I have recently become re-acquainted with one of my heroes. His name is Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer (February 4, 1906 – April 9, 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor and theologian. He was also a participant in the German Resistance movement against Nazism, a founding member of the Confessing Church.
Bonhoeffer had watched as Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime rose to power. Along with it, many Christian pastors were forced to approve of or at least go along with what the Nazis were doing. Not Bonhoeffer. He resisted the urge to conform, being more greatly convicted of what he believed and knew about God and the evil of the Third Reich. His involvement in plans by members of the Abwehr (the German Military Intelligence Office) to assassinate Adolf Hitler resulted in his arrest in April 1943 and his subsequent execution by hanging in April 1945, shortly before the war's end. While imprisoned for his resistance to Hitler, he continued to write about issues of faith as they relate to living in this world. These are some of his most powerful writings, in the opinion of many.
Bonhoeffer was executed in Flossenbürg concentration camp by hanging at dawn on April 9, 1945, just three weeks before the Soviet capture of Berlin and a month before the capitulation of Nazi Germany. The camp doctor who witnessed the execution wrote: “I saw Pastor Bonhoeffer ... kneeling on the floor praying fervently to God. I was most deeply moved by the way this lovable man prayed, so devout and so certain that God heard his prayer. At the place of execution, he again said a short prayer and then climbed the few steps to the gallows, brave and composed. His death ensued after a few seconds. In the almost fifty years that I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.”
For me, Bonhoeffer represents the integrity of standing on principle; of being assured of what you believe and the willingness to sacrifice, even die, for that conviction. As the doctor who observed his martyrdom so aptly describes, “I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.”
Jesus calls us to “die daily to self”; to “take up our cross and follow Him”. Without having to physically die, are we pursuing Christ so “…entirely submissive to the will of God”? It is hard, I know. Dying to self and living for a cause greater than self, in the face of difficulty and uncertainty always is. Perhaps that is why I admire Dietrich Bonhoeffer so much. He knew what he was willing to live for. And more importantly, what he was willing to die for, if necessary.
What do you live for? When everything else in life is removed, what will your legacy be? What will mine be?
I pray that your life and mine will stand in the great company of all those who have gone before us, proclaiming the truth about God; His grace, mercy, and justice. Like Bonhoeffer, may we live what we believe, for the sake of Jesus Christ.
Bonhoeffer had watched as Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime rose to power. Along with it, many Christian pastors were forced to approve of or at least go along with what the Nazis were doing. Not Bonhoeffer. He resisted the urge to conform, being more greatly convicted of what he believed and knew about God and the evil of the Third Reich. His involvement in plans by members of the Abwehr (the German Military Intelligence Office) to assassinate Adolf Hitler resulted in his arrest in April 1943 and his subsequent execution by hanging in April 1945, shortly before the war's end. While imprisoned for his resistance to Hitler, he continued to write about issues of faith as they relate to living in this world. These are some of his most powerful writings, in the opinion of many.
Bonhoeffer was executed in Flossenbürg concentration camp by hanging at dawn on April 9, 1945, just three weeks before the Soviet capture of Berlin and a month before the capitulation of Nazi Germany. The camp doctor who witnessed the execution wrote: “I saw Pastor Bonhoeffer ... kneeling on the floor praying fervently to God. I was most deeply moved by the way this lovable man prayed, so devout and so certain that God heard his prayer. At the place of execution, he again said a short prayer and then climbed the few steps to the gallows, brave and composed. His death ensued after a few seconds. In the almost fifty years that I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.”
For me, Bonhoeffer represents the integrity of standing on principle; of being assured of what you believe and the willingness to sacrifice, even die, for that conviction. As the doctor who observed his martyrdom so aptly describes, “I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.”
Jesus calls us to “die daily to self”; to “take up our cross and follow Him”. Without having to physically die, are we pursuing Christ so “…entirely submissive to the will of God”? It is hard, I know. Dying to self and living for a cause greater than self, in the face of difficulty and uncertainty always is. Perhaps that is why I admire Dietrich Bonhoeffer so much. He knew what he was willing to live for. And more importantly, what he was willing to die for, if necessary.
What do you live for? When everything else in life is removed, what will your legacy be? What will mine be?
I pray that your life and mine will stand in the great company of all those who have gone before us, proclaiming the truth about God; His grace, mercy, and justice. Like Bonhoeffer, may we live what we believe, for the sake of Jesus Christ.
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