“Jesus Christ has to suffer and be rejected. … Suffering and being
rejected are not the same. Even in
his suffering Jesus could have been the celebrated Christ. Indeed, the entire
compassion and admiration of the world could focus on the suffering. Looked
upon as something tragic, the suffering could in itself convey its own value,
its own honor and dignity. But Jesus is the Christ who was rejected in his
suffering. Rejection removed all dignity and honor from his suffering. It
had to be dishonorable suffering. Suffering and rejection express in summary
form the cross of Jesus. Death on the cross means to suffer and to die as
one rejected and cast out. It was by divine necessity that Jesus had to suffer
and be rejected. Any attempt to hinder what is necessary is satanic. Even,
or especially, if such an attempt comes from the circle of disciples, because
it intends to prevent Christ from being Christ. The fact that it is Peter, the
rock of the church, who makes himself guilty doing this just after he has
confessed Jesus to be the Christ and has been commissioned by Christ, shows
that from its very beginning the church has taken offense at the suffering of
Christ. It does not want that kind of Lord, and as Christ's church it does not
want to be forced to accept the law of suffering from its Lord.” [p. 84 of Discipleship and the Cross]
AUTHOR: Dietrich Bonhoeffer (German: [ˈdiːtʁɪç
ˈboːnhœfɐ]; February 4, 1906 – April 9, 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor,
theologian, dissident anti-Nazi and founding member of the Confessing Church.
His writings on Christianity's role in the secular world have become widely
influential, and many have labelled his book The Cost of Discipleship a
modern classic.
Apart from his
theological writings, Bonhoeffer was known for his staunch resistance to the Nazi
dictatorship, including vocal opposition to Hitler's euthanasia program and
genocidal persecution of the Jews. He was arrested in April 1943 by the Gestapo
and imprisoned at Tegel prison for one and a half years. Later he was
transferred to a Nazi concentration camp. After being allegedly associated with
the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, he was briefly tried, along with other accused
plotters, including former members of the Abwehr (the German Military
Intelligence Office), and then executed by hanging on 9 April 1945 as the Nazi
regime collapsed, just two weeks before Allied forces liberated the camp and
three weeks before Hitler's suicide.
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