Tuesday, December 9, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Matthew 24-26
Key Verse
Matthew 25:36 — “Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.”
Devotional Thought
Jesus leaves the temple for the last time, and His disciples pause to admire the buildings—Herod’s magnificent reconstruction, stones so massive that later historians would marvel at them. But Jesus answers their admiration with a prophecy of total demolition: not one stone left upon another. Then, seated on the Mount of Olives with the temple gleaming across the Kidron Valley, Peter, James, John, and Andrew ask Him privately about the timing of these things and the sign of His coming. What follows is the longest recorded sermon of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel—the Olivet Discourse—stretching across two full chapters and reaching its climax in the parable of the sheep and goats.
Notice how much of this discourse is warning against deception. False Christs, false prophets, wars, famines, earthquakes—these are “the beginning of sorrows,” not the end. The disciples wanted a calendar; Jesus gave them a posture: “Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.” He tells three parables in a row to drive this home. Ten virgins, five with oil and five without, all of them drowsy, all of them surprised by the midnight cry. A master who entrusts talents to servants according to their ability—and the one who buries his talent in the earth out of fear is called wicked and slothful. And then the throne of glory, where the King separates sheep from goats, and the criterion is startlingly ordinary: food for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, welcome for the stranger, clothing for the naked, visits to the sick and imprisoned. “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
Then the narrative turns. Jesus tells His disciples plainly that after two days the Passover comes, and He will be betrayed to be crucified. In Bethany, a woman pours an alabaster box of precious ointment on His head, and the disciples grumble about waste—while Judas slips away to bargain for thirty pieces of silver. At the Passover table, Jesus takes bread, blesses it, breaks it, and says, “Take, eat; this is my body.” The King who will judge the nations washes no feet here; He simply gives Himself.
We read this on a December Tuesday, in the season of Advent, when the world around us is busy with shopping and celebration and the year is darkening toward its shortest day. The disciples’ question—”What shall be the sign of thy coming?”—is our question too, and Jesus’ answer is still the same. Not dates and charts, but readiness. The oil in the wise virgins’ lamps was not bought at the last minute. The faithful servant was found doing his work when the master returned. The sheep were feeding the hungry, not calculating the schedule. As we wait for Christmas and for the coming of the Lord, we are not called to predict but to prepare—to endure, to watch, and to love the least of these.
Reflection
- The foolish virgins had lamps but no oil, and the wicked servant hid his talent in the ground. What “oil” or “talent” has God entrusted to you that you have been neglecting while you wait?
- In the parable of the sheep and goats, the righteous did not realize they were serving Jesus when they served the needy. Where might Christ be hidden in the ordinary needs around you this week?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, You told us plainly that heaven and earth shall pass away but Your words shall not pass away, and yet we still live as though we have all the time in the world. Forgive us for the oil we have not stored, the talents we have buried, the hungry we have not fed. Teach us to watch and be ready, not with anxious speculation but with faithful, ordinary love. As we wait for Your coming, whether at Christmas or at the end of the age, find us doing Your will. Keep our lamps burning, and let us enter into the joy of our Lord. Amen.