How Doubt Grows Faith (John 20:19–31)

What if we didn’t avoid uncertainty but welcomed it as a gift? Explore this week’s Gospel reading and consider what it means for us today.

Each week, we post a passage from Sunday’s Scriptures; share links to resources that give context and inspire new ideas; and offer a few questions to get you thinking about what we’ll read together in church.

The Gospel for April 12, 2026

John 20:19–31

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.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 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.”

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.” 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.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 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.”

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 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.

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Commentary

Perhaps the disciple Thomas isn’t looking for a cerebral understanding — a mere confirmation of his conviction — but a visceral experience. “Thomas reaches his hand into the side of Jesus’s body because he needs to know in his own body that this God is real,” writes priest Mary Barnett. “And this is exactly the sort of fierce hope we all need this year, not just intellectually but in our bones and muscles, so that we have the energy to get up and get on with doing the work of proclaiming the gospel . . . in a bleak time.”

Theology

Thomas’s doubt is unfairly characterized as a weakness, says the Rev. Yein Kim. Rather than something to avoid, uncertainty is a gift that enriches our spiritual lives. “Doubt is not at odds with faith; it’s part of it! . . . doubt is the very place God meets us.”

Poetry

In “The Place Where We Are Right,” poet Yehuda Amichai describes certainty as a lifeless state, a spot where nothing grows

Reflection Questions

Take a Moment to Wonder

• Where in your body do you feel uncertainty? What about hope?
• Remember a time when doubt led you to something true.
• What if we didn’t avoid doubt but welcomed it as a gift?