In the TV show Dragnet, Det. Joe Friday was famous for his line, "Just the facts, ma'am". "Just the facts" may be an appropriate subtitle for the Gospel of Mark. Mark is the shortest of the four Gospels, yet contains most of the information that is also contained within the other gospels; in fact, there are only 31 verses of Mark that are not quoted in one of the other gospels. Mark's purpose is to present the gospel in a way that easy for people to understand who Jesus is.
While Matthew takes some time to build up steam in presenting the message of Jesus, Mark wastes no time; he dives in, skipping the Christmas story and going straight to the beginning of Jesus' ministry, with a side-trip to the ministry of John. It is not that the Christmas story was unimportant to Mark; he simply wanted to state who Jesus is (the Son of God) and move directly into Jesus' ministry.
I wonder if, at times, in our life of faith, we find ourselves bogged down with all the little details? There is something to be said for simplicity and straightforwardness. I wonder if there are times when we need to be reminded of "just the facts" about Christ and our faith? Here a few facts to help us out: Jesus is the Son of God, he preached the nearness of the Kingdom of God and what that Kingdom looked like, he healed, he preached, he forgave sins, he loved--most of all, he loved, Jesus is God's self-revelation to humanity. Those are "just the facts" about our Lord and this faith we have and share with one another.
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