The Most Unique Ordinary Mere Man - Part I Matthew 11:1-15

On July 20th, 1969, something happened that previous generations thought impossible. Mankind walked on the moon. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the men to do so. When you think about world history, it's remarkable.

When this church started in 1881, they got around by horse and buggy. There was very little of the technology that we enjoy today. It was not until 1886 that the automobile was invented, and it became available to the public in 1908 through the Model T, but only the wealthy had it.

The airplane first ascended into air in 1903 through the Wright brothers. Later on, airplanes were used for the public, and they were used in large number during World War II. But once man realized you could fly in the atmosphere, the next step was to fly into the dark, vast expanse where the moon and stars are.

You go outside at night, you look up, we can go there. The first aircraft that entered outer space was Sputnik. October 4th, 1957, it was 12 years later that the Americans, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, landed on the moon.

And can you imagine being these men? No one in the world had ever done what they had done. What they did was unique, and history forever records this great feat that they accomplished. But as amazing as their experience was, it pales in comparison to the experience of the men and women of Scripture.

Can you imagine what it would have been like for Adam and Eve, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Mary, the 12 disciples? All of these talked with God. They talked with the Creator, mere humans. Now, it is true that we talk to God, but we talk with Him through prayer and we hear Him through the Bible.

But these people were in the very presence of God and heard the voice of God, whether hearing the audible voice of God or being in the presence of the God-man, Jesus Christ. Because when Jesus spoke, He was speaking the very words of God.

It would have been utterly fascinating to have these encounters with God. But while their experience was unique, there was one man who had the most unique experience of all. His calling was to be the bridge between the Old Testament and the New Testament, between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

And his name was John the Baptist. In heaven one day, he will be one of the most fascinating people to talk to. In our text today, as we continue our sermon series through Matthew, we are going to see Jesus interact with John through messengers, and we are going to find John in a perplexed state, which is unusual for him.

So this time, I encourage you to turn in a Bible with me to Matthew chapter 11. This sermon is going to take two Sundays to get through. Today, we are going to look at verses 1 -10. Next week, we will look at verses 11 -15.

And if you are using the Red Bible in the pews, you can follow along with us there as well. The sermon is titled, The Most Unique Mirror Man.

And here is our big idea.

To understand John the Baptist is to better understand the Messiah. To understand John the Baptist is to better understand the Messiah. And we are going to see five reasons why. We will see the first three reasons today.

But before we jump into our text, let me give you a little recap of where we were two weeks ago. Of course, last week was Easter, but two weeks ago we were in Matthew. And we looked at only three verses.

We looked at verses 40 -42 of chapter 10. And in that passage, Jesus talked about faithful servants and the reward they will receive. And the reward that those who believe their message will also receive.

That text called us to understand that we serve a God who loves to reward. And we saw two practices how. The first is by receiving God's messenger and message. By receiving the messenger and the message, you enter the road to glory.

The second practice how is by helping with the needs of your heavenly family. The little ones, as the text says. As we do this, God will reward us. The fact that God rewards us is truly remarkable. So we saw that two Sundays ago.

But this leads us back to our text today. We are going to take it one verse at a time here. I'm going to begin by reading verses 1 -3. Matthew chapter 11. When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples.

He went on from there to teach and preach in their cities. Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ. He sent word by his disciples and said to him. Are you the one who is to come or shall we look for another?

In the previous chapter, we saw Jesus address his disciples about the trouble they would face. As he sent them out, he had to tell them the trouble that was inevitable. As followers of Jesus Christ. The world is opposing you.

You're a Christian. You're going to face opposition. So Jesus' disciples would be sent out to preach. And Jesus himself, of course, preached. And this is what verse 1 tells us. Jesus preached and taught in their cities.

And these would be the cities of Israel. And more specifically, Galilee. Because that's where Jesus and his disciples spent most of their time. During his ministry. And Matthew 10 -23 records that Jesus told his disciples.

That they were to start their preaching and teaching in the towns of Israel. Now the question that arises here is. What would Jesus have taught? What was his central message when he was out teaching? And what was the central message that he was giving his disciples to teach?

