NOTES for Luk 14:1-11

From the Gospel according to Mark read on weekdays, today we return to the Gospel according to Luke, and once again today the Word of God speaks to us about making oneself small. The Lord emphasizes today that what is wrong with the human striving for first place is not so much the striving itself as the desire to exalt oneself. The master of the feast in this parable, who invites a guest with the words, “Friend, move up higher!” is, of course, the Lord Himself. And in our striving for first place He sees not simply sinful self-exaltation, but the human heart's need to be pleasing to God and loved by Him, distorted by sin. Therefore, as in yesterday's reading from the Gospel according to Mark, the Lord does not simply reject the desire to be first, but invites us to seek first place not in human honor but in humility before God. Basing herself on this parable of Christ, one remarkable woman ascetic of the early twentieth century used to say, “Let us hurry to take the lowest places!”

It is hardly by chance that we read Christ's words about making oneself small before the feast of the Nativity, when almighty God, who created heaven and earth, made Himself small and became a weak and helpless Infant for the sake of our salvation.