to do the same. A love that puts family first, then community, then country, and only after all that—the rest of the world.

Everyone is certainly free to embrace their own branch of 'Christianity'—because be sure—there are branches.

Many of them.

There are denominations. And within denominations, there are branches. Even within individual churches of the same denomination there will be wildly different takes on what it means to be 'Christian.'

There are, in fact, so many different branches of 'Christianity' now that I hesitate to call myself a 'Christian'—given that no one could possibly know what I mean by that when I say it. And depending on the particular branch one might associate me with when I call myself that, they might find what I consider the most beautiful part of me—my love for Jesus—to be quite off-putting.

I guess when it comes to love and hierarchies, in line with my particular beliefs—my particular branch—they start and end with a command to love God.

Thousands of years ago, religious leaders—followers of a more legalistic branch of faith—pressed Jesus with a question: “What is the greatest commandment of all?”

And the Jesus I love answered, The greatest commandment is to love God. And the second, by the way, is like that one—it is to love one another.

Jesus would go on to describe what loving God and loving one another actually looks like. It looks like loving the least of His children. His definition of "least" being those who need love the most—His definition of "children" being all the world, not just the small subsets of our little worlds.

In fact, it was Jesus who said, The first shall be last, and the last shall be first.

Jesus’ love was never about hierarchy—it was about need. It was a command for those of us in positions more comfortable than others to seek out those who need comfort and provide it. Not as an afterthought once we’ve secured our own comfort, but as a mission. A mission we pursue far and wide, even—if not especially—at the expense of our own comfort.

Many of Jesus' own disciples walked away from their families—not to abandon them, but to follow Jesus in making the least first. Jesus spent no time lecturing those disciples about the importance of staying behind to serve their families, their communities, or their countries.

It was Jesus who once said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.”

Was Jesus telling us to hate our families? To hate ourselves? No. But He was making one thing clear: never let your closest circles stand in the way of the kind of love I’ve commanded you to give.

The last shall be first.

Jesus seemed to be intensely serious about this. Mic drop serious. He once told His followers:

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

It is risky, I believe, to start drawing hierarchies in the sand when it comes to defining an order in which we love one another. Jesus' order was clear: last to first. No matter where those last are.

Following our own orders—our own structures and rankings—it becomes dangerously easy to start calling waste what Jesus calls love.

And love was never a suggestion from Jesus. It was a command.

God looks down at us, with love, and sees no circles dividing us by importance or significance. No circles that divvy up His love or determine an order in which He distributes it.

God sees only ONE circle:

Us.

And I will never be convinced He wants us to see it any other way:

Us.