He would have taught the very thing he told his disciples to teach. And that is the gospel of the kingdom. In Matthew 10 -7, Jesus told the disciples to preach that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The Jews would have known about a future kingdom.

Where the Messiah would reign over the nation of Israel. But as I have explained in previous sermons. Their understanding of this future kingdom was wrong. Their understanding of this future Messiah was wrong.

Their understanding was worldly. They wanted the Messiah to come and drive out their enemies. And make them a world power. Where they no longer had to be taken advantage of by the Romans. In Matthew 4 -17, Jesus told the Jews this though.

This was the message. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The only people who would enter this future kingdom. Were those who recognized their sin. Turned from their self-righteousness and put their trust in the Lord.

But as Jesus sends out his disciples and he himself teaches to the people of Israel. There is a man who taught this message before Jesus and his disciples. And that is John the Baptist. In Matthew 3 -2, John told the people of Israel to repent.

For the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And he told them in verse 8 of chapter 3. Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. John knew his place. He knew that he was not calling people to believe in him. John knew that he was fulfilling prophecy.

And he knew the role that he was fulfilling. This morning I read Isaiah 40 verse 3. That predicted he would come. A voice cries in the wilderness. Prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway.

For our God.

Isn't it interesting how God sends John to the wilderness to preach? He didn't send him to the city. Isn't that interesting? He's just this strange guy. Preaching in the wilderness. The people are flocking to him.

And could you imagine what this would have been like? Isaiah proclaimed this prophecy 700 years before John came on the scene. And John, he would have grown up just like us. He would have had parents who took care of him.

He had friends that he played with as a child.

Kids are kids, right?

No matter who you are. Whether it's a future president. Or whether it's a future CEO.

Or a king.

Or a queen. Kids are kids. What do kids do?

They play.

John would have been like that. He would have had desires and aspirations for his life like us as he grew older. But as he was growing up, somewhere along the way, God called him. God called him to be his prophet.

And he knew that he needed to do what God called him to do. Could you imagine? He's like, wait, that prophecy is talking about me?

Yeah.

Now do your job. John was a very interesting guy. He would not have been a known commodity. Matthew 3, 1 says that he preached in the wilderness to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah 43. Matthew 3, 4 says that John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist.

And his food, listen to this, was locusts and honey. Wild honey. Anybody have that diet? He would have been an oddball. But when he spoke, people listened. Because he spoke with the power of God. God designed for John the Baptist to be a phenomenon.

And he was. As he preached repentance, masses of Jews flocked to him to repent and be baptized. God's design, as Isaiah 40, verse 3 predicted, is that John would be the forerunner to the Messiah. He would be the bridge.

The one who came before. And what John preached first, Jesus would preach after him. And when you look at John's ministry, it started out great. Countless people flocked to him to be baptized. He's thinking, this is a great job, right?

People are coming. But just like Jesus, John would have enemies. John was not in the business of getting people to like him by giving them a soft message. No, he spoke the truth of God without compromise.

And he didn't back down to anyone. Just like Jesus went after the corrupt Jewish leaders during his ministry, so did John. In Matthew 3, chapter 7, verse 10, this is the conversation that John had with the most powerful Jews in Jerusalem.

Listen to this. When John saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come, bear fruit in keeping with repentance, and do not presume to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father.

For I tell you, God is able from these stones, the stones being Gentiles, from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now, the ax is laid to the root of the tree. Every tree, therefore, that does not bear fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

That was a nice greeting, huh?

Wow.

You talk about boldness? These are people who have power. These are people who can do things to him. If he says the wrong thing, and look what he does, he says, I'm a prophet, I'm here on God's behalf, I'm going to say what I need to say.

And he did. He told them, if you don't repent, you're going to hell. John also did not back down from someone who was even more powerful than the Pharisees. Herod the Tetrarch, also known as Herod Antipas.

Now, we remember Herod the Great from the beginning of this gospel in the Christmas story. Herod the Great was the one who heard about the birth of Jesus. He was threatened, and he wanted him dead. So he ordered the death of all the babies in Bethlehem, ages two and under.

