Bonhoeffer: Blessedness in Cruciform Suffering

Whether by Bonhoeffer’s design or arrangement of the editors, the second portion of Bonhoeffer’s Cost of Discipleship is further subdivided into sections, with Chapters 6-13 discussing Matthew 5 and being grouped under the title “The Extraordinariness of the Christian Life.”  Chapter 6 specifically addresses the Beatitudes found in Matthew 5: 1-12, which is part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  Bonhoeffer expounds on the meaning of this passage for those who are called to follow Christ, called to be His disciples.

I have a large letter sign spelling “Blessed” sitting above my cabinets.  The word “blessed” is turned into hashtags for photos and posts, with the implication being that “blessed” means lucky, privileged and happy.  When we read the Beatitudes—really read them, not just skim them with an eye for the good stuff—we see that lucky and happy is the opposite of what Jesus is describing.  I want to deconstruct them, to shatter them such that we can see the picture that Jesus really painting with His words:

Blessed are…                                                            the poor in spirit…those who mourn…the meek…those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…the merciful…the pure in heart…the peacemakers…those who are persecuted because of righteousness…

…for…     theirs is the kingdom of heaven…they will be comforted…they will inherit the earth…they will be filled…they will be shown mercy…they will see God…they will be called sons of God…theirs is the kingdom of heaven…

 

We love that second column, the promises of a kingdom and an inheritance.  It is very easy to skip over exactly what that first column says.  The first column describes a life of sadness, suffering, humility and self-denial—and it describes it using the present-tense.  The second column full of blessings uses a future-tense, except where it reiterates and bookends with "theirs is the kingdom of heaven."  We are told we will suffer in this life, but we are promised blessings in Christ in this life and eternal blessings with Him in heaven.  We should not become confused about what life on earth will look like, and what being “blessed” as children of God in Christ, as disciples called by Jesus, looks like.  We are “now and not yet” people—we are indeed blessed now, baptized into Christ and heirs of eternity because of His redemptive sacrifice for us; but we are also not yet fully in possession of that inheritance here on earth.  1 Peter1: 3-6 says “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.  In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”

We are “now and not yet” people.  We are, now here on earth in this life, “baptized into Christ and heirs of eternity because of His redemptive sacrifice” but that inheritance which “can never perish, spoil or fade” is kept in heaven for us, shielded by God’s power through faith and preserved even through great suffering here on earth.  We are indeed blessed—we are God’s children!  But we have not yet fully come into our inheritance, and here on earth we suffer and we hunger for the Kingdom of God of which we are true citizens and heirs.  

Bonhoeffer ties the first column of the beatitudes—our blessed suffering here on earth—to the call of Christ, and lumps it into his larger discussion of the “Cost of Discipleship.”  One cost of being a disciple of Christ is the mourning and meekness, the suffering and persecution, the grieving over sin and the sorrows of the world.  Bonhoeffer says “External privation and personal renunciation both have the same ground—the call and the promise of Jesus. Neither possess any intrinsic claim to recognition.”  That is, our suffering has no value in itself, only as it is part of discipleship to Christ, of following His call.  Bonhoeffer frequently describes that as “cruciform suffering”, that is, suffering that is like Christ’s suffering because it comes out of being a follower of Christ and of seeking to be His disciple.  

My “Blessed” sign looks down on my warm kitchen, my spacious living room, my fridge literally overflowing with food, my freshly cleaned floor and my piles of clean, warm, clothing.  In a way, that “Blessed” sign convicts me.  I am very blessed in every earthly way.  Am I really living as a disciple of Jesus Christ, living a life of cruciform suffering, of privation, mourning, meekness and persecution?  “With each beatitude the gulf is widened between the disciples and the people, their call to come forth from the people becomes increasingly manifest.”  Is the gulf between me and the world becoming “increasingly manifest” as I draw closer to God, as I, as Bonhoeffer says “…refus[e] to be in tune with the world or to accommodate [myself] to its standards”?

