Homilies on Jeremiah

Homilies on Jeremiah

Origen of Alexandria

c. AD 240–250

Twenty homilies preached by Origen on the prophet Jeremiah, in Greek, for a church congregation in Caesarea. They are among the few of Origen’s sermons that survive in the original language. Homilies 1 to 11 are in the Sources Chrétiennes tradition, and the Greek of 12 to 20 follows the Philocalia and the Vatican manuscript. Twelve more survive only in Jerome’s Latin and are not included.

Homily 1

1 God is quick to do good, but slow to punish those who deserve punishment. He could bring punishment on those he has condemned in silence, without giving any warning beforehand. But he never does this. Even when he condemns, he speaks, so that the one who is about to be condemned may turn back from the sentence. We could take many examples of this from the Scriptures, but a few that lie close at hand are enough, so that we may come to the purpose of the passages that have been read. The Ninevites had become sinners and had been condemned by God. In three more days Nineveh was to [be overthrown]. God did not want to condemn it in silence. He gave them room for repentance and conversion and sent a prophet, so that when he said, “Three more days, and Nineveh will be overthrown,” those who had been condemned might not be condemned after all, but might repent and receive God’s mercy. The people of Sodom and Gomorrah were also condemned, as is clear from God’s words to Abraham. Yet the angels still did their part. They wanted to save people who did not want to be saved, and said to Lot, “Do you have anyone here, sons-in-law, or sons, or daughters?” They were not ignorant that those people would not follow Lot. They were acting out of their own kindness and love for humanity, and at the same time that of the one who sent them.

2 You will find the same thing in the case of Jeremiah. The time of his prophecy has been recorded: when he began and how long he prophesied. Now a reader who does not pay attention to the reading, and does not examine the intention of the passages written down, will say, “This is just history. It is recorded when Jeremiah began to prophesy, and for how long he prophesied before he stopped. What is that to me?” I read it and learned that he began to prophesy “in the days of Josiah son of Amos, king of Judah, until the thirteenth year of his reign.” Then “it came to pass in the days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah,” that he was prophesying, “until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah son of Josiah, king of Judah.” And I learned that his prophecy extended through three kings, “until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month.” So what are we taught by these things, if we pay attention to the reading?

3 God had condemned Jerusalem because of her sins, and the people had been judged to be abandoned to captivity. Even so, God, who loves humanity, when the time was at hand, sent this prophet too, well before the third reign, the one in which the captivity came, so that those who were willing might understand and repent because of the prophetic words. He sent a prophet to prophesy under the second king after the first, and under the third, right up to the time of the captivity itself. For the patient God was granting forbearance even one day, so to speak, before the captivity, urging those who heard to repent so that the gloom of captivity might cease. This is why it is written that “Jeremiah prophesied until the captivity of Jerusalem, until the fifth month.” He began, and was still prophesying, as if to say: “You have become captives. Even so, repent! If you repent, the captivity will make no further progress, but God’s mercy will come upon you.” So we gain something useful from the record that gives the times of the prophecy: God, in his love for humanity, urges those who hear not to suffer the captivity. The same kind of thing applies to us. If we sin, we too are going to become captives. For “to hand such a person over to Satan” is no different from handing over the people of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar. As they were handed over to him because of their sins, so we are handed over to Satan because of our sins, since Satan is Nebuchadnezzar. And the apostle says of other sinners, “whom I have handed over to Satan, that they may be taught not to blaspheme.”

4 So consider how great an evil it is to sin. Those who sin are handed over to Satan, who takes captive the souls of those whom God has abandoned. Yet God does not abandon without cause or without judgment those he has abandoned. When he sends rain on a vineyard, and the vineyard bears thorns instead of grapes, what will God do but “command the clouds not to rain” on that vineyard? Because of our sins, captivity hangs over us too. Unless we repent, we are going to be handed over to Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians, so that the Babylonians of the mind may tear us apart. While this threatens us, the words of the prophets, the words of the law, the words of the apostles, and the words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ speak to us about repentance and urge us to turn back. If we listen, let us believe the one who said: “I too will repent of all the evils that I spoke of doing to them.” That is enough for the introduction.

5 After the introduction it is written that “the word of the Lord came to him” — clearly, to Jeremiah. And what does the word of the Lord say to him? Something set apart from what was said to the other prophets. We have found this said to none of the prophets. Abraham was called a prophet in the words “he is a prophet and will pray for you,” and yet God did not say to him, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you came out of the womb I sanctified you.” Rather, Abraham was sanctified at some later time, when he went out from his land, from his kindred, and from his father’s house. He was born by promise, and we did not find this word spoken even to him. And why do I need to list the others in turn? Jeremiah received a distinctive gift: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you came out of the womb I sanctified you.”

6a We are not unaware that some people apply these words to our Savior and Lord, as being too great for Jeremiah. We should know that many of them fit him well and can be applied to the Savior, and I will set them out. But a few of the things said to Jeremiah put pressure on that interpretation, because they cannot be fitted to the Savior in the same way as the many. Which ones, then, fit the Savior? “You shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak according to all that I command you. Do not be afraid before their face, for I am with you to rescue you, says the Lord.” These words perhaps would not yet seem to apply to the Savior. But what follows puts pressure on the interpretation concerning Jeremiah: “And the Lord stretched out his hand to me and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: Behold, I have given my words into your mouth. Behold, I have appointed you today over nations and kingdoms, to uproot and to tear down.” What nations did Jeremiah uproot? What kingdoms did he overthrow? For it is written: “Behold, I have appointed you today over nations and kingdoms, to uproot and to tear down.” And what authority did Jeremiah have “to destroy,” which is said to Jeremiah in the words “and to destroy”? Whom did Jeremiah build up, so many that it could be said “and to build”? Jeremiah says: “I have not benefited anyone, and no one has benefited me.” So how was “to build and to plant” given to him? How will “to plant” fit Jeremiah?

