I get what you’re saying, but that interpretation doesn’t actually hold up historically or biblically. Jesus didn’t speak in abstract metaphors when He said, ‘Upon this rock I will build my Church.’ He gave authority to Peter by name, gave him the keys, and promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against it—not just a vague, invisible idea. There was no waiting until Constantine. The early Church had bishops, sacraments, liturgy, and hierarchy long before the Roman Empire stopped persecuting it. Just read the early Church Fathers Ignatius of Antioch, Clement of Rome, Justin Martyr they all describe a very visible, structured, Catholic Church by the late 1st and early 2nd centuries.

Saying ‘Jesus is the Church’ is poetic, but He clearly distinguished Himself from the Church He built on Peter. That Church still exists. It’s the Catholic Church not perfect in every member, but protected from error in what it teaches, exactly as He promised.

If we believe in Jesus, we should believe what He actually instituted, not just what feels safer or more abstract.