Bonhoeffer: Discipleship, Suffering and the Body of Christ

Bonhoeffer’s chapter entitled The Body of Christ begins with an important assertion:  that “….although Jesus has died and risen again, the baptized can still live in his bodily presence and enjoy communion with him.  So far from impoverishing them his departure brings a new gift Lord.…our communion with him is richer and more assured than it was for them, for the communion and presence which we have is that of the glorified Lord.”  Bonhoeffer works through a discussion on the two natures of Christ and his bearing of the sins of the world in his body, the incarnation of Christ as the image of God.  He then moves on to a core and very Lutheran discussion of the sacraments as the place where we find the Body of Christ.

“How then do we come to participate in the Body of Christ, who did all this [underwent crucifixion and death, and was resurrected for our salvation] for us?  It is certain that there can be no fellowship or communion with him except through his Body.  For only through that Body can we find acceptance and salvation.  The answer is, through the two sacraments of his Body, baptism and the Lord’s supper.”

“The sacraments begin and end in the Body of Christ, and it is only the presence of that Body which makes them what they are.  The word of preaching is insufficient to make us members of Christ’s Body; the sacraments also have to be added.  Baptism incorporates us into the unity of the Body of Christ, and the Lord’s Supper fosters and sustains our fellowship and communion in that Body.”

Christ is the Word made flesh; the sacraments are the same, the mystic union of God’s eternal and saving Word with the physical elements of water, bread and wine.  As Roman’s 6: 3ff reminds us—we were baptized into Christ’s death, buried with him in baptism and also raised with him into new life; in baptism we are united into the death of Christ, so that sin and death die and we are born again to life and salvation.  In 1 Corinthians 11: 23ff, Paul reiterates Christ’s words to the disciples during the last supper, declaring that the bread is Christ’s body for us and the blood is the new covenant for the forgiveness of sins, which we should eat in remembrance.  The old covenant tied atonement to the blood of lambs and goats; the new covenant is the body and blood of Christ for the atonement of humanity.   The writer of the book of Hebrews paraphrases Leviticus 17:11, reminding us that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.  When we talk about the Body of Christ, it is not simply an allegory; the enfleshment of God—the ability of God to bleed and die—is a cornerstone to our Christian faith.  And therefore we cannot make our Christian faith into something disembodied, something of the spirit only, despising the involvement of our fleshly bodies.  There is a sentiment in modern Christendom, unmindful of its gnostic roots, that prioritizes the un-en-fleshed, the of-spirit, the un-tangibles and imaginable-s as true spirituality.  The reality of the Christian faith is the reality of Christ’s incarnation, and therefore of the centrality of physical bodies to the Christian life of faith and salvation.  

Church movements, tangents of belief and believers, which emphasize the spiritual and de-emphasize or even denigrate the physical, seem to do so with two distinct results:  a disbelief in the true presence of Christ’s body and blood in the Lord’s Supper; and a desire to avoid pain and suffering in life, to focus more on the glorified Christ and de-emphasize the suffering and death of Christ on the cross.  I’m not sure if the first—the disbelief in the real presence—is a cause or effect of this de-emphasis on the body versus the spirit.  But to remove the reality of Christ’s presence in His supper certainly relegates it to only a symbol, and it is not a far stretch to see something first as a symbol and next as a fairy tale, a notion without power or relevance, only something childish and to be outgrown.  When we take Christ at His word and hold the elements of bread and wine to simultaneously and mysteriously be Christ’s true body and blood, shed for us for the forgiveness of sins, these elements retain their power in our imaginations and thereby also in our reality.  To say to oneself “Even though my rationale mind cannot grasp this, even though it is a mystery to me, I believe it by faith in Christ’s words to me; the truth of this is beyond my ability to understand but it does not make it un-true” leaves us submitting to the supernatural power of God in our lives, and also gives us an anchor point where the supernatural reaches down into the natural world.  The altar of Christ where He gives us His true body and blood for our forgiveness and strengthening of our faith—this is our touchpoint to eternity, the place where He makes Himself known to His people, the place where we come back to in spirit and in mind to reassure ourselves that God is present in power and mystery, as well as in love and mercy.  Without this confidence, where we say only “this is a symbol of Christ’s body and blood”, we lose this intersection with mystery and power; we are left only with God’s power and presence as only an idea, a notion, a symbol; the idea that God is present with His people fades, because we have only a symbolic representation instead of a mysterious nexus. 

