Origen's homily on the boy Jesus lost and found in the Jerusalem temple (Luke 2:41-52), read as a lesson in how and where to seek Christ.
This homily belongs to Origen's series of short sermons on Luke's Gospel, delivered to a congregation and preserved in Latin translation. It takes up the episode immediately after the presentation of the infant Jesus in the temple and his growth 'in wisdom and grace,' then moves to the story of the twelve-year-old Jesus staying behind in Jerusalem, sought anxiously by Mary and Joseph, and finally found 'in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and questioning them.'
Origen reads the narrative both literally and typologically. He first works through the wording of Luke's text closely, comparing the description of Jesus growing and being 'filled' with wisdom to the parallel language used of John the Baptist, to show that Luke marks Jesus out as receiving something greater. He then turns the search for the missing child into a spiritual lesson: Jesus is not found among relatives 'according to the flesh' or in ordinary company, but only in the temple, among teachers, and only by those who seek him with real labor and sorrow rather than carelessly or in passing. Seeking 'in the temple' becomes an image for seeking Christ in the church, among true teachers, since a teacher who lacks Jesus is a teacher in name only.
The homily closes with a polemical turn against unnamed heretics, understood as those who separate the God of the law and the prophets from the father of Jesus Christ, likely a swipe at Marcionite-type teaching. Origen insists the temple where Jesus is found was built by Solomon and belongs to the same Father he calls his own, so that law, prophets, and temple all belong together with the Son to one Creator-God. The piece is a compact example of Origen's homiletic method: verse-by-verse attention to the Greek/Latin wording of Luke, moral application to the listening congregation, and theological point-scoring against rival readings of scripture.
“For Jesus is not found among relatives and kin according to the flesh, not among those who are bodily joined to him”
— Homily on Luke 18 · read this chapter →
“Not just anywhere in some other place, but”
— Homily on Luke 18 · read this chapter →
“if someone calls himself a teacher and does not have Jesus, that person is a teacher in name only”
— Homily on Luke 18 · read this chapter →
“For to ask is one thing, to answer another”
— Homily on Luke 18 · read this chapter →
“Since, then, the Savior is the son of the Creator, let us praise together the Father and the Son, to whom belong the law and also the temple”
— Homily on Luke 18 · read this chapter →
It is a short sermon on Luke 2:41-52, the story of the twelve-year-old Jesus staying behind in the Jerusalem temple and being found there by his parents 'in the midst of the teachers.' Origen reads the episode as both a historical event and a spiritual lesson about how and where believers should seek Christ.
Origen argues that Jesus cannot be found 'among relatives and kin according to the flesh, not among those who are bodily joined to him,' because he is found only 'in the temple,' among teachers. This is applied to the church: true seekers must look for Christ among genuine teachers, not merely among ordinary human company.
Origen contrasts Luke's description of Jesus, who 'grew and was strengthened and was filled with wisdom,' with the more modest language used of John the Baptist, who was only 'strengthened in spirit.' He explains this as Jesus outwardly manifesting, after his self-emptying, wisdom he had not lost but had veiled.
Origen does not name them directly, but he targets those who claim 'the law and the prophets do not belong to the father of Jesus Christ' and who distinguish a merely 'good' God from a separate 'just' God, a position associated with Marcionite-style teaching. He insists the temple and its God belong to the same Father as Christ.
Origen draws out this detail from Luke to argue that answering correctly is a greater feat than asking questions, since 'to ask is one thing, to answer another.' He applies it to Jesus's ongoing role of both questioning and answering believers through scripture.
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