a thread opens
So the last shall be first, and the first last. [Not in the earliest manuscripts. King James also had: “for many be called, but few chosen.”]
The Vigil
Today’s scroll, one verse at a time — each linked to the last by the cross-references rather than by any model of you. The same vigil for everyone, and a different one tomorrow.
But many that are first shall be last; and the last first.
from Matthew 20:16
But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.
from Mark 10:31 · a strong link
Whether of them two did the will of his father? They say to him, The first. Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you, That the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.
from Matthew 19:30
The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some men count slowness; but is patience toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
from Matthew 21:31
a thread opens
Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith in me.
from Acts 20:21
But you, brothers, are not in darkness, so that that day should overtake you as a thief.
from Acts 26:18 · a strong link
Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is passing away, and the true light now shines.
from I Thessalonians 5:4 · a strong link
But to you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and you shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
from I John 2:8
And I will give him the morning star.
from Malachi 4:2
a thread opens
Be it known to you therefore, men and brothers, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins:
I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake.
from Acts 13:38
To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whoever believes in him shall receive remission of sins.
from I John 2:12 · a strong link
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
from Acts 10:43
Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?
from John 3:14
Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
from Luke 24:26 · a strong link
Look, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
from I Peter 1:11
a thread opens
Because he has appointed a day, in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.
Before the LORD; for he comes to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.
from Acts 17:31
Before the LORD: for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.
from Psalms 98:9
And I saw heaven opened, and look, a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he does judge and make war.
from Psalms 96:13 · a strong link
a thread opens
For truly against your holy child Jesus, whom you have anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
And when they had bound him, they led him away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor.
from Acts 4:27 · a strong link
The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his Son Jesus; whom you delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go.
from Matthew 27:2 · a strong link
I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.
from Acts 3:13
Saying, I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and dared not look.
from Matthew 22:32
a thread opens
You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Spirit: as your fathers did, so do you.
In that you have brought into my sanctuary strangers, uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to pollute it, even my house, when you offer my bread, the fat and the blood, and they have broken my covenant because of all your abominations.
from Acts 7:51
Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
from Ezekiel 44:7
In whom also you are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
from Jeremiah 4:4 · a strong link
For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
from Colossians 2:11
But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead in which we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
from Philippians 3:3
a thread opens
And he said to me, Depart: for I will send you far hence to the Gentiles.
But the Lord said to him, Go your way: for he is a chosen vessel to me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel:
from Acts 22:21 · a strong link
But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace,
from Acts 9:15 · a strong link
Before I formed you in the belly I knew you; and before you came forth out of the womb I sanctified you, and I ordained you a prophet to the nations.
from Galatians 1:15 · a strong link
Listen, O isles, to me; and listen, you people, from afar; The LORD has called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother has he made mention of my name.
from Jeremiah 1:5 · a strong link
For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.
from Isaiah 49:1
For I say to you, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.
from Luke 1:15
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Matthew 20:16 along this chain. Today’s own vigil is laid separately.
Each verse follows the one before it along the chain a study Bible draws — a century old, public, and compiled by people arguing about Scripture rather than about how long you stay. Every card says which verse it came from and opens the chapter it belongs to. Today’s vigil is the same for every reader and is worked out from the date alone, so there is no account, no counter, and nothing stored in your browser or ours.
The text is the Lantern Modern Standard. The links are openbible.info’s cross-reference set (CC BY), the same apparatus behind the reader’s Echoes drawer. Read a whole book · Today’s table