Origen's homily reads Jeremiah's laments in Jeremiah 15 as the voice of Christ and the persecuted church, and closes with an appeal for repentant ministers to imitate the suffering prophets.
This homily opens with an extended comparison of prophets to physicians: like doctors who must live among the diseased and are hated by unruly patients for prescribing hard cures, the prophets (and Jeremiah above all) were hated for rebuking a sinful people. Origen uses this frame to work through Jeremiah's complaint "Woe is me, mother, why did you bear me... I am judged and contended with over all the earth," noting a textual variant between manuscripts reading "I did not profit, nor did anyone profit me" against more accurate copies agreeing with the Hebrew that read "I did not owe, nor did anyone owe me," and expounding both readings in turn.
The center of the homily reassigns the lament from Jeremiah to Christ: because Jeremiah's own persecution never literally reached "all the earth," Origen argues the words fit Jesus more exactly, who is judged in every Christian put on trial, disbelieved by unbelievers and doubted by the double-minded, and whose "strength fails" in the sinner but grows in the one who receives him. Origen ties in Isaiah 53's suffering servant, John's prologue on the true light, and Luke's Jerusalem lament to build a composite portrait of a suffering, interceding Christ, then reads God's reply to the people ("iron and a covering of bronze is your strength," the treasures given over to plunder) as the transfer of the prophets, the law, and the oracles of God from Israel to the church.
The homily ends practically: Origen warns that Christians who pray "give us our portion with the prophets" without being willing to suffer as the prophets suffered are asking unjustly, and he invokes Hebrews' catalogue of the tormented righteous ("stoned... sawn in two... wandering in deserts"). He closes by allegorizing the unleavened bread and bitter herbs of Passover as sincerity, truth, and the hardship that comes with speaking it, ending on the promise of restoration for those who turn back to God, echoed in Acts' "restoration of all things."
“For they are never among the healthy, but always among the wounded, among those with festering sores, among those filled with pus, fevers, and various diseases.”
— Homily on Jeremiah 14 · read this chapter →
“in the most accurate copies, which agree with the Hebrew, “I did not owe, nor did anyone owe me.””
— Homily on Jeremiah 14 · read this chapter →
“So in all the earth Christ Jesus is put on trial; and as often as a Christian is tried, it is Christ who is being tried”
— Homily on Jeremiah 14 · read this chapter →
“grant that we suffer what the prophets suffered, grant that we too be hated as the prophets were hated, grant us such words as will bring hatred upon us”
— Homily on Jeremiah 14 · read this chapter →
“Have sincerity and truth, and you will have bitter herbs, and you will eat, along with bitter herbs, the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, as Paul did.”
— Homily on Jeremiah 14 · read this chapter →
It is a sermon on Jeremiah's lament in Jeremiah 15 ("Woe is me, mother, why did you bear me"), read first as Jeremiah's own complaint about persecution and then reassigned to Christ, whose suffering is renewed whenever a Christian is put on trial for the faith. Origen also flags a Hebrew-based manuscript variant in the verse and closes with an exhortation to imitate the prophets' suffering rather than merely ask for their reward.
He opens the homily noting that doctors must live among the diseased and are hated by unruly patients for prescribing hard treatments; he applies this directly to Jeremiah and the other prophets, who were hated for rebuking Israel's sins even though they came as healers, not enemies.
Yes. He notes that most manuscripts of Jeremiah 15:10 read "I did not profit, nor did anyone profit me," while more accurate copies agreeing with the Hebrew read "I did not owe, nor did anyone owe me," and he deliberately expounds both readings rather than silently choosing one.
He argues that Jeremiah's claim to be "judged and contended with over all the earth" does not fit Jeremiah's actual, geographically limited ministry, so he reads it as spoken through Jeremiah by Christ, who is judged and doubted throughout the world whenever anyone weighs the Christian message.
He warns that Christians who pray "give us our portion with the prophets" or "with the apostles" without being willing to suffer as they suffered are asking unjustly, since the prophets were reviled, stoned, and driven into exile for speaking the truth.
Drawing on Paul's language in 1 Corinthians about keeping festival with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, Origen reads the bitter herbs as the hardship that inevitably accompanies truth-telling, illustrated by Paul's own toils and sleepless nights.
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