Bonhoeffer again:

 “The emphasis lies on the bearing of sorrow.  The disciple-community does not shake off sorrow as though it were no concern of its own, but willingly bears it.  And in this way they show how close are the bonds which bind them to the rest of humanity.  But at the same time they do not go out of their way to look for suffering, or try to contract out of it by adopting an attitude of contempt and disdain.  They simply bear the suffering which comes their way as they try to follow Jesus Christ, and bear it for His sake.  Sorrow cannot tire them or wear them down, it cannot embitter them or cause them to break down under strain; far from it, for they bear their sorrow in the strength of Him who bears them up, who bore the whole suffering of the world upon the cross.  They stand as the bearers of sorrow in the fellowship of the Crucified:  they stand as strangers in the world in the power of Him who was such a stranger to the world that it crucified Him.”

When we look at the words of Jesus in the Beatitudes, we see that the life of a disciple is one of sorrow.  Jesus is prefigured in Isaiah with the image of the “Man of Sorrows.”   

Isaiah 53: 2b-7 says

“He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.  He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.  Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.  Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by Him and afflicted.  But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.  We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.  He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.”

Despised.  Rejected.  A man of sorrows.  Familiar with suffering.  One from whom men hide their faces. Despised.  Stricken.  Smitten.  Afflicted.  Pierced. Crushed.  Punished.  Wounded.  Like a lamb to the slaughter.

Poor in spirit.  Mourning.  Meek.  Hunger and thirsting for righteousness.  Merciful.  Peacemaker.  Persecuted because of righteousness.

The suffering of the called disciples of Jesus Christ is indeed cruciform.  As He suffered on earth, so we will suffer.  This world is not our home; we are only strangers and sojourners here, called to live in faith and perseverance as we love and serve others.  We long for our heavenly home, we live as those dwelling in temporary tents (2 Cor 5: 1-5), longing for the comfort and security of our eternal houses in heaven.  We suffer for Jesus’ sake, as the world cannot bear us and if the world did accept us, we should question whether we are truly bearing the cross of Christ aright.  “The curse, the deadly persecution and evil slander confirm the blessed state of their disciples in their fellowship with Jesus.” Bonhoeffer says.  “It could not be otherwise, for these meek strangers are bound to provoke the world to insult, violence and slander.  Too menacing, too loud are the voices of these poor meek men, too patient and too silent in their suffering.  Too powerful are the testimony of their poverty and their endurance of the wrongs of the world.  This is fatal, and so, while Jesus calls them blessed, the world cries: “Away with them, away with them!”  Yes, but whither?  To the kingdom of heaven.”  We are not heirs of this broken world, but heirs of the renewed world in eternity with God in Christ.  

1)      How do you define “blessed”  in your life?  Does it look more like the blessedness describe by Jesus in Matthew 5:1-12, or does it look more like wealth, warmth, comfort and security?

2)      Bonhoeffer would discourage us from seeking out suffering, but rather to take with prayerful grace and confident faith the suffering that comes to us.  Where is there “cruciform suffering” already present in your life that you may desire an escape from, but may also recognize as a call sorrowful, mournful, meek patience which marks one of Christ’s “blessed”?  

  

3)      In the Lord’s Prayer, (which comes in Matthew6), Jesus tells us to pray “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven….”.  Consider the suffering in your life.  How does that suffering contribute to God’s kingdom coming and His will being done on earth as it is in heaven.  How is that suffering therefore “blessed?” 

4)      Prayerfully consider where you suffer.  Confess to God where you have been angry, prideful or selfish in the face of suffering.  Pray for wisdom to see where that is “cruciform suffering” that is part of God’s will and His kingdom coming, or part of bearing the suffering of the world as Christ bore the sins of the world on the cross.  And pray for wisdom to see where your suffering may be a result of sinful choices which are not part of bearing the cross of Christ.  Pray for strength to bear whatever that suffering is, with grace and peace, and in meekness and humility.