is begin Mark (Mark 1)

The first thing we notice about Mark is the absence of the genealogies and the Christmas story that began Matthew.   Instead it begins with the preaching of John the Baptist, his baptism of Jesus and the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness.  And, that leads to a problem.

Why doesn’t Mark include the story of Mary and the conception by the Holy Spirit?  Did he not know of it and why not?  Did he not believe it and why not?  Remarkable people have a childhood and we want to know what it was like.  The story of the angel coming to Mary stretches our credulity at the best of times.  When one of the gospel writers leaves it out completely, my reaction is that the omission is the more accurate story.   Matthew wanting to make Jesus even more extraordinary includes a birth story that defies belief.   On top of that Matthew notes that a lot of the Christmas story fulfilled various prophecies making it even more likely that somebody was making it up for that purpose alone.

Does Jesus have to be divinely born?  If God did send Jesus was it necessary for him to be sent as a child who grew up in a human family or could God have just inspired a person (Jesus) to begin a ministry as an adult?

Mark is also missing some details from the temptations in the desert.  Matthew has Satan tempt Jesus three times and includes conversation.  Mark just says that Jesus was tempted and that angels were there to help.  I am not sure why a divine Jesus would need the help of angels but I also don’t understand why a divine Jesus would need to be baptized.

And what is interesting here is that the only witness to the temptation story is Jesus.  He would have to have told the story to somebody for it to be written down.  So, why didn’t Mark include the temptation details that Matthew did.   It just seems that Matthew is trying too hard to make Jesus more than maybe he is.  If we read the beginning of Mark, it sounds like Jesus is more human and less divine than what Matthew has portrayed.   

My question to the believers:  How important is the divinity of Jesus?  Can we accept his teachings without believing that he is in any way divine?  Could he just have been an ordinary guy who was inspired in some way to spread a special message?   And I ask the question seriously because in both gospels we have the scene where the people of Nazareth reject Jesus because he came from this ordinary family.  If anybody should have known about his special birth and history wouldn’t it be the people of his home town?