Every few years I re-read Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s classic book The Cost of Discipleship because it serves as a good reminder of what life in Christ is about.
Today I was reading his chapter about the Church called “The Visible Community.” Bonhoeffer writes: “The word of God seeks a Church to take unto itself. It has its being in the Church. It enters the Church by its own self-initiated movement.” (p. 250)
I learned a little song at summer camp when I was a kid that totally contradicts this statement. It went like this:
If I had a little box to put my Jesus in
I’d take him out and hug him and put him back in
And if I had a little box to put the devil in
I’d take him out and SMASH HIS FACE! and put him back in.
It’s kind of cute, but it serves to illustrate the point. We can’t put Jesus (The Living Word, ie. John 1:1) into parameters. We don’t have Him—He has us! We can’t give Him our list of expectations and expect he’ll deliver. What happens more often is that he gives us the list of expectations and then we philosophize about how he really meant something different. Here are some examples:
- Mark 9:35 Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."
- Luke 18:22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
- Luke 14:26 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters-- yes, even his own life-- he cannot be my disciple.
- John 12:24 "I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds."
- Matthew 19:29-30 "And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first."
- Luke 6:27-35 "But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked."
- Mark 8:36 "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?"
I guess I'm just at a place where I'm tired of rationalizing away what Jesus said so I can do what I think will be more comfortable. Sometimes I feel like a crazy man. Bonehoffer was crazy, too, though. He, however, understood the nature of the call when he said:
"The disciple is dragged out of his relative security into a life of absolute insecurity (that is, in truth, into the absolute security and safety of the fellowship of Jesus), from a life which is observable and calculable (it is, in fact, quite incalculable) into a life where everything is unobservable and fortuitous (that is, into one which is necessary and calculable), out of the realm of the finite (which is in truth the infinite) into the realm of infinite possibilities (which is the one liberating reality). The Cost of Discipleship p.58
So what's the point? I think the point is that the Word of God is looking for a church to join, and when it finds that church—those people will learn about infinite possiblities of God's liberating reality.
David Achata
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