"It is like a mustard seed that a person took and planted in the garden"

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 13:18-21.


Then he said, "What is the kingdom of God like? To what can I compare it?
It is like a mustard seed that a person took and planted in the garden. When it was fully grown, it became a large bush and 'the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.'"
Again he said, "To what shall I compare the kingdom of God?
It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed (in) with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch of dough was leavened."


Tuesday of the Thirtieth week in Ordinary Time : Lc 13,18-21
Commentary of the day
Saint Maximus of Turin (?-c.420), Bishop
Sermon 26 (Migne 1996, p. 124)

"It is like a mustard seed that a person took and planted in the garden"

With regard to the Gospel's words: «A man took it and sowed it in his garden», who do you think is this man who sowed the seed he had received like a mustard seed in his garden plot? I myself think it is he of whom the Gospel says: «Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the council, from Arimathea»... He went to Pilate. He asked permission to take down the Lord's body and bury it. When permission was granted he placed it in the tomb he had prepared in his garden (cf. Lk 23,50-53). That is why Scripture says: «A man took it and buried it in his garden». In Joseph's garden there mingled the scent of many different flowers but such a seed as this had never yet been placed there. The spiritual garden of his soul was embalmed with the scent of his virtue but Christ's embalmed body had not yet occupied its place. When he buried the Savior in the memorial place of his garden, he received him even more deeply into the crevice of his heart.