The Gift of God’s Spirit (John 20:19–23)

What if God doesn’t need anything from you? 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 May 24, 2026

John 20:19–23

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.”

Read all of Sunday’s Scriptures

Step Into the Story

3 Ways to Go Deeper

Commentary

“[T]he very same breath that God breathes to bring forth life in the Genesis beginning,” preaches the Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas, canon theologian at Washington National Cathedral, “is the breath that Jesus breathes on the disciples so to empower and sustain them as they go out to do the work of the peace that is God’s.”

Theology

Trinity’s Summerlee Staten, executive director for Faith Formation and Education, says that the gift of the Holy Spirit unites us not in a singular, flattened identity but through a divine, shared fluency that bridges our “prismatically beautiful” diversity.

Poetry

In “The Hidden Singer,” poet Wendell Berry writes of “a spirit that needs nothing” and “has made all things by dividing itself” — and “in our joining it knows itself.”

Reflection Questions

Take a Moment to Wonder

• What work of peace is the Spirit is empowering you to do today?
• Describe the type of unity that doesn’t require assimilation.
• What if God doesn’t need anything from you?