Peter F. Ellis makes a good case that Jeremiah’s life was more like that of Jesus than anyone else in the history of Israel. Jesus taught in parables, was rejected by his people, wept for his people. So did Jeremiah. He was scourged, imprisoned, put on trial for his life. So was Jeremiah. Each prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, and in each case the prophecy was fulfilled: in 587 BC by the Babylonians and in 70 AD by the Romans.
In fact, Jews of Christ’s time wondered if he were not Jeremiah come back from the dead (Matt 16:13-14):
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.”
“Without Jeremiah,” Ellis says (Collegeville Commentary, 455), “the mystical side of human nature and the unfathomable capacity of the human heart for unselfish suffering might have lain hidden until the coming of Jesus. … His life more than his teaching was a ferment and a fire that permeated the bones of Israel after the Exile and prepared the way for him who came to cast a similar fire on earth and to see it kindled in the lives of innumerable saints.”
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Great connection! I haven’t heard this before. Makes me want to go back and read about Jeremiah again!