Back to the Beginning

Remember the scene in everybody’s favorite movie, The Princess Bride, when the Brute Squad is emptying the Thieves Forest by order of Prince Humperdinck and a very stubborn, inebriated Spaniard refuses to leave?

Inigo Montoya (played by Mandy Patinkin) has lost his way. His one friend (Fezzik, played by Andre the Giant) has disappeared, and his quest to kidnap Princess Buttercup has fizzled.

Not knowing how to get back on track, he follows original instructions from his Sicilian boss, who, unbeknownst to Inigo, has already been bested by Sweet Wesley in a battle of wits: “Vizzini said if somezing goes wrong, go back to the beginning … so here I am, back at the beginning!”

That scene flashed through my mind this morning as I was reading the biblical account of Jesus and His boys during the days after his crucifixion and resurrection.

The disciples had fled like field mice in a snake pit during Jesus’ trial and crucifixion, but eventually regrouped in time to witness the appearance of their risen Lord in the upper room (John 20:26). After Jesus proved to the last of them (Thomas) that He was indeed the living, breathing Messiah, He vanished.

I imagine this left the disciples in an uber tizzy. “What do we do now?” they must have cried. “How do we find Him again?”

But the two Mary’s and Salome, the faithful ladies who’d encountered first the empty tomb and then it’s newly evacuated occupant, related Jesus’ instructions from that glorious Easter morning. “Tell His disciples and Peter, ‘He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, just as He said to you'” (Mark 16: 7, NASB).

Notice: Jesus said He’d already told them. Hmm. I guess they forgot.

And being men, I suspect the disciples never would have asked for directions anyway so it’s a decidedly good thing that Jesus opted to clue the women in.

(By the way, why do you suppose Jesus singled Peter out in that directive; he was one of the disciples too, right? “Tell His disciples and Peter …”)

So back to Galilee they went, back to their beginning … to the very place Jesus had called them to himself three years earlier. The place they first met the One who changed everything. The place they began to know and love Jesus. The place where joy and excitement and wonder knocked their dusty sandals off.

Sure enough, Jesus met them there. Being in His presence fired them up enough to change their world.

The beginning’s not only a good place to start, it’s a GREAT place to return to when we’ve gotten lost and off-track. When our friends and goals have disappeared; when our vision for the future is gone.

If we return to the joy and excitement and wonder of the time and place Jesus first called us to Himself, His presence will surely fire us up enough to change our world too.

Happy Resurrection Day, my dear BBFFs!