6b The passages that refer to the Savior do not trouble the interpreter, because in these Jeremiah is a symbol of the Savior. But the passages I have set beside them trouble even the wisest person who wants to show how they too could fit the Savior. “And I said: O Lord, Master, you who are, behold, I do not know how to speak.” He who is wisdom and power brought us [the fullness of the deity, which dwelt in him bodily]. So how can “I do not [know how to speak]” fit the Savior? And “I am younger” is something the Savior is forbidden to say, as though he were speaking wrongly. For if the Lord says to him, “Do not say this,” it is clear that he forbids it because it is not well said. So these words do not fit the Savior. The others, however, do not seem to be an obstacle with regard to the Savior. It would not be hard to say that these words refer to Jeremiah and those to the Savior. But the fair-minded person will be greatly troubled at this passage. He sees that it is the mark of unreasonable people to cut up a connected sequence of words that were spoken either to Jeremiah or to the Savior. They say of some: “Since these are lesser things, they fit Jeremiah and not Christ.” And of others: “Since these are greater than Jeremiah, they fit not Jeremiah but Christ.” So should the whole passage be referred to Jeremiah? Then let those words that seem greater than Jeremiah be interpreted [in that light].

7a Everyone who has received words from God and has the grace of heavenly words has received them for this: “to uproot and tear down nations and kingdoms.” But if “nations and kingdoms” are said to be “uprooted” by everyone who has received words from God, do not understand the nations and kingdoms in a bodily way. Understand instead human souls ruled by sin, as the apostle says: “Let sin not reign in our mortal body.” Look also at the many kinds of sins, and read the nations and kingdoms figuratively as the evil things in human souls. These are uprooted and torn down by the words of God given to Jeremiah or to anyone at all. So the first set of sayings, the ones that trouble us when applied to the Savior, can fit Jeremiah. And the second set, for someone who knows how to read figuratively, can also fit Jeremiah. Someone among the hearers will say to me: “Work out the other part of the argument too, and try to show that everything that is written fits the Savior.” About the second set, do not worry. It is plain that the Savior uprooted the kingdoms of the devil and tore down the nations, by demolishing the pagan way of life. But here is the part that seems to speak ill of the Savior. Work out somehow how the Savior can say, “I do not know how to speak, because I am younger.” Do you see how the argument is cramped? We know the Savior as Lord. We are seeking to apply these words to the Savior in a way that is worthy of the word and true to the truth.

7b We must take the Scriptures as witnesses. Our own proposals without witnesses, and our interpretations, are not to be trusted. The saying “At the mouth of two and three witnesses every word will be established” fits interpretations better than it fits people. So I will establish the words of my interpretation by taking two witnesses, from the New and the Old Testament, and three witnesses, from gospel, prophet and apostle. For in this way every word will be established. How then can we apply these words to the Savior? Bring a witness from the Old Testament: “For before the child knows good or evil, he refuses to obey wickedness, so as to choose the good.” This was said plainly about the Savior in Isaiah: “Behold, the virgin will conceive in the womb and bear a son, and they will call his name Emmanuel.” And there the words “before the child knows” are added. And if we must also take an example from the gospel: Jesus did not become a grown man at once but was still a child, since “he emptied himself,” and he was advancing. For no one who has been made perfect advances; only someone who needs to advance does so. So he advanced in stature, advanced in wisdom, and in favor with God and people, coming down here. Having emptied himself, he received again from the very things from which “he emptied himself.” Since he emptied himself willingly, what is absurd about his also advancing “in wisdom and stature and favor with God and people”? What is absurd about its being truly said of him, “Before he knows good or evil, he will choose the good and refuses to obey wickedness,” and about what I quoted from Isaiah?

8a But someone will say: “Even if you can bring yourself to apply the words ‘he does not know’ to the Savior, does it not trouble you to say this about the only-begotten, about the firstborn of all creation, about the one announced before his conception in the words, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you’? And you say, ‘He does not know how to speak’?” See whether you can discern something worthy and great about the Savior in this passage: when someone does not know certain things, he can be greater in not knowing them than in knowing them. And I use his own voice as witness that there are things he does not know. He says, for instance, to those who say to him, “Did we not eat in your name, and drink in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?” “Depart from me; I never knew you.” Does the “I never knew you” spoken there by the Savior show his power to be less, or greater and more wonderful, because he did not know those who were worse and were perishing? For he knew what is better and excellent, and “the Lord knew those who are his,” and “if anyone is ignorant, he is not known.” So the sinner is not known by God. One of the hearers will say to me: “You have shown that he does not know sinners, that he does not know those who work lawlessness, for they are not worthy of his knowledge. But how will you show that it is something great and glorious when the Savior says, ‘I do not know how to speak’? Speaking is a human thing. To speak is to use a language, so as to utter, say, a Hebrew voice, or a Greek one, or that of some other people.”