Herod Antipas was one of his sons and ruled the region of Galilee, according to Luke 3 .1. Now, in our text, in verse 2, we learn that John is in prison. Herod Antipas is the reason that John finds himself in this prison cell, as we see in our text.

Matthew chapter 14, verses 1 through 12 tells us how John ended up in prison. Another son of Herod, the Herod dynasty, lots of sons, but another son of Herod the Great, Aristobulus, had a daughter named Herodias.

This daughter married her father's brother, so she married her uncle, Herod Philip, and committed the sin of incest. John the Baptist confronted him. In Matthew 14, verse 4, John told him, It is not lawful for you to have her.

So John held Herod Philip to the standard of the Mosaic law. To commit incest is a grave sin. And he called out one of the most powerful Jews in this region at this time. He says, It's not lawful for you to have her.

I don't care how high up you are in authority. What you're doing is wrong. Now, Herod Antipas, Phil's brother, was upset at John for confronting his brother's sin of incest. So Herod Antipas puts John in prison.

Later, John would be beheaded. But here in our text, this is where we find him. He is in prison. And we find him in a very perplexing state. I've read you some of the things he said. He calls out Herod.

He calls out the Pharisees and Sadducees. We're thinking, this guy, nothing can shake him. And we find him in a shaken state. And it's perplexing for us to read this. What John says here, remember, John's in prison, and he has disciples.

Just like Jesus had disciples, John had disciples. And he sends word through his disciples. And he asks, Are you the one who is to come? Or shall we look for another? And this is remarkable. John knew that Jesus was the Messiah.

In Matthew 3 .12, he said, He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. In Matthew 3, verses 13 -17, John baptized Jesus. And he witnessed the Spirit coming upon him like a dove.

In John 1 .29, John said concerning Jesus, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. John knew that Jesus was the Messiah. He knew that He was the Son of God. He knew that He is the one that people are to believe in for forgiveness of sins.

According to John 1 .29, he knew that He was going to die in the place of sinners. Why else would he call Him the Lamb of God? So as we think about John's doubt, we need to ask the question here. Is this wavering faith?

Or is this confusion about whether Jesus really is the Messiah? Sometimes you hear about people having a crisis of faith. Is it that?

Or is it,.

I'm confused about the Messiah. Are you Him or not? What we will see is the answer is the second. John is confused based on false expectations about who the Messiah was going to be. He predicted in Matthew 3, verses 11 -12 that Jesus would bring judgment as the king.

John thought Jesus would spend most of His time proclaiming judgment in the central place of Jewish corruption,.

Jerusalem.

John thought Jesus would be where all the action is. Jerusalem, that's where everything happens. Why are you up in Galilee? Why are you up in the sticks? But Jesus was spending most of His time in Galilee.

And while He preached some judgment, He spent much of His time doing acts of mercy, healing people. John thought Jesus' ministry was going to be a lot like his. You know, John preached repentance, and that's what he did.

Jesus, yes, He did that, but He did so much more. He was doing all these acts of mercy, healing people, casting out demons. And John also looked at his own ministry as the Messiah's forerunner. He thought that his ministry of pointing people to Jesus would have been longer.

But he found himself in prison not that long after he started his own ministry. And he's there with little hope that he would ever get out. So you can see why he would be thinking the way he is. He also probably thought that Jesus' reception among the Jews would have been warmer than it was.

But largely speaking, he was rejected. Not only by the Jewish leadership, but even by the common Jew. John's view of who the Messiah was going to be and what the time was going to be like was somewhat wrong.

So this is why he sends his disciples to ask this question to Jesus. So to understand John the Baptist is to better understand the Messiah. And the first reason why is that he became perplexed about Christ's ministry.

This is not wavering faith. This is, I don't understand. Are you the Messiah? Or is there someone else who's going to come who's the Messiah? The second reason why to understand John the Baptist is to better understand the Messiah is that his misunderstanding is corrected by Christ.

His misunderstanding is corrected by Christ. So what we're going to see is that Jesus responds to him by making reference to the Old Testament to show him that indeed he is the man. So verses 4 -6, And Jesus answered them, Go and tell John what you hear and see.

