Can you have Jesus without the Church?

As a Protestant, I was taught that you only needed Jesus and you could have Jesus without the church. The concept was that a personal relationship with Jesus was the only thing that was important, and the church was merely a means of worship, but not necessarily essential to serving Christ. It sounded like a good idea at the time. I mean, after all, if I did not agree with the church leadership, did not like the people who sat in the pew beside me, or had an issue with authority in general well I could take Jesus and leave the rest behind.

There are a variety of problems with that philosophy. First, and most importantly, Jesus is not a stand-alone Savior. He had more to do on this earth than just die for our sins, which is basically what many Christians have watered his mission down to being. Yes, it was essential and crucial for Jesus to die on the cross for our sins so that we have a path for redemption. There is no denying that and no minimizing that truth. However, it did not take Jesus 33 years to die. There were many opportunities for Jesus to die before Calvary. In fact, if his death was the single goal of his existence then when Herod sought to kill the infant shortly after his birth there would have been no need for him to be rushed to Egypt by Mary and Joseph in order to save his life. If his death were the only reason he needed to be born, then when he taught in the synagogues and they were going to stone him to death, he did not have to slip away into the crowds. What was Jesus doing with the rest of his life until Calvary?

He was building His Church. He was building His kingdom.

I love the way Dr. Tim Gray of the Augustine Institute puts it. He says that to believe you can have a relationship with Jesus without the Church is like saying you are devoted to and in love with a king, but you want nothing to do with his kingdom. It’s like saying you love a king, but hate his kingdom.

In Matthew 13, Jesus teaches a total of 7 parables: Parable of the Sower, parable of the weeds among the wheat, parable of the mustard seed, parable of the yeast, parable of the buried treasure, parable of the merchant searching for pearls, and the parable of a net thrown into the sea. These parables all have different meanings and interpretations, but one thing they all have in common is this: “the kingdom of heaven is like….” Jesus taught about his kingdom using parables. He did not teach about Himself, His sacrifice, or God the Father through parables. He spent the majority of his time teaching about his kingdom. He was building his kingdom. He was building his Church. If the Church was not important, Jesus could have used the parables to say “heaven is like….”, “loving the Son of God is like….”, or “having a relationship with the Christ is like….” He chose to focus on the kingdom of God. He chose to focus his teachings on the Church, so we should do well to pay heed to those truths.

There were many opportunities for Jesus to be killed, to die, and to give His life for sin. Now, of course He had to fulfill the prophesies given in the Old Testament in order to show the world He was indeed the Son of God and the Messiah. However, there were many Passovers that came and went throughout His life before that 33rd Passover. What was Jesus waiting for? What was He needing to do before His death?

According to Sacred Scripture, we are given the answer in John 6. The last thing Jesus does before He is betrayed and arrested is the Last Supper. Why?

He has already taught about His kingdom (the Church). He has already given Peter the keys to the kingdom and, as a result, given Peter charge over the Church once Jesus is gone. (Matthew 16:19). What is left?

Jesus had one last thing to do and that was to give the Church the Holy Eucharist. In John 6 we are given the account of where Jesus institutes the Holy Eucharist during the Last Supper. It is on this same night that Judas betrays Jesus and makes plans to give him over to the people who sought to destroy him. Jesus was not going to die for our sins until he had built his kingdom (the Church), had named a successor to lead that Church, and had given the Church the Holy Eucharist. Once those things were done, then it was time for Jesus to go to Calvary for the salvation of the world. It was only then, after the Church was built, a successor was named to be in charge of the Church in the Lord's absence, and the Holy Eucharist was given, that Jesus could suffer on the cross and proclaim "it is finished" (John 19:30). What was finished? Everything. The Church, the successor, the Eucharist, the sacrifice for the sins of the world...it was all finished. 

You cannot skip 33 years of the life of our Lord, go straight to Calvary and Easter morning, yet say you love the Lord. You cannot have a relationship with the Lord when you only choose one moment of His life to acknowledge. 

It’s like marrying someone but telling them afterward that you only want their bank account and you want nothing to do with their life, history, family, or beliefs outside that bank account. You want what they can give you, how you can benefit from them, and you love them for all they do for you, but you want nothing to do with the essence of who they are and what they are about. 

You cannot have the king without the kingdom.