Was Jesus a Socialist?

   I heard a story a while back in which a professor at a university made an astonishing statement that Jesus himself was a Socialist.   Granted, socialism didn't come about for about another 1800 years or so after Jesus ascension, but would Jesus have thrown his hat (or tunic) in with the Socialist crowd if he was around today?

   The idea stems from Jesus concern for the poor and downtrodden and that if Jesus was living on earth today he would want to align himself with others who also appear to be concerned with the poor and downtrodden.

But is that the case? 

   Looking at Jesus teachings we might come away with a different view.   Jesus words can be divided into 2 categories:  Parables (teachings) and Conversations (discussions).   Let's take a look at each of these and see if they align with a Socialist view or a Capitalist view.

Parables
   Jesus many parables use different groups of people to illustrate God's relationship to us and how we should relate to him and others.   Here are the different parables and the groups of people used to show our releationship

Lost Sheep :  Shepherd (God) , Sheep (us)
Lost Coin:    Woman (God),  lost coin (us)
Pearl of Great price:  Merchant (God), Pearl (us)
Hidden Treasure in a field:   Seeker (God),  treasure (us)
Workers in the Vineyard:  Owner (God), workers (us)
Vineyard and the renters :   Owner (God) , renters (us)
Prodigal Son : Father (God), sons (us)
The Giving of the Talents:   King (God), servants (us)
The Wedding Feast:   King (God the Father) , Son (God the Son), servants (us) , people (world)

In every case shown above the "owner" is God and he is always shown in a positive light.  The workers are often shown in a negative light as they are often shown to be "grumbling" (dissatisfied) or murderous and treacherous (killing the Son in the Parable of the Vineyard and the renters.  The owner is often shown to be generous and loving.   In the case of the Vineyard and the Workers, he gives the same amount of money to all the workers despite how many hours they worked in the field.   This would be the same as a business owner paying unequal wages to his workers. (not very Socialist).   In the story of the Giving of the Talents, the king gives his wealth to his servants in UNEQUAL amounts.   He gives 5000 to one, 3000 to another and 1000 to the third.  When he comes back the only one who gets chastised is the one who BURIED his wealth and did nothing with it.  If Jesus was a Socialist would he berate a person for not gaining wealth?   Wouldn't he berate the ones who doubled their wealth and not sharing with the guy who didn't do anything?

What about his Parable of the Good Samaritan?  Doesn't that point to Socialism?  Since the man who showed compassion on the injured person ,who was robbed and beaten, picked him and cared for him.  Doesn't that point to Socialism?   Looking closely at the parable, however, we do see somethings that don't line up with this view.  First of all, the Samaritan uses his own wealth to help and care for the man who is near death.   He uses his own oil and wine to clean his wounds, puts him on his own donkey and carries him to an inn and pays for his further care.   He doesn't round up people and go after the people who passed this man buy to get them to pay for his care.   This is where using this story to support "Jesus is a Socialist" view runs off the rails.

So in terms of his Parables, I think we can say that Jesus connection with the Socialist would be a big stretch of the imagination.

Conversations (discussions)
   So one, might argue that his Parables are just spring boards for his teachings and we can't see much into his view of how we ought to be towards each other.  For example, Jesus is asked a question about paying taxes to Caesar.   Jesus says, "Give unto Caesar that which is Caesars and give unto God that which is Gods!".    Here Jesus shows us that as his followers we should "give" to whoever that asks us.  If the government asks for our money we should give it and if God has need of our money then we should give it too.