The Eikon Podcast

Author and Theologian, Tim Gombis, joins the Eikon Living team to discuss the Parable of the Sower. When Jesus first taught the Parable of the Sower, he made clear that not only was it pivotal to understanding his ministry, but also that many who would hear would misunderstand it and not put it into practice. Gombis walks through this foundational parable, showing how it provides a textual map for the rest of Mark, how we can miss important elements of it just as Jesus' disciples did, and how we can rightly understand and rightly respond to the challenge of it today.

Tim Gombis is the host of the "Faith Improvised" podcast and author of several books including, "Power in Weakness," The Drama of Ephesians," and "The Story of God Bible Commentary: Mark."

Looking at Mark 3:20-35, the Eikon team discusses important things to watch for when reading biblical texts. They demonstrate how Mark ties his text together to show that both Jesus' family and the teachers of the law were making dangerous miscalculations about the way of the Messiah. They finish up considering whether we can commit unforgivable sins today.

Jesus constantly seemed to take aim at the Sabbath practices of his day. Before we begin to ask what that means for us and whether or not we should be observing a Sabbath today, the Eikon Living team analyzes what Sabbath was, what it was intended for, and how it was approached by many of the Jewish believers of Jesus’ day. The reality is, they conclude, that Sabbath was a much bigger and deeper concept than we tend to understand today, a reality that has major implications for how we might think about and approach Sabbath today. They then discuss why the early Christians were so opposed to a physical observation of Sabbath and whether contemporary Christians should observe Sabbath, and if so, what it might look like.

One of the primary themes in Mark’s Gospel and one of his main challenges to the church revolves around our view of insiders and outsiders. Jesus constantly challenged those preconceptions about people that were typically excluded and marginalized. Rather than building fences to keep them out, he embraced those very people. But he didn’t stop there. Throughout his gospel Mark highlights that Jesus also challenged the insider status of those that were the most confident about their standing before God. His seeming intention was to critique the church of the generation after Christ and cause them to examine their own views about insiders and outsiders. 

Nowhere is that clearer in Mark’s Gospel than in today’s study of Mark 2:13-17. The Eikon Living Team discusses why Jesus was always hanging around the wrong people, what that meant in his day, and why that should challenge us to think about our own spiritual communities and how we treat others. They discuss the implications of Mark Baker’s book, Centered Set Church when it comes to being a bounded, centered, or fuzzy group.

Do we fully understand the implications of the Gospel accounts surrounding Jesus’ confrontations with the demonic? The Eikon Living Team suggests that there is much more behind those encounters than we might first suppose. They also discuss why Jesus was perceived as having so much authority in his teaching, what we can learn about Jesus’ ministry from the evil use of power by Vladimir Putin, who and what are the divine council, and whether we should expect to perform exorcisms today. But first, Jason explains the context of Psalm 46:10 and why we often find comfort in that passage when the intended response was likely something very different.

Today’s study of Mark 1:12-20 includes discussions on why Mark seems so truncated in his accounts, what Jesus meant when he pronounced the coming of the kingdom, the importance of which direction the kingdom was moving, what is discipleship according to Mark, and whether we have completely misunderstood the meaning behind the phrase “fishers of men”? The team also responds to lessons that can be gleaned from the story of a church that nullified thousands of baptisms because of one incorrect word.

When examining a passage Like Mark 1:1-11, it is important to be aware of what we think we already know. If we don’t analyze our own assumptions, we will bring them into the text with us which causes us to decontextualize the biblical passage without being aware this is what we’re doing. The Eikon Living team begins our contextual study of Mark in the first chapter and talks about the meaning of terms like “gospel,” “repentance,” and “baptism,” as well as discussing the primary theme of Mark. Also this week, they discuss the reliability of viral social media content about spiritual matters such as a recent viral post regarding the divine name of YHWH and human breath.

Our study of the book of Mark begins with an often-neglected passage in Mark 12. Jason and Michael explain why we are starting Mark with a strange passage about Sadducees, widows, resurrection, and Scripture. Is it possible to know the Scriptures forward and backwards and still miss the heart of God and who Jesus is? The warning from Mark is not only did the Sadducees do this, but so can we. Michael and Jason also discuss how Jesus tells us in this passage how to approach Scripture and how that will help us as we study through Mark or any other section of the Bible.

It's a new year. Time for a new name and a new direction! Join Gianna, Michael, and Jason as they set the stage for a new method of digging into scripture. 

We will be taking an unexpected but hopefully brief hiatus. This short update explains why and when we will be back with season 4.