What Jesus Doesn't Understand About Church

Jesus enjoyed great popularity in the early days of His public ministry. People couldn't get enough of Him. Thousands gathered to hear His words. They marveled at all He said and did. Eventually, though, He reached a turning point, which is recorded in John 6:66.

"From this time many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him."

What you may not know is that archaeologists recently uncovered an ancient text that reveals a conversation that Jesus had with some of his disciples about this significant shift in His ministry. While it is unlikely that this record, translated below for The Message Bible, will make it into the canon of the sacred text, it does provide us with a fascinating historical perspective. Here it is:

Jesus was praying under a tree in the heat of the day when a familiar voice greeted Him.

"Jesus, we need to talk."

Jesus looked up to see Peter, with Matthew and John not far behind. "Sure, Pete, what's up?"

"It's about the people."

Jesus smiled. "What about them?"

"You haven't noticed?"

"Noticed what?" He opened a pouch with a few dried figs and offered it to Peter.

"Our numbers are down," Peter said, waving his hand to decline the morsels. "Way down."

"And this worries you?" Jesus inspected one of the figs and held the pouch out to the other men, shaking it. "Matt, John. They're really good."

"I really wish you wouldn't tempt me like that," Matthew said, shaking his head. John, however, quietly stepped forward to fish out a couple figs.

"Something's gotta be done," Peter said, trying to regain control. "Judas says our cash flow is really tight. We'll be lucky if we can afford to buy a single fish from the market to feed all of us."

"You do know I only need one."

"Yeah, right, but you haven't done that in a while. You need to do more of that fish-and-bread multiplying stuff. The crowds ate that up."

"They were hungry."

"I mean, they liked it. They thought it was cool. You do more of that flashy stuff to pull in the crowds, and our numbers are bound to go back up. Raise somebody else from the dead. That kind of thing."

"Numbers are important to you?" Jesus asked.

"How else can we tell how effective we are? Not long ago we had 5,000 men listening to us, but lately they've been dropping like flies. What I'm saying here is someone's gotta take responsibility for this loss, and since you're at the top and all ..."

"Perhaps it's the ones who left you should talk to."

"Oh, we have. And we found out some disturbing news."

"Really? What was that?"

"Some of 'em are sayin' your messages, well, they've gotten kinda dry."

Matthew chimed in. "And a bit depressing, too ... I mean, they say that. Not me. I wouldn't, y'know, say that."

Jesus turned to John. "And what do you think?"

John had been staring at the ground and shuffling his feet in the dirt. "I just want us all to get along. Can't things be the way they were when we were all so happy?"

Peter frowned. "We have to look forward. This ministry's in jeopardy if we don't make a course correction. Matt, tell Jesus what you've learned."

"Yes, certainly." Matthew pulled an abacus from beneath his garments. "I've been running the beads. It seems that giving is already down 54 percent. And the crowds are down by 64 percent compared to this time last month. My calculations indicate that we could well lose some of our biggest contributors if something doesn't change."

Jesus studied Matthew's abacus. "So what kind of course correction did you have in mind, Pete?"

Peter knelt beside Jesus, glad that He was finally starting to listen to reason. "You gotta do more stuff that gets people talking. They'll spread the word through the villages. That water to wine thing? Great stuff. Oh, and remember that time You walked on water?"

"That was the first time I ever did it. I was just getting My feet wet." Jesus laughed, but Peter didn't find this funny.

"Picture this. A big lakeside revival. We send you out on a boat, like a hundred yards out. Then we gather thousands of people around the shoreline, and you get out of the boat and walk straight to the shore on top of the water and start preaching. What an entrance!"

"So let me get this straight. You prefer that I have thousands of shallow followers, instead of a handful who are willing to follow Me wherever I send them?"

"Exactly!" Peter said. "Now we're gettin' somewhere!"

Jesus took a breath and placed His hand on Peter's shoulder. "I know you mean well, but I have a different path to travel. And when it's all done, even more people are going to leave me."

"But," Peter was struggling to find the right words, "that doesn't make any sense."

"It never has," Jesus assured him. "And it never will."

Clearly, this passage reveals that our Lord doesn't have a good grasp on what's important to the church today.