41Jesus also made this observation: “But many who are first will be last and the last first.” (Mk 10:31; cf. Mt 19:30). Mark makes it a contrast between life in an earthly society and eternal life in the age to come. Luke associates this observation with Mt 8:11,12 in Lk 13:30 and hence speaks of the coming Kingdom. The saying possibly had a wide application by then.

One is struck by what might arise if we were to conjecture on the learnings of the characters in our culture’s myths. How would Goldilocks fair having always chosen the mean? Would Little Red Ridinghood have confidence in the final rescue from evil by the Almighty hand of a woodcutter? What would the three bears choose, having learned to build and inhabit stabile domiciles? What about Cinderella, who chose the life of a noble person in the disguise of a persecuted servant? Could she still have confidence that her beloved Bridegroom would search her out and rescue her?