Bonhoeffer and the Foundation That Held

In 1937, Dietrich Bonhoeffer published The Cost of Discipleship and drew a line that would define his life. He warned the German church against what he called "cheap grace" — the dangerous habit of hearing Christ's words, nodding in agreement, and living as though none of it mattered. Bonhoeffer had watched an entire nation of churchgoers call Jesus "Lord" on Sunday mornings while capitulating to Nazi ideology by Monday. They heard the sermon but never laid a single stone.

Bonhoeffer chose differently. He returned to Germany from the safety of New York in 1939, writing to Reinhold Niebuhr, "I shall have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people." He built his life on obedience, not sentiment.

When the Gestapo arrested him in April 1943, when Tegel Prison stripped away every comfort, when the gallows at Flossenbürg awaited him in April 1945, his foundation held. A camp doctor who witnessed his final morning said he had never seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.

Jesus said anyone who hears His words and puts them into practice is like a builder who dug deep and laid a foundation on rock. The flood came for Bonhoeffer. It will come for each of us. The only question is what we have been building on all along.