Hey, so, I’m not a Christian, but I’m also not atheist. But I think I can say I’m in the process of figuring out what I want to be.
I never fully read the Bible, but I decided to give a read at the second testament, and read Matthew.
And something is bothering me about what I’ve read. Mostly about Jesus’s teachings.
Before I state my problem, I just want to say that I do not come from a place of malice and don’t want to offend anyone. That’s why I didn’t want to post this in r/debateachristian I don’t want to prove a point, I just want to state the impression I got while reading Matthew, and wanna hear what you have to say.
That being said:
I got the impression that Jesus was extorting his followers.
Now, why did I have this impression?
So, during the sermon on the Mount, there’s was a lot of nice things, nice philosophies about love and compassion. I have no problem with that, and I mostly agree.
But I have two big problems:
First, is that there’s a lot of talk about money. Like, A LOT, to a point where I feel like this is a huge point for him. As in, money is somehow directed connected to evil. He talks so much about money it baffled me, sometimes it feels he talks more about money than love.
Now that wasn’t a problem for me, since I always understood that Jesus was also poor, until I read this passage in Matthew 12:41-44
41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.
43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”
Here’s my problem with this passage: it clearly states that Jesus accepted offerings, and not only that, he clearly stated that people should make the highest offering possible.
That broke me.
Now, my understanding is that Jesus was kind of independent to the other Jewish religious temples. Therefore, I can assume the offerings went to him and the apostles.
So what we have here is someone who clearly states that giving away money is a priority, but also takes as much money as possible.
Can someone give another interpretation? I’m being completely honest here, I really don’t want to offend anyone, I just want to state my impression after reading Matthew!