8b If you go up to the Savior and see him as the Word who was “in the beginning with God,” you will see that he does not know how to speak, since speaking is a human thing. But the reason he does not know is that what he does know is greater than speaking. And if you compare the tongues of angels with the tongues of human beings, and recognize that he is greater even than the angels, as the apostle testified in the letter to the Hebrews, you will say that he was greater even than the tongue of angels when he was God, the Word with the Father. So he learns, and as it were takes up a knowledge not of great things but of lesser and smaller ones. It is like my own case: I force myself to learn to stammer when I talk with little children. Since I do not really know how to speak the way children do, so to say, I compel myself, though I am mature, to converse with children. In the same way the Savior, while he is “in the Father” and in the majesty of God’s glory, does not speak human things and does not know how to utter sounds to those below. But when he comes into a human body, he says at the beginning, “I do not know how to speak, for I am younger.” He is younger because of his bodily birth, but older according to the title “firstborn of all creation.” He is younger because he came to live among us at the consummation of the ages, later in time. So when he says “I do not know how to speak,” he means: I know something greater than speaking, I know something greater than this human sound. Do you want me to speak to human beings? I have not yet taken up a human language. I have your language, Father; I am your Word, God’s Word; I know how to converse with you, but I do not know how to speak to human beings. “I am younger.”

9 “Do not say, ‘I am younger,’ for you shall go to everyone to whom I send you.” In this way he stretches out his hand, touches his mouth, and gives him words. He gives him words because of the kingdoms, so that he may uproot them. But when he was “in the Father,” he had no need of words that uproot; he had no words that tear down and demolish the worse things. For nothing there was worthy of being torn down, nothing worthy of being uprooted. It is a great thing, as in “I do not know you; you are workers of lawlessness.” So when the Savior says it because of the surpassing greatness of his glory, “I do not know how to speak” carries the same force as “I do not know how to speak human things.” 10a Whether this is said to Jeremiah or to the Savior, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,” read Genesis and pay attention to what it says about the creation of the world. You will find that Scripture, with great precision, did not say, “Before I made you in the womb I knew you.” When the one “in the image” was created, “God said, Let us make man according to our image and likeness.” He did not say, “Let us form.” But when he took “dust from the earth,” he did not “make” the man; rather he “formed the man,” and “he put in the garden the man whom he had formed.” [The text is badly damaged here and cannot be restored with confidence.] So the Lord, whether speaking to Jeremiah or to the Savior, did not say, “Before I made you in the womb”; he said “formed,” because this one, from the dust of the earth, is created in the womb. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” If the Lord knew everyone in this way [the text is corrupt here], he would not have said “and I know you” to Jeremiah as something special.

10b So God knows those who stand out. God knows those who are worthy of his knowledge, and “the Lord knew those who are his.” But the unworthy God does not know, just as the Savior said, “I never knew you.” We too, being human, judge according to our progress that some things are worthy of our knowing them. Some things we do not even want to hear, so that we may not come to know them or be acquainted with them, while others we want to know. What of the God of all? He wants to know Pharaoh, he wants to know the Egyptians, yet they are not worthy of God’s knowledge. Moses is worthy, and so is each of the prophets of such a stature. You must set right many things before God begins to know you. Jeremiah he knew before he formed him in the womb. Another he begins to know at thirty years of age, another at forty. These are hidden matters. Concerning the Savior they are not in question, but concerning Jeremiah they call for careful attention from those who have ears.

11 How does he say it? “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you came out of the womb I sanctified you.” God sanctifies certain people for himself. He did not wait for this man to come into being and then sanctify him; before he came out of the womb he had already sanctified him. If you refer this to the Savior, it is not hard to say that he was sanctified before coming out of the womb. If you refer it to the Savior, he was sanctified not only before he came out, but even earlier still. But this Jeremiah was sanctified before he came out of the womb. 12 “I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.” If you look into this “I have appointed you a prophet to the nations” as said of Jeremiah, notice in what follows that he is commanded to prophesy “against all the nations,” and there is a heading: “What Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations,” to “Elam,” “Damascus,” “Moab.” And so we have it that he “prophesied against all the nations,” as the literal fulfillment of “I have appointed you a prophet to the nations,” said to him. But if the words are taken in a higher sense: for Jeremiah we have already said what is needed; for the Savior, what need is there to say anything? He truly prophesied against all the nations. For just as he is countless other things, so he is also a prophet. As he is high priest, as he is Savior, as he is physician, so he is also prophet. Moses, at any rate, prophesying about him, spoke of him not simply as a prophet but in a special way, saying: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet from among your brothers, like me; to him you shall listen, and whoever does not listen to that prophet will be utterly destroyed from his people.” So this is the one who has been appointed a prophet “to the nations.” He received grace from God poured out on his lips, so that not only when he was present in the body, but now also, when he is present in power and in the Spirit, he prophesies “to all the nations,” so that his prophecy is carried out among all the nations and draws people to salvation.

13a “And I said: O Being, Master and Lord, see, I do not know how to speak, because I am younger.” “And the Lord said to me: Do not say, ‘I am younger,’ because you shall go to all those to whom I send you.” We have often said that a person can be a child in the inner man even if he is of an old man’s age in the body. And sometimes a person can be a child in the outer man while being a grown man in the inner man. Jeremiah was like this: he already had grace from God while still a child in bodily age. That is why the Lord says to him, “Do not say, ‘I am younger.’” The sign that he was not younger, but a “perfect man,” is this: “You shall go to all those to whom I send you, and you shall speak according to everything I command you. Do not be afraid of their faces.” The word of God knows that those who carry out its embassy are in danger from those who hear. When they are rebuked, they hate the messengers; when they are reproved, they persecute them. The prophets suffer absolutely anything: “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.”

