The forces that wanted to get between the word of Jesus and obedience were just as great back then as they are today. Reason objected; Conscience, responsibility, piety, even the law and principle of Scripture intervened to inhibit this most extreme, this lawless “enthusiasm.” Jesus’ call broke through all of this and mandated obedience. It was God’s own word. Simple obedience was required. (Discipleship, 69(
Chapter three of Discipleship opens with a discussion of the rich young ruler who goes away sad because Jesus asks him to give up his wealth. Bonhoeffer sarcastically describes the way contemporary Christians might respond to a similar call:
But when Jesus commands, then I should know that he never demands legalistic obedience. Instead, he has only one expectation of me, namely, that I believe. My faith, however, is not tied to poverty or wealth or some such thing. On the contrary, in faith I can be both—rich and poor. The main concern is not whether or not I have any worldly goods, but that I should possess goods as if I did not possess them, and inwardly I shall be free of them. (78)
Inwardness, spiritualization, is a way to relativize Christ’s command. This frees us from the responsibility of having to love our neighbor. In the quote above Bonhoeffer echoes a main themes found in his piece After Ten Years in which he invokes a Kierkegaardian question: Where are the responsible ones? Too often we allow morality, piety, doctrines, and even “the bible” itself to get in the way of hearing God’s word and doing what God commands. We have every excuse for why we don’t have to take God’s command to love our neighbor seriously, especially when it seems to violate some cultural / social / ecclesiastical norm. Bonhoeffer reminds us that God doesn’t ask us to rationalize our disobedience in the name of abstract faith; Jesus calls us to follow him.
We see this on both sides of the current political divide. Choosing a candidate from our two party system forces us to, as Luther put it, “sin boldly”—knowing there are parts of the political platform that go against the call of Jesus. The problem is when political rhetoric is justified—at times glorified—even when it contradicts what Christ commands. Scapegoating immigrants and refugees, breaking up families, turning a blind eye to oppression and racism, turning a blind eye to suffering out of allegiance to political ideology—all of it is contrary to the gospel. Yet, many justify their actions and rhetoric by appealing to the inwardness of faith—the cheap grace of “belief” that requires nothing from me.
Bonhoeffer insists that costly grace is Christian belief that is willing to take responsibility for the choices we make. This means confronting the dehumanizing rhetoric of our own party, the candidates we vote for, and the communities we inhabit. It means taking a stand for the dignity of every human life regardless of national boundaries, government systems, or consequence to our reputation.
Bonhoeffer writes, “Jesus calls us into a concrete situation in which we can believe in him.” (81) Faith is not inward abstraction; our neighbor is not some concept floating out there somewhere. Our neighbor is the concrete person God puts in front of us each day. Simple obedience means taking responsibility for our concrete neighbor—this is what it means to follow Jesus.
Wherever simple obedience is fundamentally eliminated, there again the costly grace of Jesus’ call has become the cheap grace of self justification. (81)