Second Sunday after Easter – Year A
April 12, 2026
Gospel Lectionary Text
John 20:19-31
20:19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you."
20:20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
20:21 Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you."
20:22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.
20:23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."
20:24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.
20:25 So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe."
20:26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you."
20:27 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe."
20:28 Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!"
20:29 Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."
20:30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.
20:31 But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
Context
Welcome to the second week of Easter, where we are given a privileged look inside Creation. According to the Jewish calendar, Jesus died on Friday, the 6th day of the week. He rested (entered death) on Saturday, which is the Sabbath, the 7th day of the week. He was raised on Sunday.
Here we have a choice. We can call Sunday the 8th day of Creation, or the 1st day of New Creation. Both work.
John’s version of the New Creation is beautiful. Jesus comes to the disciples while they are locked in a room, imprisoned by their own fear, shame, and the collapse of everything they believed in. The text makes it clear these are dead men walking.
Jesus enters what they experience as a tomb, but to Jesus is the Holy of Holies. Here, we witness how Creation happens.
Movement 1: Divine Break-in
Jesus enters the locked room. The risen Christ is not bound by what binds us. Jesus freely enters our prison. It is a divine break-in.
Movement 2: Preemptive Peace
Jesus' first word is “peace.” No wrath. No judgment. No condemnation. Jesus preemptively declares that all is well… before the disciples have a chance to repent. Forgiveness precedes repentance. Always.
Movement 3: In-spire
Just as God breathed into humanity the breath of life in Genesis, Jesus breathes into the disciples his very own Spirit. We are witnessing the birth of new humanity.
Movement 4: Co-mission
Jesus sends the disciples: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Jesus missions the disciples into being, empowering them to do what he did: participate in the ongoing act of creation.
Movement 5: Opening Up Creation
The key to unlocking creation is forgiveness. This is the whole purpose of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection: that we might know we are forgiven long before we even know we’ve sinned. We are given a choice: we can participate in creation by extending forgiveness, or block creation by withholding forgiveness.
Movement 6: Forgiving Victim
Thomas is invited to touch the wounds of Jesus. The risen Christ will forever be “The Lamb who was slain.” The wounds are the point of connection between God and humanity — the redemptive memory of a nightmare — freeing both victim and victimizer.
Movement 7: Final Blessing
Through Thomas’ act, all are blessed. Our blessing lies in daring to enter our own wounds and the wounds of others, discovering that God occupies our wounds creatively, without wounding. This is how we come to believe in the resurrection of Christ.
Question
What if forgiveness doesn’t come after repentance — but is the very thing that makes repentance possible — how would that change the way you see God… and yourself?
Reflections
From Back to Front
By Kris Rocke |
The Christian story begins at the end, at the resurrection. It is by the light of the resurrection that we begin to see what’s really happening. Until then, we are shrouded in what T.S. Eliot calls “hints and guesses.” It’s only when we see through the eyes of the risen Christ that we begin to...
The First Word
By Lina Thompson |
To be clear, this love isn’t just another law… It’s not another demand for perfection. Quite the opposite. It involves a healthy dose of failure and forgiveness from everyone involved. They are also key elements in our journey to becoming a force in creating true human community.
From Back to Front
By Kris Rocke |
The Christian story begins at the end, at the resurrection. It is by the light of the resurrection that we begin to see what's really happening. Until then, we are shrouded in what T.S. Eliot calls "hints and guesses." It's only when we see through the eyes of the risen Christ that we begin to...
Creation Through Forgiveness
By Kris Rocke |
When we think of creation as an event that happened a long time ago in a garden far, far away, we can easily forget that creation is the ongoing activity of God, here and now, made visible through the resurrection.
Praying Eucharistically - Weekly Homily by James Alison:
Understanding the Bible anew through the Mimetic Theory of René Girard.
Poetry
In the lectionary text this week, we see Jesus granting the disciples a new vision of Creation—one which begins with him simply entering the room, and speaking “peace.” Rumi invites us to dwell in this moment, when a door first opens and the pronouncement of peace, the invitation to “be,” lingers.
What’s difficult about lingering in this moment? Do you find yourself wanting to hurry up and see what comes next? How might you become more at peace with this “infinite moment”?
excerpt from The Creation Word
by Rumi
Grace comes with the creation word, Be
The gate opens without hesitating.
Between the push of buh
and the smooth launch of ee,
there is an infinite moment
when everything happens.
Prayer
Jesus, just as you entered the locked room that entombed the disciples in fear, we ask you to enter the locked rooms of our lives, and breathe into us the breath of life. Give us easter eyes to see and celebrate good news in hard places. We want to participate in the ongoing act of creation through the giving and receiving of forgiveness.
We pray this in the name of the Father who is for us, the Son who is with us, and the Spirit who unites us all in the never-ending dance of Love.
Amen.