13b We mentioned this verse not long ago. So God, when he sends the prophet, knows how many dangers he will take on, and he says to him: “Do not be afraid of their faces, because I am with you to rescue you, says the Lord.” What Jeremiah suffered is on record. He was thrown into a pit of mud and stayed there, “eating one loaf a day” and drinking only water. His prophecy has made known countless other things he suffered. “Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?” That was said to the Jews. And it is necessary that “those who want to live godly in Christ Jesus” be persecuted, by the opposing powers, through whatever instruments they find. So let those who are persecuted not be surprised, but let them do everything they should, only praying that they be persecuted unjustly and not justly: not for wrongdoing, not for sin, not for greed. But if someone is ever persecuted for righteousness’ sake, let him hear: “Blessed are you when they reproach you and persecute you and say every evil word against you, lying, on my account. Rejoice and be glad, because your reward is great in heaven. For in this way they persecuted the prophets before you.”

14a “Because I am with you to rescue you, says the Lord. And the Lord stretched out his hand to me and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me.” Notice the differences between Jeremiah and Isaiah. Isaiah says: “I have unclean lips, and I live among a people who have unclean lips, and with my eyes I have seen the King, the Lord Sabaoth.” Since he confessed that what was unclean in him was not deeds but only little words (up to this point he was a sinner), “the Lord” did not “stretch out his hand.” Instead, “one of the Seraphim touched his lips with his hand and said: See, I have taken away your lawless acts.” But this man, Jeremiah, was sanctified “from the womb.” So no tongs are sent to him, nor a coal “from the altar” (he had nothing in him that deserved the fire). Rather, the Lord’s own hand touched him. That is why he says: “The Lord stretched out his hand to me and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: See, I have given my words into your mouth. See, I have appointed you today over nations and kingdoms, to uproot.” Who is so blessed as to uproot, by the words God gives, the many kingdoms that “the devil shows”? These are kingdoms of the opposing powers, kingdoms that rest on sins. For it is written: “See, I have given my words into your mouth. See, I have appointed you today over nations and kingdoms, to uproot.” Just as there are kingdoms, so there are nations. And nothing can be called a kingdom unless it has nations under it. For example, there is a kingdom of fornication, and each particular fornication is a nation of fornication. The general sin of greed and of defrauding is one kingdom, and there are many kingdoms among those who commit many kinds of sins.

14b Next, think of the nations under each kingdom as belonging to each sinner. One person, we might say, has many nations belonging to the kingdom of fornication. Another has many nations belonging to the kingdom of defrauding, or of slander, or of anger. When God’s words are sent out “over nations and kingdoms,” their work is “to uproot and to dig down.” Uproot what? The Savior taught us when he said, “Every planting which my heavenly Father did not plant will be uprooted.” There are things inside our souls which “the heavenly Father did not plant.” All the “evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnessings, blasphemies” are plantings, and the heavenly Father did not plant them. If you want to know whose plantings such thoughts are, hear this: “An enemy man did this,” the one who sowed the “weeds in the middle of the wheat.” So God stands there with his seeds, and the devil stands there with his. If we give “place to the devil,” “the enemy” sows a planting [which the Father did not plant, but the devil did], and it will certainly be uprooted. If we do not give “place to the devil,” but give place to God, God gladly sows his seeds on the ruling part of our soul. So do not suppose that Jeremiah received a gloomy gift from God because he was appointed “over nations and over kingdoms, to uproot.” God is good, because through his words he uproots what is worthless: the kingdoms hostile to the kingdom of the heavens, and the warring nations hostile to the nation of God. “To uproot and to dig down.”

15 There is a building of the devil, and there is a building of God. The building “on the sand” is the devil’s, because it is fixed on nothing firm, solid or united. The building “on the rock” is God’s. See what is said to those who belong to God: “You are God’s field, God’s building.” So God’s words are “over nations and kingdoms, to uproot and to dig down and to destroy.” Suppose something is uprooted, but the thing uprooted is not destroyed. Then it still exists. Suppose something is dug down, but the stones of what was dug down are not destroyed. Then it still exists. So it belongs to God’s goodness, after uprooting, to destroy what has been uprooted, and after pulling down, to destroy what has been pulled down. Read carefully how such things are destroyed in the case of what is destroyed and uprooted: “Burn the chaff with unquenchable fire,” and “Bind the weeds in bundles and hand them over to fire.” So after being uprooted, they are destroyed. If you want to see what is destroyed even after a demolition, take the building made of worthless material. That house which was pulled down because of leprosy becomes dust, and once it has become dust it is thrown out “outside the city,” so that not even a stone remains. This is like “I will grind them fine like the mud of the streets.” For the worse things must not hold together in any way. If something has been dug down, the stones must not be useful for another building, which the evil one could build. If something has been uprooted, he must not [again] find seeds among the uprooted things, so that he could sow weeds over them again. For surely, since he had the seeds of the weeds, he sowed them. For this reason: “Bind the weeds and burn them with fire.” Then, after being uprooted, the devil’s planting is destroyed, and after being dug down, the devil’s building is destroyed.

