The unspiritual man rejects these truths of the Spirit of God; to him they are 'sheer folly,' he cannot understand them. And the reason is, that they must be read with the spiritual eye.
Then Jesus said to them, "You will all be disconcerted over me to-night, for it is written, I will strike at the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.
I am 'still preaching circumcision myself,' am I? Then, brothers, why am I still being persecuted? And so the stumbling-block of the cross has lost its force, forsooth!
but Symeon blessed them, and to his mother Mary he said, "This child is destined for the downfall as well as for the rise of many a one in Israel; destined to be a Sign for man's attack —
If your right eye is a hindrance to you, pluck it out and throw it away: better for you to lose one of your members than to have all your body thrown into Gehenna.
Is this not the joiner, the son of Mary and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not his sisters settled here among us?" So they were repelled by him.