Do you remember the first time you left home?  And I don’t mean to go for a sleepover at a friend’s house or to summer camp?  No, I’m talking about the first time you left your parent’s home with the expectation of not coming back to live there. Do you recall that day?  My guess is that for most of us, the answer is a resounding yes.  Those are BIG moments in our lives and, as such, we tend to hold on to the memories.

            Personally, I’ll never forget that day.  I’d finished culinary school, had a job at a fine dining restaurant in Charlotte that paid me enough to afford the rent at a small house over by the hospital in Dilworth with some roommates.  Heck, I’d even bought a bed, a real-honest-to-goodness queen-sized bed, an upgrade from the twin I’d slept in at my parent’s house since I was 10. 

            But what I remember most is the feeling that a grand adventure was just about to commence.  That the future was out there and it was mine for the taking. It was an exhilarating feeling, one tinged with both excitement and fear.  The same feeling, I might point out tends to happen just about any time we stand on the edge of making real changes to the routine.  It’s the kind of feeling we encounter when we start a new job, when we propose (or are proposed to) by our future spouses.  We feel that same energy when we hold our children for the first time.  We don’t know quite how it’ll turn out, but we’re energized by the possibilities. 

            And I can’t help but wonder if, in his humanity, that’s the feeling Jesus experienced as he walked away from Nazareth. 

            Now look, one of the things that you’ll have to get used to when encountering the gospel of Mark is that the author is something akin to Detective Joe Friday if any of y’all remember him.  A fictional character on a TV show called Dragnet, his classic line was “just the facts, ma’am.”  No time for superfluous information, Mark’s author gets right to the nitty gritty.  It’s the reason why in the Gospel of Mark, we cover the same amount of time as it takes either Matthew or Luke to the 3rd or 4th chapter to get to. 

            In fact, our reading this morning represents our initial introduction to the Gospel’s main character.  The preceding verses are about John the Baptist proclaiming Jesus’ coming.  And then, immediately following, we get this morning’s reading. 

            What’s interesting to note is that prior to John’s announcement of Jesus, 30 years have elapsed in Jesus’ life.  Mark, along with Matthew, don’t mention anything about those years.  Luke gives us a few brief snippets but not much to go on.  What happened in those years, we wonder and, since he’s the Lord and our personal savior, it’s an understandable question.

            But, like I said, Mark cuts right to the chase.

            That expression, by the way, comes to us from the early era of Hollywood.  You see, back then, almost all of the movies were comedies.  And, being addicted to formulas as Hollywood has always been, each one of those comedies concluding with a hilarious chase scene.  When a writer would bog one of these movies down with dialogue or other unnecessary stuff, can’t you just hear the producer chastising them, concluding with “cut to the chase?”

            Well, that’s what Mark does.  It isn’t that those 30 years of Jesus life weren’t interesting, to be sure.  But seeing as how the point of all the Gospels is to make Jesus saving work known, that’s where all the Gospels choose to put their emphasis on.