16a But the words of God do not stop at “uprooting, tearing down and destroying.” Suppose the evil things have been uprooted from me and the worse things torn down. What good is that to me, unless better things are planted in place of what was uprooted? What good is it, unless something of greater worth is built in place of what was torn down? For this reason the words of God of necessity first do the “uprooting, tearing down and destroying,” and after these the “building and planting.” In Scripture we have always observed that the grim-looking things, if I may call them that, are named first, and then the things that seem cheerful are spoken of second. “I will kill and I will make alive.” He did not say, “I will make alive,” and after that, “I will kill.” For it is impossible for what God has made alive to be killed, either by him or by anyone else. But he says, “I will kill and I will make alive.” Whom will I kill? Paul the betrayer, Paul the persecutor. “And I will make alive,” so that he becomes “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ.” If the wretched people from the heresies had understood these things, they would not keep throwing such words at us and saying: “Do you see how savage and inhuman the God of the law is? He says, ‘I will kill and I will make alive.’” Do you not see in the Scriptures a promise of the resurrection of the dead? Or do you not see the resurrection of the dead already being previewed in each one of us? “We were buried together” with Christ “through baptism,” and we have been raised together with him. So he begins with sterner words, yet necessary ones, such as “I will kill,” and then, having killed, “I will also make alive. I will strike, and I will heal.” For “the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and scourges every son whom he receives.” First he strikes, and after this he heals. For “he himself causes pain, and he restores again.”

16b So it is here too: “I have appointed you today over nations and kingdoms, to uproot and to tear down and to destroy and to build and to plant.” Still, the first thing is for those evil things to be taken away from us. God cannot build on the site of an evil building. “For what share does righteousness have with lawlessness? What fellowship does light have with darkness?” Evil must be uprooted from its foundations. The building of evil must be consumed and removed from our soul, so that afterward the words of God may build and plant. I cannot understand what is written in any other way: “See, I have put my words in your mouth.” What do the words do? “Uproot, tear down and destroy.” Words uproot “nations”; words tear down kingdoms. [The text here is damaged; the sense seems to be that these are not only the worldly nations and kingdoms.] Think of what is uprooted by words, and what is torn down by words, in a way worthy of words that tear down and uproot. Is there not power even now in what is being said, if God gives it, according to the saying, “The Lord will give a word to those who proclaim the good news with great power”? Is it not a power that uproots any unbelief, any hypocrisy, any wickedness, any self-indulgence? Is it not a power that tears down any idol-temple that has been built in the heart? Then, when that has been torn down, a temple of God may be built, and the glory of God may be found in the rebuilt temple. And it will become not a sacred grove but a planting, a paradise of God, where the temple of God is in Christ Jesus. To him belong the glory and the might forever and ever. Amen.

Homily 2

1a “God did not make death, and he takes no pleasure in the destruction of the living. For he created all things so that they might exist, and the generations of the world are saving, and there is no deadly poison in them, nor a kingdom of Hades on earth.” Then, skipping ahead a little in the passage, I will say where death came in: “But through the envy of the devil death entered the world.” So whatever is best for us, God has made; but we ourselves have built evil and sins for ourselves. For this reason the opening of the reading here in the prophet speaks as if in perplexity to those who have in the soul a bitterness opposed to the sweetness God prepared for it: “How have you turned into bitterness, foreign vine?” It is as if he were saying: God did not make lameness, but made everyone sound of foot. So what has been the cause of those who are lame? God first of all made all the limbs healthy. So what has been the cause of someone’s suffering harm? In the same way the soul was made “in the image” not only in the first man but in every human being. For “Let us make man in our image and according to our likeness” reaches to all human beings.

1b And just as in Adam there is something older, namely what most people understand as the “according to the image” that was later taken on by him, when through sin he put on “the image of the man of dust,” so in everyone the “according to the image of God” is older than the worse image. “Being sinners, we put on the image of the man of dust; let us put on,” by repenting, “the image of the heavenly man.” Still, creation came about in the image of the heavenly one. So here the word is perplexed and speaks to sinners in rebuke: “How have you turned into bitterness, you foreign vine? For I planted you a fruit-bearing vine, wholly true.” This was said in the passages before these, and I will repeat it briefly to persuade you that God planted the soul of man as a good vine, but each person, having turned, has become opposed to the purpose of the one who made him. “But I planted you a fruit-bearing vine, wholly” – not partly – “true.” It is not that one part is true and another false, but “I planted you a fruit-bearing vine, wholly true. How have you turned?” That is: I made you a wholly true vine; how have you turned into bitterness and become a foreign vine?

2a After this, let us look at the words: “If you wash with soda and multiply herb for yourself, you are stained in your iniquities before me, says the Lord.” Did someone think that a soul which had sinned, by taking soda and washing with ordinary, physical soda, would be rid of the stain and rid of sin? Did someone suppose that by taking this herb that springs up from the earth, and washing and scrubbing with it, the soul would be cleansed? For here the word speaks to the vine that had turned to bitterness and become foreign: “If you wash with soda and multiply herb for yourself, you are stained in your iniquities before me, says the Lord.” But we must know that the word has every power. Just as it has the power of all Scripture, so the word has the power of every medicine, and it is the power of everything that cleanses, and it scrubs most thoroughly. “For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword.” Whatever you may say is needed, that is in the power of the word. So there is a certain word that is soda, and a certain word that is herb, which cleanses such filth when it is spoken. But not every sin is healed by such a word, whether the one that is soda or the one that is herb. There are sins that need neither soda nor herb. So to the soul that thinks its sins can be got rid of with soda and herb it is said: “If you wash with soda and multiply herb for yourself, you are stained before me in your iniquities, says the Lord.”

