Matthew 20:16 Meaning and Explanation
“So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.”
King James Version (KJV)
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Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Fairness is one of the first moral instincts we develop, and this parable offends it on purpose. Workers who bore the heat of a long day receive exactly what the eleventh-hour crew receives. The closing line refuses to soften the shock, and readers have wrestled ever since with what it says about God's generosity and our accounting.
Closing the vineyard parable, Jesus overturns expected order: those who came late receive the same full wage as the early workers. The added line about calling and choosing warns against presuming on position.
The Context of Matthew 20:16
Jesus is teaching his disciples, and the parable of the vineyard laborers runs from verse 1 through verse 15. A householder hires workers at dawn for a penny, then hires more at the third, sixth, ninth, and eleventh hours. At evening the steward pays the last group first, and every worker receives a penny. The all-day workers complain, and the householder answers that he has kept his agreement and may do as he wishes with what is his. Verse 16 supplies the concluding statement. Immediately afterward Jesus takes the twelve aside and tells them a third time that he will be condemned, crucified, and raised.
What Does Matthew 20:16 Mean?
The verse has two halves that work differently. The first half restates the payment order of verse 8, where the steward began with the last hired. 'So' ties the saying to the story just told, making the reversal a summary of the householder's practice. The second half moves from the vineyard to a wider field with a saying about many called and few chosen. The word 'called' matches the repeated hiring of the parable, where the householder goes out again and again to the marketplace. 'Chosen' introduces a term the parable itself has not used, and the verse offers no definition, leaving the disciples with a sober word after a generous story.
Matthew has framed the parable with the same saying at both ends. Chapter 19 closes with Peter asking what the disciples will get for leaving everything, and Jesus answering with promises followed by the line about the first and the last. Chapter 20 opens the parable with 'For,' then closes it with the saying again. The subject running through both is reward and the danger of calculating it. Israel's story shows the same pattern repeatedly: younger sons blessed over elder, shepherds anointed over warriors, foreigners welcomed while insiders murmur. God's freedom to be good disturbs settled expectations, and Scripture reports the disturbance honestly rather than smoothing it away.
The parable's shape belongs to the road Jesus was traveling. Within a few sentences he tells the twelve that the Son of man will be handed over, mocked, scourged, and killed, and will rise on the third day. The one who taught that the last shall be first was on his way to take the last place himself, and the promise of resurrection is the reversal in its deepest form. Verse 28 states it plainly: he came to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. The householder's generosity in the story has a face, and that face is set toward Jerusalem.
Matthew 20:16 in the Original Language
eklektoi (ἐκλεκτοί), 'chosen' -- a word for those picked out or selected; it is used elsewhere of Israel, of angels, and of God's people gathered at the end, and it describes a standing given by God rather than earned by seniority in the vineyard.
Bible Verses Related to Matthew 20:16
“But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.”
- Matthew 19:30
“And, behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last.”
- Luke 13:30
“For many are called, but few are chosen.”
- Matthew 22:14
“And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends:”
- Luke 15:29
Where Matthew 20:16 Echoes in Scripture
Luke preserves the same saying in a different setting, where someone asks whether few will be saved and Jesus warns about a narrow door before adding that there are last which shall be first and first which shall be last (Luke 13:30). The saying evidently traveled with Jesus and was applied to more than one situation. Its repetition across Gospels suggests the disciples heard it often enough for it to become a settled part of his teaching about the kingdom.
How to Apply Matthew 20:16 Today
Long service can quietly turn into a claim. Years in a pew, a family name attached to a building, decades of clean living: all of it is good, and none of it puts God in our debt. When someone newly converted is given responsibility, or when a person with a rough history receives obvious joy, the murmur in verse 11 can start up in us. Naming that murmur honestly is the beginning of its cure. We can also practice the householder's habit of going back out to the marketplace, looking for people still standing idle and telling them there is work here for them too.
Reflection & Prayer
When did we last feel a flash of resentment at God's kindness to someone else, and what did that flash reveal about what we thought we had earned? A prayer: Generous Lord, thank you for hiring me at whatever hour you found me standing idle. Guard my heart from measuring your gifts to others, and make me glad at every late arrival. Amen.