>>40852541 (OP)
Christianity was a compromise. You might have the wealth, but you have a responsibility to the poor. By the time the religion was spreading quickly many people were slaves or heavily indebted and land was in the hands of a wealthy few. The hierarchy was maintained through cruel domination, with the worst punishment being crucifixion. When traitors, slaves, or foreigners dared to stand against the might of Rome they were stripped naked, beaten, and left to hang on a cross for days, slowly suffocating under the hot sun. Jesus is the exact opposite of a mighty ruler would be, and that's why people flocked to him. I'll give you an example.
When Jesus "cleansed" the Jerusalem Temple, aka had a meltdown and knocked down some tables, he wasn't just tormenting people in a small complex. By the time of the Maccabees, two centuries earlier, the amount of wealth stored within the temple was about 4-8x the annual GDP of Judea. Temples were like the central banks of that time and often underwrote loans. They often swallowed up the land of those deep in debt, which is why Jesus criticizes the religious leadership for taking the property of widows. It must have been sickening to see so much poverty and know how much wealth was just sitting there, there for an elite who confessed God but did not have him in their hearts.
You won't understand because you didn't live back then. But it was such a grim and hopeless time it makes me wonder whether or not we'll return to that once Jesus is gone.
