When Truth Makes Enemies
Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Jer 11:18-20 · Ps 7 · Jn 7:40-53
Most people like honesty.
Until honesty touches something uncomfortable.
Then the mood changes.
Something like this happened to Jeremiah.
A Jewish prophet from a small town called Anathoth, not far from Jerusalem.
Welcomed at first.
Until he was not.
One day God showed him something shocking.
The men of his own town were plotting against him.
Not enemies from far away.
Neighbors.
People he grew up with.
They wanted him gone.
Why?
Because he exposed what others wanted to keep hidden.
Jeremiah compares himself to a gentle lamb led to the slaughter.
An innocent life caught in a trap.
But he does not fight back.
He turns to God —
the only judge who sees the heart.
The psalm today echoes the same cry.
“Lord, save me from those who pursue me.”
The innocent person has only one refuge:
God.
The judge who cannot be bribed.
Then the Gospel shows the same pattern again.
This time the target is Jesus.
People argue about him.
Some say:
“He must be the prophet.”
Others say:
“He cannot be.
He is from Galilee.”
Arguments. Confusion. Suspicion.
And behind it all a growing decision:
He must be stopped.
The strange thing is this.
Jesus has healed people.
He has lifted the broken.
He has spoken about God as a loving Father.
But truth still makes enemies.
Just like in the time of Jeremiah.
The Bible uses a powerful image.
The lamb.
Gentle. Innocent. Defenseless.
Jeremiah feels like a lamb.
And one day Jesus will be called
“the Lamb of God.”
The innocent one who carries the sins of the world.
In the short term it often looks like the wicked win.
The innocent suffer.
The powerful decide.
Justice disappears.
But the Bible always tells a longer story.
There is a judge above every courtroom.
A judge who sees everything.
A judge who knows the heart.
That is why Jeremiah prayed.
That is why the psalmist cried out.
And that is why Jesus trusted the Father.
Because in the end
truth does not disappear.
And innocence is not forgotten.
The world may reject the righteous for a time.
But the last word does not belong to the crowd.
It belongs to God.
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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