Last night, the anniversary of the death of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, I sat a bit later, reading his Discipleship. I had made time throughout the day to read some of his thoughts on the cost of following Jesus, and the cost of the grace revealed on the Cross, and which calls us in our own time and place so to follow. I wonder if too much is made today, of discipleship as a programmatic approach to Christian education and training, so that discipleship has lost some of its astringent costly demand. For Bonhoeffer the disciple is one who bears witness by following, whether to death or not; a Christian is a martyr.
"Discipleship is a bond with the suffering Christ." (Discipleship, 82).
Reading Bonhoeffer’s own words, reflecting as I worked in the garden, I felt a mixture of inspiration and sadness; a life so effectively given to Christ, a life so tragic in lost potential for his future and ours. His writing fragmentary but glinting with spiritual light, his life incomplete yet consummated in faithful witness; his execution such a waste, his witness a beacon of grace.
These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple. (Rev.7.14-15.)
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