The Gospel of Mark Unfolded: A Pastor and Therapist explore the life of Yeshua

In this episode, David and Sophie close out nearly 40 weeks of Mark together. They reflect on what surprised them, what stuck, and where the journey goes from here. David returns to the compassion of Yeshua as the thread that gripped him most, while Sophie traces the arc from her first encounter with Mark as a brand-new believer in college to the fresh view of Yeshua she found again through close...

In this episode, David and Sophie take on the Longer Ending of Mark (16:9-20), the passage that most scholars agree was added later by a different hand. They explore why it doesn't sound like Mark: no "immediately," no spare prose, new language like "the Lord Jesus" that never appears in the rest of the gospel. Sophie argues that the addition serves to institutionalize what...

In this episode, David and Sophie reach Mark's original ending, covering the burial and the empty tomb in Mark 15:42-16:8. They begin with Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the very council that condemned Jesus, who takes courage to ask Pilate for the body. Sophie reads him as a person of integrity inside a rotten system. They trace the women's unbroken witness chain from the cros...

In this episode, David and Sophie enter the crucifixion and death of Jesus in Mark 15:21-41, material they both recognize as the heart of the Good Friday story. They trace the ironies Mark builds into the scene: Simon of Cyrene, a stranger compelled to carry the cross, literally does what the disciples were called to do and fled from. They sit with Mark's characteristic restraint, noting that...

In this episode, David and Sophie follow Jesus from the Sanhedrin's judgment seat to the Roman governor's courtyard, tracing how the charge against him shifts from blasphemy to sedition as the religious leaders hand him over to Pilate. They explore Pilate's surprising recognition that envy, not justice, is driving the chief priests, connecting this back to Jesus's earlier teaching...

In this episode, David and Sophie pick up the story as Jesus is seized in the garden and the disciples scatter. They discuss the irony of Jesus being treated “as a robber,” the misrepresentation of his words about the temple, and the layered scriptural references in his declaration before the high priest: “I am… and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power.” Together, they unp...

In this episode, David and Sophie continue their slow walk through Mark’s Passion narrative, beginning with Jesus’ sobering words: “You will all fall away, for it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered.” Together, they explore the tension between the disciples’ bold declarations of loyalty and the quiet unraveling that follows in Gethsemane. They reflect on what it...

In this episode, David and Sophie explore the section of Mark where Judas decides to betray Jesus and the final Passover meal is prepared and shared. They reflect on how Mark places this moment directly after the woman’s extravagant anointing, highlighting a contrast between wholehearted devotion and growing disillusionment. As Jesus names betrayal and impending failure at the table, David and Sop...

In this episode, David and Sophie turn to the haunting scene of Jesus’ anointing in Mark 14, set between plots of violence and betrayal. Together, they explore how an unnamed woman offers the most faithful, perceptive response to Jesus in the entire Passion narrative while the male authorities conspire, the disciples scold, and Judas prepares to betray. They reflect on why Mark exalts her act yet...

In this episode, David and Sophie turn their attention to one of the most challenging and often misunderstood passages in the Gospel of Mark: Jesus’ teaching as he leaves the temple in Mark 13. Together they explore why Jesus says these things now , how this passage is rooted in the imagery of Daniel 7, and what it means to read apocalyptic language not as a timetable for the end of the world, but...

In this episode, David and Sophie slow down in the temple with Jesus at a pivotal moment near the end of Mark’s Gospel. After fielding questions from every major religious group, Jesus turns the tables and asks one of his own: How can the Messiah be David’s son if David himself calls him “Lord”? From there, Jesus offers a sharp critique of the scribes - those who cloak themselves in piety while ex...

In this episode, David and Sophie sit with Jesus in the Temple during two revealing encounters that uncover the heart of God’s kingdom. First, Jesus is challenged by the Sadducees about resurrection, exposing how systems of marriage, inheritance, and power treated women as property — and how resurrection points instead toward a restored humanity “like the angels,” rooted in dignity, mutuality, and...

