Bonhoeffer: Suffering and Discipleship

Mark 8:31-38 states that Jesus predicts his death, and challenges his disciples to take up their cross and follow him.  They, of course, find this line of thinking to be offensive and ridiculous.  They criticize Jesus for his statement.


And he rebuked them, comparing them to Satan himself:  Get behind me!  (How many things in our life need to be treated the same: either help me follow Jesus, or get out of my way.)


So, you can follow Jesus, or you can get the heck out of the way!


But what does this mean: to take up your cross and follow Jesus?  For Bonhoeffer, it means suffering.


There is a "must" in this suffering.  According to Bonhoeffer, "A disciple is a disciple only as he shares his Lord's suffering and rejection, and crucifixion."  There is no discipleship without following in the path of Jesus' suffering for the truth.


Yet, there is also an "if."  IF anyone take up there cross.  Does this mean that Jesus is aware that few, or possible none, would respond to this challenge?  Once again, obedience takes center stage for the disciple.


For me, this chapter has been the most touching so far.  I found myself drawn in to his wording and description with little intellectual difficulty.  This may be attributed to my  understanding of the book of Revelation and the place of martyrdom in that vision.


Several quotes seems to grab my attention here. (With my comments in parentheses)

Only when we become oblivious to self are we ready to bear the cross.  (Is anyone able, then to meet that standard and bear the cross?)

If we cease to notice the pain of our own cross, we are indeed looking at Christ.  (Amen, and Amen!  The lens of thanksgiving, praise, identification with Christ, and dependence on his promises will lessen suffering and help us realize his glory.)

Suffering is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ.  (The competition is fierce, and the world with its desires will not let go of the flesh without struggle.  Praise be to Jesus that Satan is already defeated, and we are called to allegiance to the Victor!)

The Cross is rejection and shame, and thus sharing in Christ's suffering to the fullest.  Suffering is the true badge of discipleship, and yet a joy and token of Christ's grace in our lives.

So, in my own thoughts, when I hear someone ask about the reason for suffering, I am reminded that we suffer 1) to identify with Christ, 2) as a test of faith, 3) as a shaping of the will, which must be melted with fire, 4) because the world doesn't like losing, and it is a bad sport, 5) as an opportunity for self-discipline in the name of Jesus, which is the heart of being a disciple.  Romans 5 captures the essence for me.


Romans 5:1-5
 ¹Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ²through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. ³Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

So, how is your Christian walk today, based on your suffering for the cause of Christ?

Bonhoeffer: Single-Minded Obedience (Ch. 3)

What if Jesus came to you and said, "Leave everything you have and follow me"--including home, family, job, all of it?  Would we?  Could we?

When I was 12 God called me to leave behind dreams and potential in order to serve him.  So, I did not pursue a music career, or an engineering degree, or attempt to play sports in college (not that it would have made any difference).  In some ways, it was easier to give up those potentialities than to think of giving up current realities.  And now, I am faced daily with this thought: Did Christ call me then to live how I am now?  Or are there still things in life that require a daily response of "Here I am.  Send me."

Bonhoeffer has encouraged me to again think on these things with his continued dialog on obedience.  In CH. 3 he hits particularly hard on the excuses that we use to avoid true discipleship and obedience.  His launching point is the sorrow of the Rich Young Ruler in Matthew 19 who could not obediently respond to God's call, and thus lost an opportunity of discipleship.    In his discussion he further explains the relationship of faith and obedience.  "The actual call of Jesus and the response of single-minded obedience have an irrevocable significance.  By means of them Jesus calls people into an actual situation where faith is possible.  For that reason his call is an actual call and he wishes it so to be understood, because he knows that it is only thorugh actual obedience that a man can become liberated to believe."

Thus, the call itself empowers both inward belief and outward actions of faith.  This reasoning leads to a firm conclusion:  We cannot believe without God himself acting on us and in us.

And what is Christ's calling?  FOLLOW ME!  This is the mantra of the disciple.  Follow Jesus.  Wherever he leads.  Whatever he says.  Whenever he speaks.  Obey.

So, how are you doing today in your single-minded obedience, which is faith in action?

