Objective And Subjective Series

How wrong can the experts be? Let's look at history and see. Daryl F. Zanuck, who was head of

20th Century Fox, back in 1946 said, "TV won't be able to hold on to any market after the first 6

months-people will soon tire at staring at a plywood box every night." Marshall Foch of France said

in 1911, "Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value." James Hoffa, president of the

teamsters said in 1975, "I don't need bodyguards." Hitler at the peak of his power said the third

Reich will last one thousand years. He was only off by 988 years. General George Custer said there

are only about 300 Indians down there by the Little Big Horn. He was off by two thousand eight

hundred. Captain Edward Smith of the Titanic said, "This ship will never sink." He was close, for

he only missed it by one, for it only sank once.

We get a kick out of just how wrong experts can be in there judgments, for it makes us feel

superior. If we knew just how often they are wrong we would probably rid the world of the feelings

of inferiority. The poet writes,

The world is full of experts, but with every breaking story

The experts seem a whole lot like Professor Irwin Corey.

Because they are authorities, they stand out from the throng,

The only problem being that they are so often wrong.

It is almost impossible not to be wrong, for not only can nobody know that needs to be known, but it

is possible to be wrong even when you are right. It is possible to be subjectively right, and yet

objectively wrong.

This is the paradox we find in the words and spirit of John the Baptist. He is famous for his

sentence about his relationship to the Messiah where he expresses profound humility. He says in

Mark 1:7, "After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not

worthy to stoop down and untie." John is saying, I am not worthy to be this mans slave, and do for

him the task of the lowliest servant.

Since John was the forerunner of the Messiah, he was the only man alive on earth who knew the

Messiah was about to make His move. He was the worlds authority on the Messiah. Yet he made

this statement which was truly how he felt, and thus, a right statement, but one which was

nevertheless wrong according to the objective facts of the Biblical records. Jesus came to John and

said not only are you worthy to untie my sandals, I want you to be the one who baptizes me. John

did not want to do it, for he sincerely felt unworthy, but Jesus insisted, for Jesus considered him the

most worthy man, not just of his day, but of all of history. Jesus said John was the greatest man ever

born of woman.

So what we have here is the greatest man ever born, and the leading authority of his day on the

Messiah, saying something that he sincerely felt, and thus, it was a virtue, but it was objectively

false. He was worthy to untie his Masters sandals, and a whole lot more than that. He was the man

Jesus chose to baptize Him. Now this distinction between the subjective and the objective is no

minor matter. It is important for our understanding of what otherwise would be a direct and plain

contradiction in the New Testament. Last week we saw how the last two verses of the Old

Testament prophesied that Elijah would come, and that was the hope of Israel. We also saw how

John the Baptist fulfilled that prophecy, and thus, the New Testament begins where the Old

Testament left off.

But we now need to see that John the Baptist did not know that he was Elijah. In John 1:21 we

read o how the priests came to John and asked him who he was. The verse reads, "They asked him,

then who are you? Are you Elijah? He said I am not." If you take John's word as your final authority

you would conclude that he was not Elijah. But if you take the words of Jesus as your final

authority you would conclude that he was. Listen to the discussion about this issue in Matt.

17:10-13. "The disciples asked Him, 'Why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must

come first?' Jesus replied, to be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. But I tell you, Elijah

has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In

the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands. Then the disciples understood that He