Bonhoeffer's Last Bread

On the morning of April 8, 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer stood in a makeshift chapel at the Schönberg prison school, surrounded by a handful of fellow captives. He had no altar, no silver chalice, no vestments. He had a scrap of bread and the words of Scripture. He knew the Gestapo was coming for him. He broke the bread anyway.

The German pastor had spent two years in Nazi prisons for his role in the resistance against Hitler. That Sunday morning, when a British officer asked him to lead worship, Bonhoeffer opened to Isaiah and then to Mark's Gospel. He spoke quietly about the God who enters suffering rather than standing apart from it. Then he shared what bread there was.

He had barely finished when two plainclothes officers appeared at the door. "Prisoner Bonhoeffer, get ready and come with us." He paused, turned to a fellow prisoner, and said, "This is the end — for me, the beginning of life." The next morning, at Flossenbürg, he was executed.

In that upper room centuries earlier, Jesus also knew exactly what was coming. He could see the cross casting its shadow over the table. Yet He took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and said, "This is My body." He lifted the cup and called it the blood of the covenant, poured out for many.

Both men broke bread in the full knowledge of death. And both declared, in that breaking, that love would have the final word.