Jesus said, “I'm waiting.”
“For what?”, asked God, as if distracted.
“For You to tell me how much death and suffering Your victory over other gods will cause, how much death and suffering will be needed in the battles men fight in Your name and mine.”
“Very well then, the church I mentioned will be established, but its foundation, in order to be truly solid, will be dug in flesh, its walls made from the cement of renunciation, tears, agony, anguish, every conceivable form of death.”
“At long last You speak so I can understand, go on.”
“Let's start with someone you know and love, the fisherman Simon, whom you will call Peter, like you, he will be crucified, but upside down, Andrew too will be crucified, on a cross in the shape of an X, the son of Zebedee known as James will be beheaded.”
“What about John, and Mary Magdalene?”
“They will die of natural causes when their time comes, but you will make other friends, disciples, and apostles who will not escape torture, such as Philip, who will be tied to a cross and stoned to death, Bartholomew, who will be skinned alive, Thomas, who will be speared to death, Matthew, the details of whose death I no longer remember, another Simon, who will be sawed in half, Judas, who will be beaten to death, James stoned, Matthias beheaded with an axe, also Judas Iscariot hanged from a fig tree by his own hand.”
“Are all these men to die because of You?”, asked Jesus.
“If you phrase the question that way, the answer is yes, they will die for My sake.”
– The Gospel According to Jesus Christ (1991), by Jose Saramago