2b Consider wounds. Some are healed by a salve, others by oil, others need a bandage and are healed that way. But there are other wounds about which it is said: “There is no salve to apply, nor oil, nor bandages; but your land is desolate, your cities burned with fire.” So it is with sins. Some sins make the soul filthy, and for these sins a person needs a word that is soda, a word that is herb. But there are other sins that are not healed this way, for they are not even compared to dirt. Because the Lord knows the differences between sins, see how he speaks in Isaiah: “The Lord will wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and will cleanse the blood from their midst by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning.” Filth and blood: the filth by a spirit of judgment, the blood by a spirit of burning. If you have sinned, but not “to death,” you have been made filthy. “So the Lord will wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and will cleanse the blood from their midst.” Then there is the matching response: for “the filth,” a “spirit of judgment,” and for “the blood,” a “spirit of burning.” And many of us, having sinned worse sins, need neither soda nor the multiplying of herb, but the spirit of burning.

3 This is why Jesus baptizes “in the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Perhaps I have only now found the explanation.) He does not baptize the same person “in the Holy Spirit and fire.” Rather, he baptizes the holy person “in the Holy Spirit.” But the person who, after believing and after being counted worthy of the Holy Spirit, has sinned again, he washes in “fire.” So the one baptized by Jesus “in the Holy Spirit and fire” is not the same person in both cases. Blessed, then, is the one baptized in the Holy Spirit who has no need of the baptism of fire. But three times wretched is the one who needs to be baptized with fire. Still, Jesus has both. For “a rod will come out of the root of Jesse, and a flower will rise from the root.” The “rod” is for those who are being punished, the “flower” for the righteous. In the same way “God is a consuming fire,” and “God is light”: a consuming fire for sinners, light for the righteous and holy. And “blessed is the one who has a share in the first resurrection,” the one who has kept the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Who, then, is the one saved in another resurrection? It is the one who needs the baptism of fire. When he comes to that fire, the fire tests him. If it finds wood, hay, [and stubble], it burns them up. So, since these things are being said, let us gather up as best we can the words of the Scriptures, store them in our heart, and try to live by them. Perhaps we may be able to become clean before our departure. Having made our works ready for the departure, we may go out with those good works, be received, and be saved in Christ Jesus. To him belong glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.

Homily 3

1 At the beginning of the passage that was read, the Lord says about Israel that he had not been a “desert” to them, nor “a land left unploughed.” Now who, coming to this place, would not stop to look into it and examine what the writing means? Granted: God has not become a desert in Israel, and he has not become an unploughed land in Israel. But has the Lord then become a desert to Israel today? Or is he now an unploughed land to them? And what of this: when he was not a desert or an unploughed land to Israel, was he a desert and an unploughed land to the nations? For if he is never a desert to anyone, and is never an unploughed land to anyone, what need was there for it to be said specially and particularly to Israel: “Have I been a desert to the house of Israel, or a land left unploughed?” But we can go first to God’s general benefits, and then, after his general benefits, to his particular ones.

2 To no one is God a desert. He makes his sun rise on the evil and [the good]. To no one is he an unploughed land. He sends rain on [the righteous] and the unrighteous. How is he a desert, when he brings up the day and makes the night for rest? How is he a desert, when he makes the earth bear fruit? How is he a desert, when he orders each person’s life according to the soul, so that he may be rational, so that he may take up knowledge, so that his understanding may be exercised, and, as to the body, so that he may have “the senses” in good health? So, as regards the general account, God is a desert to no one. But as regards the particular account, I come to the affairs of Israel, and I say: he was neither a desert nor an unploughed land when he did the signs and wonders for the people in Egypt. And if there was ever a time when they were abandoned, it was as though he were a desert to them. He became that, though he himself was not a desert. Yet when he was not a desert or an unploughed land to Israel, then, according to the particular account, he was a desert and an unploughed land to the nations. But when he turned away from Israel and became a desert and an unploughed land to that Israel, then grace was poured out on the nations. And now Christ Jesus has become to us not a desert but fullness, not an unploughed land but one that bears fruit. For “many are the children of the desert, more than of the woman who has the husband.” And he threatens those to whom he has not become a desert or an unploughed land, saying: I have not been to you a “desert” or “an unploughed land,” but you have said: “We will not be ruled; we will not come to you any more.” Did the sons of Israel say, in a desperate frame of mind, as the words suggest: “We will not be ruled”?

Homily 4

1a The wording of the passage that was read has something obscure in it. Let us first work out what it means. After that, if God allows, we will learn his hidden purpose in it. He wants us to know, then, that, as it is written in the books of Kingdoms, in the days of Rehoboam the people were divided into two kingdoms. Ten tribes came under Jeroboam, and two tribes under Rehoboam. Those under Jeroboam were called Israel, and those under Rehoboam were called Judah. As far as the history goes, this division of the people has lasted until now. We know of no history in which Israel and Judah were brought together again as one. Israel sinned first, and sinned more: the Israel under Jeroboam and his successors. They sinned so much more than Judah that Providence condemned them to be taken captive to the Assyrians, and, as the Scripture says, “until today.” After this the sons of Judah also sinned, and they were condemned to captivity in Babylon. That was not “until today,” as with Israel, but for “seventy years.” Jeremiah prophesied about those years, and Daniel also recalled them. If we understand these things as applying to the people of that time, see whether the prophet’s words do not show something like this. He accuses Israel of its sins, in a manner of speaking. He says that although Israel had committed so many sins, the assembly of Judah heard of their failures, and how I made them go into captivity, [and was not instructed, but added to its sins.]

