The Instructor 1.11.96

The manner of his love for humankind and of his instruction has now been shown as far as we could. That is why, explaining himself most beautifully, he likened himself to “a grain of mustard seed,” hinting at the spiritual nature of the Word that is sown, its abundant nature, the magnificence and easy growth of its rational power, and also that the sting and cleansing power of his censure is beneficial through its sharpness. By the small grain spoken of figuratively he gives a great gift, salvation, to all humanity. Honey, which is very sweet, generates bile, as goodness generates contempt, which is the cause of sinning; but mustard lessens bile, that is, anger, and cuts through phlegm, that is, arrogance. From this Word come the true health of the soul and its eternal good temper. Of old, then, the Word instructed through Moses, and afterward through the prophets too; and Moses is also a prophet. For the law is the instruction of unruly children. “Having eaten their fill,” it says, “they rose up to play,” calling it a fill of fodder (chortasma), the irrational filling with food, not a meal.