Clarity over Creativity: Mark 1:1

When I read the gospels, I am fascinated at how each gospel writer opens their narrative:

Matthew begins tracing Jesus’ ancestors all the way up from Abraham.

Luke begins by sharing how he has researched and organized Jesus’ life through interviewing eyewitnesses and those who were directly connected to Jesus.

John begins with a look at Jesus’ divinity and it echo’s Genesis’ creation account.

But Mark simply makes an opening statement before transitioning to introducing John the Baptist, who baptized Jesus at the start of His ministry.

While it is not all that glamorous or interesting to read, Mark opens his gospel by saying, “This is the beginning of the Good News about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” (v. 1)

Whether the reader believes that Jesus Christ was God’s Son or not, Mark shares that this is his conclusion after what he has learned, seen, and experienced. Mark opens his gospel by stating the topic in a simple and direct way before diving right into the narrative – and this is important for us to pay attention to.

From how Mark opens his gospel, we are reminded that sometimes it is best to simply come right to the point we are trying to make. In today’s culture, there is the belief that we must be creative, different, or stretch the lines in some way in order to be noticed. Instead, Mark says to keep it simple, straight-forward, and clear.

If we were to draw a motto from how Mark introduces us to Jesus, we could say something like: “Clarity beats creativity”, “Communicating clearly is better than communicating cleverly”, or “If you can only pick one thing, pick clarity”.

Mark reminds us that clarity, especially with topics that people can get very opinionated about, is much better than trying to overly be creative. If there is a way that creativity can help a presentation be clearer, then that is great, but when deciding whether to make a presentation, letter, or message clear or clever, choose to make it clear first.