Day 1 — Do you want to be made whole?
Series Pre-read
If you have not already done so, read “The Seven: From Vice to Virtue”, the introduction to this series here: https://standrews.net.au/2026/08/21/the-seven-from-vice-to-virtue/
It explains the purpose and shape of our nine-week journey.
But this reading is also self-contained, so you can begin here if you do not have the introduction.
Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus, as I read your Word, help me to hear both your gracious invitation and your life-giving command. Show me where I need your restoring grace, and teach me by your Spirit to walk in the new life you give. Amen.
Headline
Jesus sees us in our brokenness, offers the wholeness we cannot achieve, and enables us to walk in the new life he gives.
John 5:1-9a
5 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
Comment
What kind of person am I becoming?
That question lies behind our new series, The Seven: From Vice to Virtue. Over the coming weeks we will examine seven settled patterns of desire and behaviour that bend us away from loving God and our neighbours. We will also consider the corresponding virtues – the Spirit-formed habits through which we increasingly learn to love well.
But we do not begin with a list of faults or a program for improving ourselves. We begin with an encounter with Jesus.
At the pool of Bethesda lies a great crowd of people carrying profound physical suffering and repeatedly disappointed hope. Among them is one unnamed man who has lived with his condition for thirty-eight years. Before he notices Jesus, Jesus notices him. Before he asks for anything, Jesus sees him, knows his long history and draws near.
We must not turn this man’s disability into a symbol of a particular sin. Nor should we assume that illness or disability is evidence of someone’s personal moral failure. In John 9:1-3, Jesus explicitly rejects that assumption. This healing is a sign: it reveals who Jesus is and points towards the restoration he brings.
Jesus asks the man, “Do you want to get well?” (v.6). Older translations express the wording: “Do you want to be made whole?” The immediate question concerns physical healing, but it also resonates with the greater work of Jesus throughout John’s Gospel. He has come so that his people may have life “to the full” (John 10:10). He forgives, restores and leads us towards the fully human life for which God created us.
The man does not answer Jesus directly. He explains why the pool has failed him: no one helps him into the water, and somebody always arrives before him (v.7). After thirty-eight years, he can imagine only a slightly better opportunity within the same disappointing system. He does not yet realise that the person speaking to him can give a life he has never imagined.
We can also become accustomed to patterns that diminish us and damage others. Pride, resentment, envy, self-protection or the desire for control may become well-worn tracks in our character. Eventually they can feel inevitable: “This is simply who I am.” We may want relief from their consequences while resisting the deeper change Jesus offers.
Yet the centre of this story is not the strength of the man’s faith or determination. It is the initiative and authority of Jesus. Jesus says, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” (v.8) His life-giving word makes possible what it commands. The man walks because Jesus has made him able to walk.
His physical healing is immediate; our growth in Christlike character is ordinarily gradual. The healing is not a timetable for sanctification, but a sign of its source. We cannot make ourselves whole by greater willpower. Jesus gives forgiveness and new life, and by his Spirit he makes genuine change possible.
Walking does not earn the man’s healing; it is his response to the gift he has received. That pattern will guide this entire series. We do not practise virtue to earn God’s acceptance. In Christ we are received by grace, and then grace teaches and enables us to walk differently.
Why does God want me to hear this today? Perhaps because I need to know that Jesus sees me more clearly than I see myself and does not turn away. He invites me to bring him the habits I excuse, hide or regard as unchangeable. His question is both searching and hopeful: “Do you want to be made whole?” I do not begin this journey by promising to repair myself, but by receiving his grace and trusting his power to enable my next step.
Reflect
- What do you notice about Jesus’ initiative, compassion and authority in this encounter?
- Where are you tempted to believe, “This is simply who I am; I will never change”?
- Do you want Jesus merely to relieve the consequences of a harmful pattern, or to make you increasingly whole?
Action
Ask Jesus to show you one well-worn pattern in your desires, thoughts or responses from which you need his restoring grace. Write it down without excusing it or trying to solve it today.
Then pray: “Lord Jesus, you see me completely and do not turn away. I cannot make myself whole. By your grace, show me how to take the next step with you.”
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, thank you that you see me, know me and draw near with grace. Forgive me for the desires and habits that bend me away from loving God and others. Keep me from despairing of change or trusting in my own strength. Give me the wholeness I cannot achieve for myself, and by your Holy Spirit enable me to get up and walk in the new life you give. Amen.
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