1b So because of this addition of sins, when Judah’s sins were compared with those of Israel, righteousness was found in Israel rather than in Judah. Then, after this, the prophet is commanded to prophesy, as though Judah were worse than Israel, so that after their sins Judah might turn back. After the prophecy to Israel, which commanded it to turn back, the prophet prophesies that Israel and Judah will one day come together, and that there will someday be one kingdom of both. Let anyone who cares about the readings take the words of today’s whole reading, and then he will see that these meanings are made plain. “And the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah the king: Have you seen what the dwelling of Israel did to me?” Notice: not Judah, but Israel first. “It went up on every high mountain and under every leafy tree, and played the prostitute there. And after it had done all this, I said: Turn back to me. And it did not turn back. And she saw its faithlessness”, that is, the assembly of Israel, “the faithless Judah. And I saw”, those from Judah, “that in all the things in which the dwelling of Israel committed adultery, I also sent her away and gave her a certificate of divorce.” Judah ought to have been instructed by this. For I sent Israel away, the assembly of Israel; I cast them out to the Assyrians, “and I gave her a certificate of divorce into her hands.” “And faithless Judah was not afraid.”

1c After all that I did to Israel, sending it away and giving it a certificate of divorce, the assembly of Judah ought to have been instructed by what those others suffered. But they not only were not instructed; they added to their sins. So the sins of the assembly of Israel, compared with the sins of the assembly of Judah, seem to be righteousness. “And I gave her a certificate of divorce into her hands. And faithless Judah, her sister, was not afraid, and she went and played the prostitute, she too. And her prostitution came to nothing, and she committed adultery with the wood and the stone. And in all this faithless Judah did not turn back to me with her whole heart, but in falsehood.” She was not ashamed before me because of what I had done to Israel, so that she might turn back completely. She ought to have turned back in truth, but she turned back in falsehood. “And in all this faithless Judah did not turn back to me with her whole heart, but in falsehood. And the Lord said to me: Israel has justified her soul compared with faithless Judah.” The sins of Israel, compared with the failures of Judah, became a justification of the soul of the assembly of Israel.

2a “Go, then, and read these words toward the north.” If the saying is understood, let us see what it means to show by this. The calling of the nations began from the fall of Israel. When the apostles preached in the synagogues of the Jews, they said, “The word of salvation was sent out to you. Since you judge yourselves unworthy, see, we turn to the [nations].” The apostle also, knowing what he knows about these people, says, “By their transgression salvation has come to the nations, to make them jealous.” So the many sins of that people caused them to be abandoned. They also brought us to the hope of the [promise], we who were [strangers to] the covenants and aliens from the [commonwealth]. For how could I, a foreigner, wherever I came from, to the so-called holy land, now be discussing the promises of God? How could I believe in the God of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and by God’s grace receive Jesus Christ, [announced] by the prophets? If you understand these two peoples, the one from Israel and the one from the nations, then consider with me the exile of Israel, and understand that it was written about that people of Israel: “I sent her away and gave her a certificate of divorce.” For God sent that people away and gave them a certificate of divorce.

2b This is like the case of married people. The law of Moses says that if a wife was displeasing to her husband, a “certificate of divorce” was drawn up by the husband and the wife was sent away. The man who had sent away his first wife because she seemed to have behaved shamefully was then permitted to marry another woman. In the same way, see those people receiving a certificate of divorce. And because they received the certificate of divorce, they were completely abandoned. For where are prophets among them any longer? Where are signs among them any longer? Where is the appearing of God? Where is the worship, the temple, the sacrifices? They were thrown out of their own place. So he gave Israel “a certificate of divorce.” Then we are Judah. (We are called Judah because of the Savior who rose from Judah, for it is plain that our Lord has risen from Judah.) We turned to the Lord. Yet our latter end, [if] it is not already so, seems about to become like theirs, if not indeed worse.

3 That our own affairs will be like this at the close of this age is clear from what the Savior said in the gospel. There he says, “Because lawlessness is multiplied, the love of the many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” And he says, “[The deceiver] will do signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.” Our situation will be such that the Savior says of his own coming, as though a faithful person would hardly be found among so many churches, “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he indeed find faith on the earth?” And truly, if we judge matters by the truth and not by crowds, and judge them by the choice of the heart and not by seeing many gathered together, we will see that we are not faithful now. But they were faithful then, when the noble martyrdoms were taking place. We would escort the martyrs from the burial grounds and come to the assemblies, and the whole church came without being distressed. The catechumens were taught at the martyrdoms and at the deaths of those who confessed the truth “to death,” “not frightened” or shaken before “the living God.” We know that in those days people also saw extraordinary signs and wonders. Then the faithful were few, but they were truly faithful, walking the narrow and hard road that leads “to life.” But now we have become many. Yet it is impossible for many to be elect, for Jesus who said it does not lie: “Many are called, but few are chosen.” Out of the multitude of those who [profess] reverence for God, very few reach God’s election and blessedness.

4a So when he says, “First I sent Israel away because of their sins, and I sent them off into exile, but Judah heard what happened to Israel and did not turn back,” he is speaking about our sins. The things that happened to Israel are read aloud, and the failures of that people, and we ought to be afraid. “If he did not spare the natural branches, how much less will he spare you?” If the kind and loving God did not spare those who boasted of being the “good olive tree,” those rooted in “the root” of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but cut them off, how much less will he spare us! For God is not kind without also being severe, nor severe without also being kind. If he were only kind and not severe, we would despise “his kindness” all the more. If he were severe and not kind, we might perhaps despair over our sins. As it is, he is God, and so he is both kind and severe. We human beings need his kindness when we repent, but we need his severity when we stay in our sins. So he speaks to us through the prophets and says, “Have you seen what the dwelling of Israel did to me?” Understand by Israel that people of old. “She went up on every high mountain and under every shady tree.”

