Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Jer. 20:10-13; Psalm 18:2-3a, 3bc-4, 5-6, 7; John 10:31-42
Death stands very close in today’s readings.
Jeremiah hears whispers around him.
People are waiting for his downfall.
“Maybe he will stumble,” they say. “Then we will finish him.”
In the Gospel the tension is even sharper.
People pick up stones.
They are ready to kill Jesus.
Death is not far away.
Yet Jeremiah says something surprising:
“The Lord is with me like a mighty warrior.”
That is his answer.
Not a strategy. Not a plan.
Just trust.
God is with me.
And that is enough.
Why?
Because the Lord who stands with Jeremiah is greater than all his enemies combined— even death itself.
Still, a question remains.
Is trust really enough when death is near?
Yes— if the one we trust is the Lord,
the giver of life and the conqueror of death.
Whether we like it or not, death remains our greatest problem.
We can solve many things.
We can cure diseases.
We can extend life.
But one enemy still waits for everyone.
Saint Paul calls it “the last enemy.”
Death.
The Bible does not pretend this enemy is small.
Jeremiah would eventually die.
Jesus himself would be arrested and crucified.
Trust in God does not remove danger.
Death still stands at the edge of every human life.
But the Christian message goes further.
Jesus faced the last enemy and passed through it.
On Good Friday death seemed to win.
But Easter morning told another story.
The tomb was empty.
Death had reached its limit.
It could go no further.
That is why Jeremiah’s confidence still matters.
He believed that God was greater than those who threatened him.
The Gospel reveals something even greater:
God is stronger than death itself.
So Jeremiah’s simple sentence remains the key:
“The Lord is with me.”
If God truly stands with us, then even the last enemy loses its power.
The last word belongs to life.
Scripture Attribution
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993
the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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