Tomorrow August 14^th marks the commemoration of the life of Dietrich Bonhoffer.  The Anglican commemoration book of Saints and Martyrs summarizes his life this way:

“Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor and one of the most promising theologians of his generation. He opposed the Nazi regime from the very first and committed himself to resistance by non-violent means but after the outbreak of the second World War, his sense of Christian responsibility in a situation of evil drew him into a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

The plot failed, and when his complicity came to light, he was marked for extermination. He was shunted from one concentration camp to another until, early on the morning of April ninth, 1945, he was hanged at Flossenburg.”

A 2024 movie, Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin, dramatizes this period of his life.

This title makes Bonhoeffer seem more like an action star than a theologian when in reality, what he is truly most noted for – and why we commemorate him on this day – is because his life, theological teachings and writings continue to inspire and motivate many to grow deeper in personal faith and discipleship.

The focus of Deitre Bonhoeffer’s theology is the cross of Christ, and how even in our modern era we are still being called and challenged to take up our cross and follow Christ.  To examine injustices and speak out against them, consciously living out our lives in a way that models the Love of God.

Bonhoeffer’s most famous book is entitled The Cost of Discipleship.  It is a book that explores what it means to follow Jesus, contrasting “cheap grace” with “costly grace”.

As Bonhoeffer writes:
“Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ.”

In contrast he writes:

“Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.

“When all is said and done, the life of faith is nothing if not an unending struggle of the spirit with every available weapon against the flesh”… yet, “It is only because he became like us that we can become like him.”

In trying to live out his own faith, Bonhoeffer helped many Jews escape concentration camps, yet ended up in one himself.  However for him, this is the call: to love as Christ loved us, and not shy away from what it might cost us.

Bonhoeffer’s own life shows we may not do this perfectly, but he is an inspiration and his life a meditation about what it means to struggle and to try.

Prayer:

O God,
we bless you for the witness of your martyrs
who walked in the bitter path of the Cross
and gave their lives that others might live.
Grant that our devotion may issue in the deeds of love,
and our confession of your holy Name
in a readiness for justice;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

• Collect from the Memorial of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Maximilien Kolbe