Why I Hate Jesus

Why I Hate Jesus

Hello, everyone.

April 16 was Easter.  I don’t have to go into what that is all about.

A few days ago, I happened on an article during my Facebook browsing, titled “Why I Hate Jesus.”  It was an interesting article.  Here is the URL:  http://www.patheos.com/blogs/rationaldoubt/2016/04/why-i-hate-jesus/

The writer hates Jesus for a variety of reasons.  I hate Jesus for a variety of reasons, but nothing close to the reasons the writer has.

Why do I hater Jesus?  Let me count the ways.

1. His commands to love him more than our loved ones. These are found in Matthew 10:37 and Luke 14:26. The Matthew passage is significant in that Jesus boasts that he had come to bring dissention into families.  As we shall see, family relationships meant nothing to him.

The Luke passage is significant in that the verb “hate” is used.  Evangelicals try to soften the statement by saying that the verb should be “love less” instead of “hate,” but the original Greek does not permit that idea.  Luke uses the Greek verb “miseo” which means “to hate, abhor, despise, abominate, detest.”  The word exists in our English words “misanthrope,” or someone who hates mankind, and “misogyny,” or the hatred of women.  So “Hate” is the appropriate English translation of “miseo.”

3. His renouncement of his own family. This is found in Matthew 12:46-50, Mark 3:31-35, and Luke 8:19-21. Here Jesus is putting his statement in Luke 14:26 into practice.
4. His refusal to address his own mother as “mother.” This appears in John 2:4 and John 19:26. The bond between mother and child is the strongest bond there is in nature.  Even animals have it; it is called “maternal instinct” there.  You can have the sweetest, gentlest bitch dog that exists, but if you try any funny business with her puppies, she will turn on you in an instant.  The bond between child and mother is equally strong.

So why then did Jesus refuse to give his mother Mary the honor she had coming to her?  Essentially he was applying both points 1 and 2 in this instance.  He demanded that we love him more than our own loved ones, plus he did renounce his own family.  Thus it is no surprise that he would refer to his own mother Mary as “woman” instead of “mother.”

There is another possible reason.  Aramaic, which Jesus spoke, was a primitive language when compared to Greek or Latin.  Thus it is possible that the Aramaic word for “woman” also carried the idea of “mother,” but was translated as “woman” by the translators.

6. His outrageous promises. These are found in Matthew 7:7-8, Luke 11:9-10, John 14:14, etc. Back in the 1950s, a perfume company had as its slogan “Promise her anything, but give her Arpege.”  Jesus originated that slogan, because in the verses cited, he promises us the moon – ANYTHING that we want, he promised to give us.  The problem with his stupid nonsense was that instead of the “anything,” he gives us the “Arpege.”  In other words, nothing at all.  I was injured at birth and have been legally blind all my life.  I would guess that I have been prayed for 100 times for the healing of my eyes.  Any healing I have received has been at the hands of capable doctors, NOT any so-called “son of God” named Jesus.  So Jesus’s promises are nothing more than 40 pounds of hot air.
7. His cursing of an innocent fig tree. This yarn is found in Matthew 21:19-21 and Mark 11:13-14. What makes this story fascinating is that Mark states that it wasn’t even fig season yet.  Not even fig season yet??  And Jesus still curses the tree for not having any figs?!?!  I was born and raised in Iowa, so I know about growing seasons.  I knew that the trees and garden plants blossomed in the spring or early summer and that the fruits and vegetables were ready to pick in the late summer or fall.  All of us in Iowa knew that plants had their seasons.  If we mere human beings had this knowledge, shouldn’t the so-called ”son of God” have had this knowledge as well?
8. His belittling of Judas Iscariot. This story is found in John 12:4-8. As the story goes, Jesus is in the house owned by Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.  After the meal, Mary opens a container of costly ointment and pours it on Jesus.  Upon seeing this, Judas makes a comment about the ointment being sold and the money given to the poor.  Jesus immediately berates Judas for thinking this way.