In this episode, David and Sophie continue their slow unfolding of the Gospel of Mark by entering the heart of Jesus’ confrontation with the religious authorities in Jerusalem. As Jesus is challenged about his authority in the temple, the conversation explores what authority actually is—moving beyond titles and institutions into the deeper biblical meaning of exousia, authority that flows “out of...

This week David and Sophie discuss Mark’s fig-tree and Temple “sandwich,” diving into how the withered fig tree illuminates Jesus’ prophetic action in the Temple and reveals a deeper question about spiritual fruitfulness. They unpack Jesus’ surprising shift into teaching about prayer, wrestling with what it means to “believe you have received” and why this passage often feels challenging or confus...

In this episode, David and Sophie explore the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, beginning with Blind Bartimaeus, whose restored sight becomes the final preparation for Jesus’ royal entrance. They discuss how Bartimaeus “sees” Jesus’ true identity before receiving physical vision and how this moment sets the stage for the crowd’s own, though partial, recognition of Jesus as king. David and Sophie exa...

In this episode, David and Sophie discuss the section of Mark where Jesus makes his final turn toward Jerusalem. After predicting his suffering and death, James and John’s make a request to sit at Jesus’ right and left hand. In so doing, they expose the shadow side of leadership and being chosen. David and Sophie unpack the Greek words for “lord it over” and “authority” to reveal how Jesus subvert...

In this episode, David and Sophie talk about the encounter between Jesus and the rich man who asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” They explore how this story connects to Jesus’ teaching about receiving the kingdom like a child and how it reveals that the kingdom of God is deeply relational - not about following a set of do's and don'ts but about loving God, loving neighbor, and...

In this episode, David and Sophie explore the tightly linked passages in Mark 10 where Jesus is tested by the Pharisees about divorce and then immediately welcomes children into his arms. They reflect on how Jesus refuses to be trapped in a legal debate and instead redirects the conversation toward the condition of the heart. Jesus takes us back to Genesis 2 and the original vision of mutual partn...

In this episode, David and Sophie explore Jesus’ mysterious words about salt and fire. What does it mean to be “salted with fire”? Together they trace how Jesus’ imagery of salt, yeast, and fire all point to the same inner reality — the places in us that can rot from within and the grace that makes us whole again. The “rot” he names isn’t moral failure so much as the slow decay of trust: the way e...

In this episode, David and Sophie explore the disciples’ growing rivalry as they argue among themselves about which of them is the greatest. Jesus responds not with rebuke but with redefinition and shows that true greatness comes through humility and service. He places a child among them as his living example, inviting his followers to take on the openness, vulnerability, and curiosity of a child....

In this episode David and Sophie journey down the mountain of Transfiguration and join Jesus and the disciples as they encounter a desperate father whose son is tormented by a spirit. We explore the clash between the scribes and the disciples, the father’s haunting plea “I believe, help my unbelief,” and the dramatic healing that follows. We unpack the symbolic meaning of fire and water and explor...

In this episode, David and Sophie linger on the mountain of Transfiguration, where Peter, James, and John glimpse Jesus unveiled in radiant glory. They reflect on what it must have been like to see him shining brighter than anything on earth, standing alongside Moses and Elijah, and how this vision confirmed yet also confused the disciples about his true identity. The conversation explores Peter’s...

In this episode, David and Sophie reach the pivotal moment in the Gospel of Mark. Jesus asks the central question, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter answers, “Messiah,” but he does not yet understand what that title truly means. When Jesus begins to speak openly about his path of suffering, rejection, and death, the tension between Peter’s expectations for Messiah and Jesus’ unveiling of himself c...

David and Sophie have decided to take the rest of the summer off from the Book of Mark study. We'll regroup in the Fall and pick up where we left off with the powerful question Jesus asks in the next section: Who do you say that I am? During the break, we invite you to keep engaging with the Book of Mark. Take time to review, reread, and reflect on what we've covered so far, and let it sin...

In this episode, David and Sophie unpack the feeding of the 4,000 in Mark’s Gospel and how it echoes and complicates the earlier feeding of the 5,000. Why do the disciples still not get it? Why are they stuck thinking literally when Jesus is inviting them to think symbolically? We explore what the numbers might mean (5 loaves, 7 baskets), the layers of meaning that never fully exhaust themselves,...