GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 11:27
A Good Beginning
There was a report about an automobile accident. The picture showed two badly damaged cars. The reporter stated that no one in the automobiles was injured. I wondered where the passengers in the cars were headed. I constructed an imaginary scenario. Perhaps the passengers in one car were on their way to the store to pick up some milk and eggs—a normal activity. Perhaps the passengers in the other car were on their way to watch their daughter play in a basketball game where her team was competing for the season title. Whatever the case, the passengers in the automobiles had a good beginning.
An often-repeated cliché is “Well begun is half done.” The Greek philosopher Plato supposedly said, “The beginning is the most important part of the work.” This beginning is certainly important. Henry David Thoreau said, “Nothing is so fatiguing as the work that is never begun.”
In 1932, shipbuilders laid the keel for the SS Normandie in a French shipyard. The process began well, and the building went according to schedule. On October 29, 1932, as the ship slid down the skids, it rolled and sank. The shipbuilding began well. Beginnings are important.
Following Jesus’ grand entry into Jerusalem, his driving the merchants out of the temple the next day, his cursing the fig tree the day following, and his lesson for his disciples about prayer, Mark wrote, “And they came again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders came to him.” (Mark 11:27)
Mark’s story has a good beginning. Early in the day, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to Jesus. It was a good beginning, like the beginning of the day for the automobile accident victims or the beginning of construction for the shipbuilders. Their beginning was good. An old proverb emphasizes the importance of a good beginning: “A good beginning makes a good ending.” Well, at least the proverb emphasizes the importance of “a good beginning.”
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