Bonhoeffer

Romans 5 1-5 (NRSV)

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. 

Reading about the lives of those who have died because of their faith in Jesus, I’ve found that most martyrs are faced with a choice: to be faithful to Jesus and die, or to betray him and live. I had always considered martyrdom to be a big, life changing decision, but for all the martyrs we are meeting this week, we see that the road to martyrdom was made up of small steps of faithfulness. Although there were larger decisions to be made, the small steps of faithfulness equipped them for the large ones.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer did not choose to become a martyr on the 9th April 1945; that decision was made decades before the moment he was led to the gallows at Flossenbürg concentration camp. He made the choice when his theology was not compatible with what the state demanded of him. He first criticised when there was little consequence: his criticisms were kept to the confines of academic essays; then, when the costs were still fairly low, he began to speak out. The cost was that he was ostracized by the German church. He then continued when the costs rose higher- arrest and possible death; he ended up paying the ultimate cost of his convictions. 

In Life Together, Bonhoeffer wrote:

'Who can really be faithful in great things if [they have] not learned to be faithful in the things of daily life?'

Paul reassures us, and Bonhoeffer’s life testifies, that suffering for Jesus produces character. As our character grows, we are filled with a holy hope that does not disappoint because it is a hope filled with God’s love. We can brush aside the importance of small endurances, holding out for bigger, more significant moments. But Bonhoeffer’s life shows us that how faithful we are to Jesus in the small things often signifies how we will be faithful in the larger things.

Prayer — Dear Jesus, I offer you the minutiae of my life. Teach me to be faithful in the small things so through endurance my character might grow. Holy Spirit, fill me with your hope-giving love.