There are no angels, no shepherds, no wise men, and no manger in the Gospel of Mark.  Mark 1 starts out this way:  “The beginning of the good news of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God…” (Mark 1:1 NIV). 

The Gospel of Mark is the shortest of all the Gospels, and it does not include the traditional Christmas story.  But it does label Jesus as the Messiah—the promised deliverer, the savior.  Christmas was not something celebrated in the early church.  The early Christians were focused on the coming Messiah.  They realized that they were very much in need of a savior, and they were rightly concerned about this moreso than our traditional Christmas celebrations of today.  Mark points us to Jesus. 

There is nothing wrong in celebrating Christmas, because of what it all means to us today.  We include the angels, the shepherds, the wise men, and the manger.  We set the Nativity Scene, and we celebrate Christmas.  We celebrate Jesus at Christmas because he is the promised Messiah, the one prophesied in the book of Malachi, and also in Isaiah as he who would come to save us from the eternal consequence of our sin.  If you read the accounts in the other three Gospels (Matthew, Luke and John), you will find more of these traditional details.  The most important point of all of the Gospels is Jesus Christ as Savior!

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