Conclusion

Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me. JOHN 21:22

We have covered a good deal of ground in sixteen short chapters — from costly grace to the Psalms, from the seminary at Finkenwalde to the cell at Tegel, from the Sermon on the Mount to the gallows at Flossenbürg. It would be easy to close the book with the impression that Bonhoeffer taught many different things. In truth he asked one question, over and over, in every setting of his short life: who is Jesus Christ, and what does it mean to follow him here and now?

One question, many answers

Costly grace is that question asked of the comfortable church. The Sermon on the Mount asks it of our daily conduct; Life Together asks it of our congregations and our ordinary days; the prison letters ask it in the darkest hours of a nation’s history. And the beginning of life is the question answered in the face of death.

At every point the answer came back to a person. Not a programme, not an ideal, not even a doctrine, but Jesus Christ, who is present and who calls.

Carrying it home

The peculiar danger of reading about Bonhoeffer is that we may admire him instead of following his Lord. His life makes a compelling story, and his phrases are memorable. It is possible to know all about cheap and costly grace and never pay anything. It is possible to quote Life Together and still despise one’s own congregation. Bonhoeffer would have seen that danger at once. He thought a knowledge of Christ that does not issue in obedience is not knowledge at all.

Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock. MATTHEW 7:24

So the plainest counsel this book can give is this. Go back to the chapter that troubled you most. Take its application points and do them, one at a time. Then go on to the next. Expect it to be ordinary. Most of discipleship is not martyrdom but faithfulness in small things — a word held back, an ear lent, a psalm prayed, a sin confessed, a neighbour served.

An honest word about the man

We have tried in these pages to be honest about Bonhoeffer. His part in the conspiracy against Hitler remains a matter on which faithful Christians disagree. His prison fragments were unfinished, and have been pulled in directions he would not have recognised. His Lutheran and academic background led him to positions many readers will not share. His life has been retold with more heroism than the record allows, and sayings have been put into his mouth that he never said.

None of this has been raised in order to diminish him. It has been raised because he would have insisted on it. The man who warned against cheap grace would not have wanted cheap praise. He did not want disciples of his own. He wanted people to follow Jesus Christ.

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. HEBREWS 12:2

Follow thou me

At the end of John’s Gospel, Peter, just restored after his denial, looks at another disciple and asks what will become of him. Jesus answers that it is none of Peter’s business. Follow thou me. That word is for us too, at the end of a book about another disciple. What became of Bonhoeffer is a matter for gratitude and for sober reflection. But the question that matters for the reader is not what he did. It is what we shall do, when the same Lord calls us, in our own time and place, to follow him.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Look back at the sentence you wrote at the start of this book about what it costs to be a Christian. Would you write it differently now?

2. Choose the chapter that troubled you most. Take its application points and act on one of them this week.

3. Choose one of Bonhoeffer’s own books from the guide that follows, and read it slowly, with the Bible open.

4. Share one thing you have learned with another believer, and ask them to hold you to it.

5. Ask the Lord plainly what following Him will mean for you in the coming year, and write down what He shows you.

A PRAYER

Lord Jesus Christ, You called Your servant, and he followed You to the end. You call me too.

Forgive me for being more interested in other disciples than in following You myself. Let me not admire where I should obey.

Take what I have read and press it into my life until it costs me something. Begin with the chapter I would rather forget.

Keep my eyes on You, the author and finisher of my faith. Whatever the road, let me hear Your voice and follow You. Amen.