4b Suppose you see the Pharisee going up into the temple in his arrogance. He does not beat his breast and does not grieve over his own evils. Instead he says, “I thank you that I am not like the rest of men, robbers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give a tenth of all I have.” You will see that he has gone up “on every high mountain” in a blameworthy way. He loved loftiness of mind, and in his boasting and pride he loved every high hill. And he has come to be “under every tree” that is not fruitful but “shady like a grove.” A grove tree is one thing, and a fruit tree is another. When people plant trees for groves, they do not plant the ones that bear fruit, not a fig tree or a vine, but only trees without fruit, for the sake of enjoyment. You will find the teachings of those who hold other doctrines to be like that: the beauty of their persuasive arguments does not turn their hearers back to God. So when someone gives himself over to such teachings, he has gone “under every grove-like tree.” The text did not say “every tree” and then stop. Nor did it add “every fruit-bearing tree.” It said, “under every shady, grove-like tree.” For this reason you will understand why the lawgiver says, “You shall not plant any tree beside the altar of the Lord your God, and you shall not make a grove.” You see, even the very name of the grove has been forbidden.

5a “And she committed fornication there. And after she had committed all this fornication, I said: Return to me. But she did not return, and unfaithful Judah saw her unfaithfulness.” We too are rebuked, I mean we who sin and do not keep God’s covenants. We do not see that those people lost the covenant, though they were well born, descended from Abraham, and had received the promise. We ought therefore to reckon that they fell away from the blessings and the promises, and that being descended from the fathers did them no good. How much more shall we be abandoned if we sin! The Savior says to them, “If you were children of Abraham, you would be doing the works of Abraham.” And John says again, “Do not begin to say among yourselves, We have Abraham as our father; for I tell you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.” By stones he hints at us, who have a heart of stone and are hardened against the truth. And truly God has raised up children to Abraham from the stones, if we remain in that childbearing and keep the spirit of [the adoption?]. So “her unfaithfulness” is that of the dwelling of Israel, and “unfaithful Judah” is the one who did not keep the covenants with God. And Judah saw, concerning everything for which that people was abandoned (for we, who are Judah, see all this if we read the Scripture), that for the things in which the dwelling of Israel committed adultery, God sent her away and gave her a certificate of divorce. This was so that we might be instructed by what he did to them. He judged them according to their sins, abandoned them, and handed them over to captivity, to slaughter, and to their enemies. From these things we ought to turn back, and each of us ought to reckon that if God did not spare the natural branches, how much more will he not spare us. If he thus cast out those who came from the fathers when they became sinners, what shall we suffer, we who were called from the nations? We have reckoned none of this, though we were called so that that people might be provoked to jealousy when they see the slave honored and see the low-born one come forward.

5b But if they suffered so much, how much more shall we be abandoned if we sin? “For the things in which the dwelling of Israel committed adultery, I sent her away and gave her a certificate of divorce into her hands. And unfaithful Judah was not afraid.” God means what he has done to the dwelling of Israel, that “I sent her away and gave her a certificate of divorce.” Judah “was not afraid” because of what had happened to them. Consider someone who enters the house of a master and has only recently been bought. He asks which of the earlier servants the master honored and why, and which of the servants he dishonored and why. When he has understood this, if he wants to stay in the master’s house, he takes care not to fall into what the earlier servants did, who sinned, were thrown out, and were handed over to punishment. Then, having learned what the earlier servants did who won approval, and for what kind of conduct they obtained freedom, he strives to imitate them. So it is with us. We were not servants of God but of idols and demons, Gentiles, and only yesterday and the day before we came to God. Let us read the Scripture. Let us see who was justified and who was condemned. Let us imitate those who were justified. Let us take care not to fall into the things that those who were taken captive fell into, those who were cast out from God.

6 “And unfaithful Judah was not afraid, but went and played the harlot, even she herself.” Israel had played the harlot first; afterward Judah played the harlot too. “And her harlotry came to nothing, and she committed adultery with the wood and the stone.” When we sin, we do nothing other than become stone-hearted and commit adultery with “the stone.” When we sin and play the harlot “under every shady tree,” we too commit adultery with the wood. “And unfaithful Judah did not turn to me with her whole heart, but in falsehood.” If we have turned to God, but only in part, we are charged with not having turned “with the whole heart.” So “unfaithful Judah did not turn to me with her whole heart.” He did not say, “Unfaithful Judah turned, and stood firm.” He said, “Unfaithful Judah did not turn to me with her whole heart, but” turned “in falsehood.” What, then, is true turning? It is to read the ancient writings, to know those who were justified, and to imitate them. It is to read those writings and see those who were blamed, and to guard ourselves against falling under the same blame. It is to read the books of the new covenant, the words of the apostles, and after reading, to write all these things on the heart and to live by them. Then no bill of divorce will be given to us as well, but we shall be able to come to the holy inheritance. And when the fullness of the Gentiles has been saved, Israel will then be able to enter. For if the fullness of the Gentiles comes in, then all Israel will be saved, “and there will be one flock, one shepherd,” teaching us to glorify the almighty God in Christ Jesus himself, to whom be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.