Bonhoeffer: Discipleship and the Individual with Christ as Mediator

Bonhoeffer’s chapter 5 is entitled “Discipleship and the Individual.”  His discussion centers around the individual faith-relationship which each Christian has with Christ; the role of Christ as Mediator between each and all; and the requirement to both give up all for the sake of Christ, but with certainty that we will receive back one hundredfold…with persecutions.  It is a relatively short but thought provoking chapter.  

I found his discussions of Christ as Mediator particularly interesting.  Bonhoeffer states that all things and all people can only be made available to us through Christ the Mediator; without Him, we have no direct relationships, no interactions, we possess nothing.  When we respond to the call of Christ in faith, we respond only as an individual; we reject the sin of the world, we reject all worldly relationships….but then through Christ the Mediator, we receive them back again.  Not to revel in the worldliness of the world (Bonhoeffer says that would be again justification of sin), but because Christ is the Mediator who unifies all in all.  “There can only be a complete breach with the immediacies of life:  the call of Christ brings us as individuals face to face with the Mediator.”  And later “We cannot establish direct contact outside ourselves except through Him, through His word, and through our following of Him.  To think otherwise is to deceive ourselves.”  

I find this idea described in Paul’s writings in 2 Corinthians 5, where he talks about Christ reconciling the world to Himself.  “…we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.  And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him Who died for them and was raised again.  So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view.  Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!  All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gives us the ministry of reconciliation:  that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them….God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”

In my mind, I see Parable of the Weeds; I’ve thought of this parable while weeding my own yard, knowing that I could not weed as thoroughly as I wanted for fear of disrupting the tender seedlings of grass which I had intentionally sown and wanted to thrive.  In the same way, Christ describes a malicious enemy who sows weed seeds into a field of wheat.  The only option for the farmer is to let both weeds and wheat thrive together until the time of harvest, whereupon the weeds will be pulled up, thrown away and burned and the wheat preserved.  

We live together in this world, weeds and wheat, saved and unsaved.  We are shoulder to shoulder, side by side.  We live in apparent relationships and interrelationships; spouses, families, neighbors, coworkers.  But when Christ comes, unbelievers will be set aside to be burned and believers will be resurrected to eternal glory.  The only true relationships will be those which have been Mediated in Christ, among those people who have all been reconciled together by Christ before God.  We feel that we have many relationships in this world, but only those who have been reconciled by the blood of Christ are united with Him, made a new creation.   We do not see the visible signs of this new creation yet; the weeds and wheat are allowed to thrive together for the present time.  But only those relationships which exist between reconciled children of God are true and real and lasting to eternity.  

This idea of a Mediator who unites all people who are reconciled to Him is also found in Romans 6, where the power of baptism is described.  “…do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?  We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.  If we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection.” 

Bonhoeffer says that “What is not given us through the incarnate Son is not given us by God….Anything I cannot thank God for for the sake of Christ, I may not thank God for at all; to do so would be a sin.”  This is an interesting idea which on the face of it seems not to make sense.  But Bonhoeffer appears to be saying that if there is a gift, a relationship, a circumstance, which is not Godly, not reconciled to God in Christ—that gift is not from God or of God, and is therefore innately evil, still lost to sin.  It is a weed.

This idea of Christ as Mediator also appears in discussions of the Body of Christ, which is defined as those who are baptized into Christ and “given the one Spirit to drink.” (1 Cor 12: 13).  We are all one body, and called to serve together the needs of the Kingdom on earth. Even as without Christ, there are no real relationships, when we are united in Christ through Baptism, we cannot deny our relationships with fellow Christians.  We must suffer and serve together in humility and compassion.

Bonhoeffer makes an interesting statement in this chapter.  “However loving and sympathetic we try to be, however sound our psychology, however frank and open our behavior, we cannot penetrate the incognito of the other man, for there are no direct relationships, not even between soul and soul.  Christ stands between us, and we can only get in touch with our neighbors through Him.  That is why intercession is the most promising way to reach our neighbors, and corporate prayer offered in the name of Christ, the purest form of fellowship.”  

As I read this, I am thinking about the diversity of my personal relationships—parent to child, wife to husband, friend to friend, coworker to coworker, supervisor to employee.  Not all of these relationships are mediated by Christ, the Mediator—not all of these relationships exist between me, a Christian, and another Christian.  Many of my interactions are with those who are not (yet) in Christ.  This quote above would appear to contradict Bonhoeffer’s premise in this chapter:  if I desire a productive, successful or intimate relationship with those who are not Christian—a relationship which is not mediated by Christ—I must still call on Christ the Mediator in prayer.  When I pray for those whom I care about who are not in Christ, I am calling on Christ the Mediator and calling out to God the Father Who has promised to hear me for Jesus’ sake.  In a sense, I am then serving as a mediator for those who are not in Christ, between them and God.  

1)      Consider all of your relationships:  spouse to spouse, parent to child, child to parent, coworker to coworker….Are all of those relationships mediated by Christ the Mediator?  That is, what relationships exist between you and Christians and you and unChristians?  How does this reality flavor both your relationship, and your prayers for these people and about the challenges you face together?

2)      Read 1 Corinthians 12: 12 – 26.  Consider those Christians with whom you are serving, side by side in the Kingdom as part of the Body of Christ.  How can you work to enhance these relationships and the service which is offered by the Body?  What specific challenges, suffering or discord needs to be brought before God in prayer?

3)      If you have been baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28: 18-20), you are a new creation in Christ Jesus (Romans 6: 1-7), you have been united with Christ in His death and will be resurrected even as He was resurrected.  Christ is your Mediator, He stands to defend you before God the Father’s righteous judgements and for His sake you will not be found guilty.  Meditate on the new life you have in Christ, the gift of approaching God through Christ and the promise that your petitions will be heard and your sins forgiven for Jesus’ sake.