The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them, and blessed is the one who is not offended by me.

It's interesting that Jesus tells John's disciples to pass on to John what they hear and see. Because he doesn't just quote the Old Testament here. He also does miracles in their midst. When he says the word see here, he's saying, let me show you I'm the Messiah by doing some supernatural things in front of you.

And so he would have done that to them. But he also takes them to the Old Testament. The things that they heard from him. And according to Isaiah 29 -28, the blind receive their sight. According to Isaiah 35 -6, he made the lame walk.

According to Isaiah 53 -4, lepers are cleansed. According to Isaiah 35 -5, the deaf hear. According to Isaiah 26 -18 -19, the dead are raised. And lastly, according to Isaiah 61 -1, good news is preached to the poor.

And when he mentions the poor here, it's talking about the poor in spirit. And who are the poor in spirit? They are the ones, according to Matthew 5 -3, they are the ones who are sorrowful for their sin.

He preaches the good news to them. These are the ones who receive the message. The ones who know that they need a Savior. He preaches it to the self-righteous, but the self-righteous don't receive it.

It's the ones who are the poor in spirit who receive the message. And that's a good application for us, right? The best place to be, as a person on planet Earth, is to be one who recognizes that you are a wretched sinner.

Before a holy God.

And it almost sounds counterintuitive, right? Because we're told, you're supposed to feel so good about yourself. You're supposed to think you're the greatest. I'm not saying hate yourself, but what I'm saying is recognize that you are a great sinner before God.

You need a Savior. That's the poor in spirit. And that's what the Messiah came to do. And Jesus is saying, I did this. And the Old Testament said I was going to do it. So what Jesus is telling John, as John is in prison, He's like, I'm doing exactly what the Old Testament said I would do.

It's your misunderstanding that's the problem here. You didn't understand it correctly. And Jesus, knowing John, knew that this would be enough information to persuade him, to take away this wavering of doubt that he has about Jesus' identity.

And what we know about John to this point is that he is a man of strong faith. Jesus is addressing his doubt of confusion rather than a faltering faith. And in our next point, Jesus is going to commend John in glowing terms, as we will see.

And when John heard this news from Jesus, he would have been greatly encouraged. He would know with certainty what he already knew. That Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah predicted in the Old Testament, and John indeed was his forerunner.

Now you'll notice in verse 6 that Jesus says, Blessed is the one who is not offended by me. After Jesus told John's disciples that he was fulfilling what the Old Testament said he would fulfill, Jesus wanted to pass along this last message to John.

Remember, John's not doubting his faith here as if he's having a crisis of faith, but it's rather doubting Jesus' identity and this confusion. Jesus' ministry did not exactly match what John thought the Messiah was going to be.

So he questioned. But Jesus is telling John that he needs to readjust his expectation of who the Messiah is and believe with strong faith that Jesus is in fact this Messiah. So in other words, he had strong faith.

It faltered a little bit, but the strong faith is coming back. And Jesus' words are going to be the device here that's going to bring that back. And it's interesting, when we read the Bible, what happens?

Faith.

Our faith is strengthened when we hear the Word of God. And when John hears the words of Jesus here, his faith is going to be strengthened. That's why we need to be in the Bible. We need to hear from God.

We need to hear His promises. And then our faith will be strengthened. If you don't read your Bible, you're going to be tossed all over the place. Your faith is not going to be strong. So may we be in the Word.

And to believe this message from Jesus, John would be blessed. In verse 6, he says, Blessed is the one who is not offended by me. Now the word blessed here is the same word, the same Greek word, that Jesus uses in the Beatitudes in Matthew 5.

And the word blessed, in our English translation, there's two different Greek words. One of them means happy. And one of them means that you are under the favor of God. In the Beatitudes, it says happy.

Happy are the poor in spirit. Happy are the meek. And so on and so forth. Happy are the peacemakers. And so what Jesus is saying here is, happy are you if you are not offended by me. Happy are you if your expectations of who I am are adjusted and you believe what I say.