James 1

  ⁵If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. ⁶But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. ⁷That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; ⁸he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

As a side note, I find myself connecting the book of James to the thoughts of Bonhoeffer.  I wonder what Luther himself would say to Bonhoeffer's Lutheranism, knowing how much Luther liked the book of James.

Bonhoeffer: Faith, Works, and the Demand of Jesus (Chapter 2)

It has long been a Baptist confession of faith that salvation comes by faith alone.  And the long list of verses that were planted in my brain a long time ago concerning this doctrinal truth included Ephesians 2:9 (for by grace are you saved, through faith; not of works, lest any many should boast).

So, you might imagine the internal conflict that arose when I read in Ch. 2 of The Cost of Discipleship, this statement by Bonhoeffer:

Two propositions:  Only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes.  It is quite unbiblical to hold the first without the second." The thought is finished with the idea that faith only works when it is obedience, and thus faith cannot be truly separated from works.

This boils down a long discussion by Bonhoeffer on the relationship between faith and obedience.  For Bonhoeffer, it is not enough for a Christian simply  to hold to the "confessions" or "creeds" of the church. (For Bonhoeffer, this would be Lutheranism--and he is railing against the tendency of his church culture to simply follow the cultural rules of state and church in Germany during the rise of Nazism, rather than stand and follow Christ.)  I agree with Bonhoeffer in this point.  Yet, Bonhoeffer does not, and perhaps cannot, differentiate between faith and obedience.  And he is in good company with James 2: "I will show you my faith by my works.  Faith without works is dead."

This statement brings into focus the self-limiting language that Baptists often use concerning salvation.  We see salvation as a moment suspended in time--that point where sin was forgiven and a new life born.  Yet, the moment cannot exist in a vacuum.  There were events leading to it, and it launches us into a new and resurrected life.  However, I fear that many Baptist converts have been still-born into Christianity, with little hope of a resurrected life, because all we preach is salvation by faith, but we forget that discipleship is about obedience.  They hear the call to fire insurance, but they do not hear the call of Christ to take up the cross and follow.  What kind of Christianity do we preach and live if we offer forgiveness of sin, but no new life to live?  Sounds like we are offering people the freedom to what they want with no guidance on doing what God wants.  No wonder the Church is in decline in the West.

Bonhoeffer goes on to say this about obedience and faith:

First, faith, then obedience.  If by that we mean that it is faith which justifies, and not that act of obedience, all well and good, for that is the essential and unexceptionable presupposition of all that follows.  If however we make a chronological distinction between faith and obedience, and make obedience subsequent to faith, we are divorcing the one from the other—and then we get the practical question, when must obedience begin?   . . .  For faith is only real when there is disobedience, never with out it, and faith only becomes faith in the act of obedience.

For Bonhoeffer, faith and obedience are both necessary for salvation.  His biblical example for this is Peter.  According to Bonhoeffer, Peter cannot save himself, but he must "act" by leaving his nets and following.  Thus, while salvation comes from outside of himself, Peter must both believe and leave in order to experience this salvation.

Talk about stepping into the gray.  It is always much easier for me to see a clear distinction between faith and works as Paul does, rather to take James' language and apply it to the salvation moment.

Yet, Paul speaks in similar terms in Phillipians 3: 7-12. 

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ ⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. ¹⁰I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

¹²Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.  ^(NIV)

He recognizes that Christ has already obtained the prize, yet he feels led to work as hard as he can to obtain the same status, as if that were even possible.  He knows that he is only striving to hold what Christ is already holding for him.


So, is Paul fighting a losing battle that he does not need to worry about, or is this the epitome of discipleship--answering the call and holding onto what Christ has already claimed?


For Bonhoeffer, the call of Jesus is more than a mere call to salvation.  Discipleship is an act of obedience that is characterized by continued obedience.  Thus, he concludes that the reason why many Christians are not acting like disciples is that they are coddled and treated like babies, rather than being confronted with the true demands of Christ.  "Follow me" is not a request.  Instead, it is a demand of Christ upon the life of the believer. Those that are true believers obey in faith.  Those that obey will experience a resurrected life with power.  Truly our churches would be transformed if we would leave behind our "fire-insurance" policies and take on the discipline of Christ's demand: FOLLOW ME!