Nobel Prize Laureate for Literature Robert Allan Zimmerman — more popularly known as Bob Dylan — has written many memorable lyrics. He has a good ear for the rhythms of speech, poetry, and the Bible. In his song “The Times They Are A-Changin’” Dylan listed a number of factors that should prove to those who stand in the way of truth that “Your order is rapidly fadin’.” He concluded with words that echo Jesus —

“For the first one now will later be last, for the times, they are a-changin’.”

In the gospels it is clear that Jesus was turning the world upside down, and those who are the least, the lost, and the last will be first in the kingdom of God. In the gospels of Matthew and Luke this becomes clear in the Beatitudes: the meek will inherit the earth. The poor, and the poor in spirit, are…