Joy and peace comes from knowing Jesus as the Messiah. It is this way for John and this way for us. If you believe who Jesus really is, you are full of joy. But if you have a false understanding of who He is,.

You are not.

Or if we forget who He is as we go through our days, a correct understanding of Jesus, a correct understanding of how precious He is, what He's done historically, what He's doing now, what the Bible says He will do in the future, a correct understanding of Jesus, that's the meaning of life.

Jesus is the true source of all lasting joy, peace, comfort, and hope. If you want joy, if you want peace, if you want comfort, if you want hope, one place, Jesus. Nowhere else. It's very straightforward.

In John 15 -11, Jesus said that His joy would be in us. And His joy is full. So Jesus speaks to John and He speaks to us, happy is the one who is not offended by Him, but receives Him for who He is and delights in who He is in full.

To understand John the Baptist is to better understand the Messiah. And the second reason why is that his misunderstanding, John's misunderstanding is corrected by Christ. And the third and final reason today that we are going to see to understand John the Baptist is to better understand the Messiah is this.

The third reason why is this. His ministry as the forerunner is authenticated by Christ. His ministry as the forerunner is authenticated by Christ. Now this conversation that Jesus is having is with John's disciples.

But there are also many other people present listening to this conversation. And this leads Jesus to say what He does in verse 7. The people would have been curious. You know, they knew John. Like, what's going on here?

Okay, verse 7. As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John. What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? We just saw the conversation with John's disciples who sent a message through John asking Jesus if He really was the Christ.

Then what verse 7 tells us is that John's disciples went away and Jesus addressed the crowds. And Jesus' disciples would have been included in this number. And He addresses here any doubts that they may have about John.

And this is important because who is John? John's a very important person. If you doubt John, you might doubt the Messiah. John is the forerunner. He's the only one who's preparing the way for the Messiah with this unique ministry.

And as the crowds are listening to this conversation between Jesus and John's disciples, they were perplexed that John would ask Jesus if He's really the Messiah. I mean, think about that. This is the guy who saw Jesus baptized and the dove descend on Him.

This is the guy who said, I'm not worthy to untie His sandals. This is the one who says in John that He came before me. Meaning He's God. So Jesus has to address this. These Jews present knew about John.

They knew He was a prophet. They knew about Him baptizing people in the Jordan River. But what Jesus does before all these people is stand up for John. He doesn't throw him under the bus. He stands up for him.

And He affirms that indeed John is a man of strong conviction like everyone thought previously. These new doubts about John, just throw them away. Jesus communicates this by saying, what did you go out in the wilderness to see?

A reed shaken by the wind? That doesn't describe John. Now the word reed is not something that we are too familiar with in America. In the Middle East, you would be. A reed is a tall, thin plant that is easily blown by the wind.

It just goes easily. And the people of Israel would have known exactly what He's talking about. This would have been a common plant that was grown right by the Jordan River. And what Jesus is telling the Jewish crowd is that when they heard John preach in the wilderness, He was not like a reed blown by the wind.

He was not a man thrown to and fro by every wind of doctrine. I preached that text yesterday at the men's retreat. Ephesians 4 .14. Do not be thrown to and fro by every wind of doctrine.

No.

John was a man of strong, solid conviction. When John preached, he believed every word he said. It was painful for John to ask Jesus if He really was the Messiah. But for a compromiser, it wouldn't be painful.

A compromiser would move on to the next thing, but not John. John was fully invested in his trust in God, and he was confused about Jesus' ministry. So he painfully asked, Are you the Messiah, or is there one still to come?

To see John's strong conviction, all we need to do is look to his earlier ministry. He called out the Jewish false system of his day when he rebuked them in Matthew 3 .7. If you love the world, if you're a compromiser, if you go wherever the wind is blowing, you're not going to call out the most powerful people in the land.

You're not going to call out Herod. You're not going to call out the Pharisees and Sadducees. You're going to pick your spots. You're going to be calculated. That's why we don't like politicians a lot of times, right?

Like, okay, I can only say this, right? To this group, I can only say this. Why don't we just say whatever we want, right? And then let the chips fall. That's what John did. John is a spokesperson of God that Jesus is proud of.