Without the belief in the real presence, the place where God still dwells with His people, it is no wonder we then would seek to avoid pain and suffering: if God is not really here with us, how and where might He really exercise power for our good?  And if God is only present symbolically in His supper, is He only present symbolically in this world? If He is not really with us, difficulties and pain become the only place where the spiritual meets the physical and we are left without the defense of the physical-spiritual power of the sacraments.  When I suffer, I suffer in my spirit and in my body:  in physical pain and sickness that causes helplessness and hopelessness; in the grief that causes agony of heart as well as tormenting the body with nausea, headaches, and insomnia; in the stress of circumstances resulting in racing thoughts and clenched jaws, ulcers and lost appetite.  In our good times, it is easy to preserve the illusion that we are creatures of spirit only, trapped in an ugly container of meat:  I feel happy, joyful, creative and free in my mind and spirit, and my body is silently along for the ride, just a carriage for the lightness of my spirit and heart.  But suffering wakes us to the reality of our bodies.  It is suffering that reminds us that we need Christ Jesus, Word made Flesh, who still is present for us in His body and blood in the sacrament of His supper.  Without confidence in the promised presence in that sacrament, no wonder we shy from suffering—we have no weapon against it.

There is a Rich Mullins song titled “Hard to Get” which cries out in raw grief and confusion to a God who seems so distant.  One of the lines is “Will those who mourn be left uncomforted while You're up there just playing hard to get?”  I love the song, because it speaks with such honesty about the loneliness, pain and fear we experience here on earth; it is easy to feel that God is far away from us, “up there playing hard to get.”   But we know that Christ did not abandon us; He promised us His Spirit (John 14: 15ff) and He gave us His body and blood for the forgiveness of sins.  He is really and truly still with us.  When our minds and hearts doubt this fact, we are invited to eat and drink—to experience with our bodies, our eyes and mouths—His real presence with us.  It is not a mystic confidence in the ethereal presence and promises of God; He is really here with us.  

But I digress.  Back to Bonhoeffer.  In this chapter, he says “He suffers and dies in our stead, and can do so because of the incarnation.  The Body of Christ is in the strictest sense of the word “for us” as it hangs on the cross and “for us” as it is given to us in the Word, in baptism and in the Lord’s Supper.  This is the ground of all bodily fellowship with Jesus Christ.  The Body of Christ is identical with the new humanity which he has taken upon him.  It is in fact the Church.  Jesus Christ is at once himself and his Church.  Since the first Whit Sunday the Life of Christ has been perpetuated on earth in the form of his Body, the Church.  Here is his body, crucified and risen, here is the humanity he took upon him….To be in Christ therefore means to be in the Church.”

We are the Church of Christ.  We are His body.  As He suffered, we should expect to suffer; as He loved the world and died for the sins of all people, so we also should love and serve others even being willing to die for others.  Being the Body of Christ means suffering like Christ.  This is not something we seek to avoid, but something we endure with patience and in faith, strengthened by the Spirit, the Word and the Sacraments—which are given exactly for that purpose, the furthering of the kingdom and the strengthening of the church.  While our suffering in life has no atoning purpose or power, Godly suffering in this life is “…allowed to benefit the Body of Christ…”.  Scriptures are full of reminders that we should expect to suffer.  For example, 2 Corinthians 4: 10 – 12:  “We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.  For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body.  So then, death is at work in us, but life as at work in you.”   And as Peter tells us in 1 Peter 4: 12 – 13 “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.  But rejoice that you participate in the suffering of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.”   Suffering for Christ, suffering on earth as a Christian living in a sin-filled world, should not be viewed as foreign, strange or shocking—as Christ suffered, so we too will suffer.  But Christ is with us in our suffering, by His Spirit and in His sacraments. Christ came not only as incarnate God made flesh, but simultaneously as the eternal Temple of God.  Bonhoeffer summarizes the building and destruction of the various temples in the Old and New Testaments, those structures which were imperfect and therefore doomed; Christ Jesus is the perfect Temple.  He was destroyed, in that His body was crucified; but He was raised to life again and His resurrected Body is the eternal, true and living Temple. United with Him, we also are temples of God.  In Christ, we are the Temple of the Holy Spirit.  Like Christ, we will suffer on earth; like Christ, we will be raised to new and perfect life in heaven where we will serve God eternally as His holy people in the Temple of Christ the Lamb.

1)      Reflect on your view of suffering.  There are consequences of sin which cause suffering, and there is suffering which is part of life, and there is suffering which is unique to the Christian life as a result of following Christ and carrying His name.  Do you ever conflate the various forms of suffering (eg, believe that suffering the consequence of a sin is part of suffering for Christ)?  Do you view all forms of suffering as evil, to be avoided, and as a sign of God’s displeasure? 

2)      Meditate on the suffering of Christ Jesus:  His suffering in body and spirit; His anguish over the corruption of sin He saw and experienced daily while on earth, the consequence of the fall manifest in His good creation; His sorrow over unbelief; His sadness over the sickness, pain and death experienced by people; His anguish on the cross, the beating and the crown of thorns, the mocking and the nails, the moment where God Himself turned His face away.  How does this frame your understanding of the nature of suffering?

3)      In Baptism, you put on Christ.  In the Lord’s Supper, He is present for you in His body and blood in the bread and the wine.  How does the reality of these gifts strengthen your faith and comfort you when you suffer?  How do these gifts comfort you in all kinds of suffering—when you suffer the consequences of sin; when you experience suffering because the world is evil and fallen; and when you suffer specifically as a Christian?