At the above remark about the people he observed: "Master, if they knew how deeply you loved them." "They ought to know it." "But they cannot know it from the way in which you speak to them." "The way in which I speak to them ?" said Jesus, and stroked the disciple's soft hair.

"That is just My John all over.

He cannot understand that you do not stroke buffaloes with peacocks' feathers.
I'm too hard on these hypocrites, these obdurate, indifferent men, am I?
When I disappoint those who would extract daily profit from Me in the form of miracles, when I lay bare the carefully-concealed thoughts of their hearts, then I am hard.

And when I shatter their childish love of the world, their craving for vanities, then I am hard.

And when they strut about with their condemnations and their hard-heartedness, trampling the weak underfoot out of greed and malice, haughty as the heathens who bring human sacrifices to their gods, I would fain chastise them with a lash of scorpions.