Let that sink in. We want Jesus to be proud of us, don't we? He was proud of John. John probably never heard this compliment from Jesus, but how wonderful it is. John's disciples probably weren't there in time before he was executed, but this would have been incredibly encouraging for him to hear.

But like I said before, he already heard word, right?

That Jesus is the Messiah.

That's all he needed. Jesus is the Messiah. Okay, I'm good. But how wonderful it would have been to hear this as well, about what Jesus says about him. What could be more wonderful to hear than Jesus is proud of you?

And in one sense, right, He is. We're counted with the righteousness of Christ,.

And we believe.

When God the Father looks at us, He sees the righteousness of Christ. You're saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. But there is this process of sanctification, or this process of growing in holiness that happens throughout our walk with the Lord.

He can be more pleased or less pleased based on how we're doing. And Jesus is very pleased with John. We want to make Jesus proud by being faithful to Him, by standing for Him, by living for Him. In Matthew 10, verses 32 -33, we also heard Jesus say, Everyone who acknowledges Me before men, I also will acknowledge before My Father who is in heaven.

But whoever denies Me before men, I also will deny before My Father who is in heaven. What a horrible place to be for Jesus to be ashamed of us. But what a wonderful place to be if He is proud as we stand with Him always.

That should be the aim of all of us. At the end of the day, the opinion of the world doesn't matter. When John challenged the Jewish elites, they hated him like they hated Jesus. But he was okay with that.

The reason John is in prison at this point is because he spoke out against Herod Philip. And he was thrown into prison. And then later, he would be beheaded because of John's faithfulness. He was beheaded.

Think about that.

If he wasn't faithful, he would have lived a long life. His faithfulness led him to get his head chopped off. And so we understand what a Christian is. We need to understand that this is what you're committing yourself to.

It's fullness of joy. It's life forevermore. But if you're faithful, you might die for Christ. But the wonderful thing is that God approves of you. And He approves of you forever. And you'll live with Him forever.

And Jesus right here is approving of John even though John, his future is not good in an earthly sense.

He's going to die.

But John wouldn't trade it for anything. It is because John is a man of conviction that he finds himself in prison. Cowards don't suffer for the Christian faith. But people of conviction do. He is suffering because he is a man of conviction.

And how much better to suffer for being one of conviction than one who buckles. In recent sermons, I've explained that we've entered a difficult time.

In our nation.

We've entered times where it's not fashionable to be a Bible-believing Christian. And to take a stand will cost you. It will make your life more difficult. It's so much easier to go with the flow of society.

Right?

To be thrown to and fro by everyone who doctored.

People just want to go.

With whatever is fashionable. You look at 30, 40, 50 years ago in our country, right? It was fashionable to be a Christian. And so people went with the flow. Now it's not. So they don't go there. But it's kind of nice because it really weeds out the real ones from the false ones.

And we can live as Christians in these times. And we are to stand on conviction, remembering to do it in love. And as we do this, we are approved by Christ. And this is the only approval that we should seek.

It's the only approval that matters.

In the end.

Then Jesus continues here to affirm John the Baptist by giving another illustration in v. 8. He says this, What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings' houses.

So as we read this, we have no idea what he's saying, right? So we have to dig into this a little bit. What is a man dressed in soft clothing? In order to get on the king's side, under the king's good favor, some scribes threw off the cheap and ratty clothing they usually wore and put on luxurious robes in its place.

They wore this specifically in the king's court so that the king would notice them. Because you couldn't be in the court unless you looked a certain way. And the king liked this because by letting the scribes wear nice clothing in their presence, they were indebted to him and they couldn't say anything bad about him.

Otherwise, they would lose this favor. This is what false teachers do. They are self-indulgent. They value their appearance. They value their status. They want to be liked. They want to be liked by the king so they don't call out the king, but instead try to fit in by wearing nice clothes in his court.

But Jesus is asking the crowd, does this describe John the Baptist?

Of course not.

Not even close. Matthew 3 -4 records that he wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist. Remember, his food was locusts and wild honey. And in our society, people love to be cool, right?