Friday, December 26, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: John 5-7
Key Verse
John 6:39 — “And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.”
Devotional Thought
The day after Christmas often feels like the morning after a great feast—the wrappings cleared away, the house quiet, and a strange stillness settling over everything. Into just such an ordinary day, John’s Gospel brings us to the pool of Bethesda, where a great multitude of impotent folk—blind, halt, withered—lay waiting for the moving of the water. Among them was a man who had been infirm for thirty-eight years. Thirty-eight years of watching others step down before him. When Jesus saw him and asked, “Wilt thou be made whole?” the man could only speak of what he lacked: “Sir, I have no man.” He had no one to put him into the pool. His hope had shrunk to a single, fragile mechanism—and even that kept failing him. But Christ did not need the water, the angel, or the porches. He spoke a word, and immediately the man rose, took up his bed, and walked.
Notice how quickly the wonder of that moment collides with religious objection. It was the sabbath, and the healed man was carrying his bed. The Jews did not marvel that a man lame for nearly four decades now walked; they scolded him for bearing a burden. Later, when Jesus found him in the temple, He added a sobering word: “sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.” Healing is not the end of the story; it is a summons to a whole new life. Across the rest of these chapters, John shows us a crowd that wanted bread more than the Bread of Life, disciples who turned back when the saying grew hard, and brethren who urged Jesus to show Himself openly while not believing in Him themselves.
This is a searching portion for the days after Christmas. We have just celebrated the Word made flesh, the true Bread come down from heaven. Yet how easily we settle for the loaves and fishes—for the gifts rather than the Giver, for the wonder of the season rather than the Christ of the season. Peter’s confession rings out as the true anchor: “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.” The man at Bethesda had no man to help him. We have One who came to us when we could not come to Him, who asks not whether we are worthy but whether we are willing to be made whole.
Reflection
- The impotent man had waited thirty-eight years for a moving of the water, but Christ healed him by a word before he ever entered the pool. Where in your life have you been waiting on a particular method or circumstance, when Jesus is asking simply, “Wilt thou be made whole?”
- After the miracle, the crowd followed Jesus for bread and the healed man went to the temple; Jesus told him, “sin no more.” What would it look like for you to treat the grace you have received this Christmas not as an end, but as a call to walk in newness of life?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, we come to You as the impotent man came—without strength, without a helper, without any claim of our own. You asked him, “Wilt thou be made whole?” and You ask us the same. We confess that we have often sought Your gifts more than Your face, and the bread that perishes more than the Bread of Life. Speak Your word into our weakness this day. Rise us up from the beds of our long waiting, and let us walk in newness of life. Search the Scriptures with us, that we may see You on every page. To whom else shall we go? You alone have the words of eternal life, and we believe and are sure that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Amen.