Jesus the Genius
Seems like a person should just read what Jesus said and ignore any supposed prior context. I am of course aware of his "jot & tittle" comment, but basically everything that originated directly from Jesus flies in the face of the vengeful maniac who presided over the Older Testament. Buddhism is not Hinduism, though it has its roots there. Christianity is not Orthodox Judaism, though it grew out of it. Jesus, like Gautama Buddha, was an ethical and religious genius who was able to formulate a radically new morality while living in the midst of a millenia-old world view. Love thy neighbor. Turn the cheek. As ye care for the prisoners, so ye care for me.
I've read the Older Testament. Taking that dark and vengeful "god" literally would be to willfully partake in the insanity those words and actions imply. The main takeaway, the truly positive idea, that came from Abraham and Moses (mainly the latter) is monotheism, and even that may have been influenced by the heretic Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten, a sort of "one-termer". Oh, and I guess the codification of the 10 Pretty Obvious Commandments, though even those have origins in previous Mesopotamian cultures. But then you have to also deal with the 100 or so "minor" commandments in Exodus. Not to mention the endless city ordinances in Leviticus.
Like almost everything else in modern times, we seem to be a world of steel trapped minds, set in our conceptions and locked in our preconceived world views. I'm not too different, though I tend to pride myself on (hopefully) reasoning a little deeper than most. But that's likely just my pride.
No, I have no problem whatsoever in reconciling Jesus and Jehovah: they are two completely separate entities. The latter, under the rubric of "I AM", and depicted in the first several books of the Bible, is of course an embarrassing myth, but perhaps the best an unsophisticated tribe of nomads in 2000 BC (or so) could come up with. Like I said, their major theological leap was monotheism. Unfortunately, it never leapt from within the confines of the Hebrew tribes (I AM a god for your people; don't pray to other peoples' gods). Even Jesus was mainly constrained to Judah and Israel; it took Paul to spread Chrsitianity to the Gentiles, no matter how weirdly he did so. But Jesus and Paul were men, which is one up the reality ladder from myth. And I definitely maintain my conviction that Jesus was in many ways a theological genius, meaning that he was able to create Brand New Ideas. Most creative people just sort of reorganize whatever exists. It's the Newtons and the Einsteins and the Jesuses who make gigantic leaps ahead, leaps so huge they almost seem like they came from nowhere.
What I mean about YHWH as myth is strictly the OT depiction. EVERY ancient description of The Creator/Sustainer, imo, suffers from mythological trappings, all of which obscure whatever transcendence exists. Not to say I, nor anyone else, could do a better job. The genius moment that happened in the mists of the far past was when some human minds made the leap to conclude that there was in fact a beginning to everything, and that something that caused it. To anthropomorphize that cause, and imbue it with the powers of storm and lightning and fire and earthquakes, the most powerful forces imaginable, was the natural next step. And certainly at the top of the pantheons of almost all ancient religions is just such a stormy being.
And then someone (Moses, for instance) made the reductionist synthesis that, given that power, a pantheon isn't required: just make YHWH the sole mover, responsible for everything. Unfortunately, they maintained the anthropomorphism. Jesus, was able to finally move past that misrepresentation.