In the narrative, John makes the comment that Judas cared nothing for the poor.  But how did John know this?  Was he able to enter Judas’s mind or heart? People DO live together day after day and never know what is really in the other person’s feelings or thoughts.  That is why divorce can come as a shock to the other partner in a marriage.  John had no absolute knowledge of what Judas thought or felt.

In this story, Jesus expresses condescension towards poor people; “You always have the poor with you.”  Indeed, there is no account in the gospels where Jesus ever visited or fellowshipped with any poor people.  All of the people he had fellowship with were wealthy people who owned property.  This could be the reason for his berating of Judas for his feelings about the poor.

7. His conduct towards the money changers in the temple. This story is found in Mark 11:15-17, Luke 19:45-46, and John 2:13-16. The Passover in Jerusalem was very much like the Muslim Hajj in Mecca – If people could possibly do it, they went.  Thus, there were people – and currencies – from all over there.  It made total sense that people would need to change their foreign currency into Israel’s currency to pay for sacrificial animals and living expenses.  But what provoked Jesus to his acts of violence against the currency exchanges?  We are not told.  We are only told that it happened.  Therefore, unprovoked violence against ANYONE leads me to not be willing to trust such a person.
8. His inability to cure diseases. The four gospels claim that “Jesus” performed many healings. Because the Synoptics essentially repeat each other, giving numbers of his healings would be meaningless.  However, we can give the kinds of healings that he SUPPOSEDLY performed:  healings of lepers, unknown diseases, paralytics, bleeding disorder, the blind, the mute, the deaf, and a withered hand.

With the exception of the unknown diseases, each of these conditions has one thing in common:  They are all EXTERNAL manifestations.  The conditions are easily visible to people.  No real surprise here.

But with the area of diseases, it is a different story.  Since the diseases he supposedly healed are unknown, we will throw them out.  There is NO record of Jesus ever healing – or trying to heal – cancer, heart disease, diabetes, cirrhosis of the liver, tuberculosis, diphtheria, Crohn’s Disease, Minear’s Disease, etc.  Why not?  Such conditions wouldn’t be beyond the power of the so-called “Son of God” to heal would they?  Or were only the external manifestations mentioned in order to make Jesus look like some superhuman creature?  THAT seems to be more plausible.

I recently had an item on my Facebook wall that posed the question, “Why don’t faith healers work in hospitals and medical clinics?”  Intellectually gifted pastors know the answer, but I want to hear answers from Evangelicals, especially Pentecostals.  So far, no one from that persuasion has had the courage to attempt an answer.

10. His cowardice in the face of his crucifixion. This is found in Matthew 26:36-44 and Mark 14:32-41. Jesus SUPPOSEDLY knew the reason that he came into the world.  Yet when the time came for him to fulfill that reason he did his best to chicken out.  Why?  Evangelicals will say that he was speaking out of his humanity.  But he claimed to be the Son of God.  He was supposed to be MORE than a human.  Great military leaders don’t care if their campaigns cost them their lives.  Winning the war is far more important to them.  Shouldn’t the Son Of God feel the same way?
11. The conduct of his followers. In one of his countless TV sermons, Billy Graham once said that when a person “gives his heart to Jesus,” his personality improves tremendously. Really?!?!  I have been unfortunate to know too many Christians that made me think, “If they are THIS awful after giving their hearts to Jesus, THANK GOD I didn’t know them BEFORE they met Jesus!!!”

Some of the behaviors I have received from followers of Jesus include, but are not limited to, these:  being lied to, name-calling, blaming me for my eyes not being healed, threatening to report me to the police for trying to be a friend, snobbery, rudeness, being fired from a Christian school for not believing the right way, etc.

I reached a point where enough was enough.  It is a truism that if you have a dog who loves and adores you, but you turn on him and are continually mean and abusive to him, he will turn against you and will seek to harm you.  We humans are the same way.  We can love a person deeply, but if he – or his followers – are mean and abusive to us, we will have our love and adoration for that person turn into hatred and despising of that person.  That is what happened to me and Jesus.

These then are the ten reasons that I hate and despise Jesus Christ and want absolutely NOTHING to do with him or it.

You all have a great day today.

Bill