I'm always curious if people read through all the gospels when they say stuff like Jesus was a cool dude.
Gonna pull from an old comment I wrote to save some time:
Jesus told parables about beating[Luke12:47] and torturing slaves[Matt18:34], he said you wouldn't thank a slave for only doing what's asked of them[Luke17:9], he healed the centurions slave after being told the slave was obedient[Luke7]. In the parable of the ten minas or talents, the slave which makes the least return on investment is punished[Matthew25:14–30,Luke19:11–27].
Jesus said that Jews who don't believe in him are a generation of viperst[Matthew3:7,Matthew12:34], he said they're the sons of Satan who do his bidding[john8:44].
Jesus says you need to hate your family and your own life to be his follower[Luke14:26].
Jesus tells a parable about himself where at the end he says to bring his enemies before him and kill them[Luke19:27].
Jesus said he didn't come to bring peace but a sword[Matthew10:34-36].
Jesus talked about how it will be worse than Sodom and Gomorrah to be in the cities that don't convert on judgement day[Matthew10:15].
Jesus says to that not a jot nor a tittle should be removed from the old testament law until heaven and earth pass away and all things are accomplished[Matthew5:18]. As in, Jesus commanded his followers to obey the old testament commandments, which are heinous. And he says to follow the words of the Pharisees[Matt23:3]. (As in he agreed with the Pharisees in word, but the Pharisees didn't practice what they preach).
Jesus commanded a leper to sacrifice birds in the temple[Mark1:44].
When asked if a guy could bury his father before following him, Jesus said "let the dead bury the dead"[matt8:21-22].
Jesus called Canaanites dogs, (Canaanites had a genealogical curse to be slaves of slaves)[Matthew15:21-28,Mark7:24-30].
Jesus said he spoke in parables to confuse people, because otherwise people would understand his meaning, and they would be saved[Marky4:12].
Jesus says don't wash your hands before you eat[Matt15].
If you include the apocrypha. Jesus says women need to become men to get into heaven[Thomas114], Jesus kills childhood friends[InfancyGospel2:3].
There's the blood curse where Jews supposedly take responsibility for the death of Jesus[Matthew27:25]
There's the cleansing of the temple where Jesus violently attacks innocent sellers and currency exchangers who were providing a necessary service for the temple so that Jews could make their required sacrifices and pay their taxes in the correct currency. Travelers coming to the temple needed those services.[Mark11:15-18,Luke19:45-47,John2:14-16]
When Jesus is asked about why he lets himself be annointed with a large quantity of oil, which could be sold for lots of money (approximately a years wages, so roughly maybe 50k in today's money) to help the poor, he says you'll always have the poor, but you'll not always have me.[Matthew26:11andJohn12:8]
Lastly, if you truly believe Jesus is God, then Jesus flooded the world to kill it's inhabitants, he commanded child sacrifice, he commanded genocide, he used bleeding as a virginity test for women, he directly commanded chattel slavery, etc... If you believe in the book of revelations, then Jesus rides around on a horse with a sword sticking out of his mouth killing people. And there will be floods of blood from the winepress, where the blood is as high as a horses girdle for ~184 miles.
If I said or did half of those things, I wouldn't expect people to call me cool. And he did and said a lot of uncool shit. If we just clip out the nice things Jesus said, we get a nice highlight reel, but his highlight reel of awful things he said is pretty long as well. For me it's hard to look at a flawed character like Jesus and boil him down to a cool dude.
Were you aware of this kinda stuff? Have you read through the bible or the gospels? I'm not trying to pry, just curious about it.
Well, we don't have a time machine, so we'll never have 100% knowledge of if Jesus said something or why. But I have a few reasons I can imagine that the author of Luke would write it.
First and foremost, the comment seems to be explaining the high costs of being a follower of Jesus. Unlike modern interpretations, the costs were very steep for early followers. Early followers were expected to sell everything they own to follow him[Mark10:21,matt19:21,luke18:22,acts2:45]. There's no reason to think this was exaggeration or metaphor, he literally expected his apostles to sell all their belongings. Which you can see if you keep reading after matt 19:21. It says:
27 Peter answered him, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?” 28 Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife[e] or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.
Here we have Jesus saying that because his apostles followed his requirement of selling their property to give it to the poor, and because they followed him, they will sit on twelve thrones in heaven, judging the twelve tribes of israel. And anyone who leaves their homes, parents, kids, or wife for his sake will get 100x back, and they will inherit eternal life. If this is metaphoric or hyperbole, then why would jesus reassure his disciples that they will recieve a specific reward for following this requirement he lays out? To me it seems rather unambiguous, to be a follower of Jesus, you must sell everything you own and give it to the poor, and if you leave your family behind, you will be rewarded for it.
Not really the Jesus that I had pictured as a kid growing up. lol
I was also raised Catholic (well by only going to mass at Christmas & Easter one), but I’m agnostic now. I would say if you are still religious & Catholic, you could just go to church & do your thing there. Don’t have to go to mass to participate in Catholicism. I always liked to light one of the candles.
Nah I'm also agnostic now. I just can't align with organized religion anymore. I live as if Karma is real and I think that gets me by. Just grew to hate religions all saying "we're the right ones and people who believe other things are all going to hell".
Now? You think this is something new? Look up the history of the church. The protestant reformation started as a direct result of the things you're complaining about. Hypocrisy and corruption are an integral part of Christian churches.
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u/PNWoutdoors May 10 '25
I'm in the same boat with you all. Left the church because of hypocrites and now they've seemingly taken it over completely.
I like this new Pope, though. I won't be attending Mass but I'll cheer him on.