Bonhoeffer Movie

There is a new movie being released about Dietrich Bonhoeffer; I hope it is good – portraying his life and thought and their complexities. From the safety of the United States Bonhoeffer returned to Germany to suffer with his nation and his brethren.

As I wrote to a friend yesterday, there is nothing simple about Bonhoeffer. If the movie gives you closure then it has fallen short, but if it gives you something to wrestle with the rest of your life, well then it was likely worth viewing. 

I was 15 or 16 when I first read Discipleship, that was 1966; it continues to challenge me. When I read Bonhoeffer’s statement, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die,” my heart was captured for it melded into Mark 8:34 – 38. Some things you only have to read once to remember, you only have to read once for them to be burned into your soul. Any expression of Christianity that falls short of Christ’s call to discipleship is another religion. It is either all for Jesus Christ or nothing for Jesus Christ. If Bonhoeffer had not believed this he would have remained in the United States.

Now how Bonhoeffer worked this out, especially in his final years, here we have the complexity which defined his life and ministry and ultimately his civic engagement. To know his life in more than a superficial fashion is to realize the complexity – even if we can’t swim in the deep waters that Bonhoeffer did. 

If you have never read Bonhoeffer, then I think Discipleship, Reader's Edition, published by Fortress Press is the place to begin. It is translated by Barbara Green and Reinhard Krauss - a wonderful book by Bonhoeffer.

The definitive biography is, Dietrich Bonhoeffer A Biography, by Eberhard Bethge, Revised Edition, Fortress Press. It is worth the journey at over 900 pages. By the end you'll know more than when you started.

Bethge was not only married to Bonhoeffer's niece, but he served in ministry with Bonhoeffer and was the executor of Bonhoeffer's literary estate. He also edited 6 volumes of Bonhoeffer's collected works and numerous other Bonhoeffer writings. Bethge was Bonhoeffer’s friend. 

A few years ago a “popular” biography of Bonhoeffer was published that was not only poorly written on a literary level, but which has inaccuracies. When historians pointed out these inaccuracies the author accused them of nitpicking. Sadly, this author is currently misrepresenting Bonhoeffer and twisting Bonhoeffer’s thinking and actions for political ends and to promote Christian heresy. 

I will likely wait to stream the movie when it is available and then perhaps share some thoughts on it. Hopefully the movie portrays complexity to some degree, and challenges us to live for Jesus and others, to wrestle with life and live in tension, being faithful to Christ, always to Christ. Hopefully the movie will not give us closure. 

Finishing the Race - Strong! (11)

What do we see in the conflict that occurred in Antioch between Peter and Paul? What can we learn? (Galatians 2:11 – 21). 

Peter, who Christ had expressly spoken to about calling no man unclean (Acts 10:1 – 11:18) and who had brought the Gospel to the non-Jewish peoples, was visiting Antioch and fellowshipping with Gentiles, including eating with them. Eating with others is a special form of fellowship, is it not? Is not our Lord’s Supper a sacred element of our koinonia with one another? 

But then “certain men from James” showed up and he distanced himself from the non-Jews when it came time to eat, holding himself “aloof” and “fearing the party of the circumcision.” When the rest of the Jews saw this, that is those Jews who were living in Antioch, “they joined in the hypocrisy” and even Barnabas “was carried away by their hypocrisy.” 

Before we get too judgmental about Peter’s behavior, let’s be thankful that the relationship between Paul and Peter (and Paul and Barnabas) was secure to the point that Paul could write about this after the fact to help others understand the Gospel and the grace of God. This is not something that needed to be hidden and not ever talked about, but rather something that the Galatians could learn from, and something that Christians have hopefully been learning from for the past 2,000 years. 

Paul was a good model for Barnabas in Galatians 2:11 – 21, and I think that Barnabas was likely a good model for Paul in Acts 15:36 – 41. Hopefully John Mark learned by observing both conflicts, and I am sure he especially learned in seeing the reconciliation between Paul and Barnabas, however that played out. 

We finish strong when our relationships are strong, when we are committed to one another, when we learn and grow through conflict, when our mutual commitment to Jesus Christ transcends our relational difficulties. 

The appearance of this “certain group from James” reminds us that there are professing Christians who don’t care what the Gospel really teaches, their religious traditions and self-righteousness are more important than Jesus and others. In spite of the teaching of Jesus, in spite of Jesus’s words to Peter, in spite of the Council in Jerusalem (Acts 15), in spite of the working of the Holy Spirit and the unfolding of the grace of God, there were professing Christians who insisted on keeping old ways of thinking and living, who taught that their righteousness before God rested on their religious works.

We still see this in congregations, in denominations and movements, in cities and in regions. As Paul writes in Galatians 4:29, “But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also.” 

It is really a copout when we say, “Well the church isn’t perfect, it is made up of sinners.” The Bible doesn’t teach that, the Bible teaches that the Church of Jesus Christ consists of saints and that when we encounter sin, including hypocrisy, that we ought to repent of it and live as those who belong to Jesus Christ and who are members of one another. 

Hypocrisy hurts the innocent, it crushes those young in Christ, it drives people away from Jesus, it makes us stink and look ugly in the eyes of the world, a world than needs Jesus. Again, what Jesus taught meant nothing to these “certain men from James,” what mattered to them was maintaining their false Gospel and their self-righteousness. These people are still with us, and they are often so successful in their messages that we don’t see them, in fact many of us follow them rather than the Lamb of God. Others are so entrenched in their religious power structures that their predatory behavior is virtually unassailable, and their practice of secrecy and crushing the opposition by sheer power, ostracization, and money overwhelm those who raise a voice against their perfidious practices. 

Still, let us take care that we are not too harsh with Peter and Barnabas. Let us not be so foolish as to discount peer pressure. 

Have you ever been having a joyous time with people when all of a sudden something happened to take you aback, to hurt you, to shock you? What was that like? Did you recover? How long did it take you to recover? How did you recover? 

I think Peter was having a ball in Antioch, I think he was enjoying his time with all of the brothers and sisters, Jew and Gentile. I think Peter was looking back on his vision of the great sheet filled with clean and unclean animals (Acts 10) and of his time with Cornelius and saying, “Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus. O thank you Jesus.” I think the worship was great, I think the teaching times were great, and I think the meals were wonderful – just think of the different types of food Peter might have experienced in Antioch – a cosmopolitan city. Can you see him asking, “What is that? Who made that? That’s your grandmother’s recipe?”

I think Peter was enjoying himself, maybe having the time of his life. I think that in his innocence his guard was down, and then it happened, “certain men from James showed up.”

Friends, let’s not dismiss out of hand the power and surprise of peer pressure, especially when we don’t see it coming. 

Now maybe I’m off base about the situation with Peter, but I’m not sure about that and I want to think the best of Peter. I think Peter was a “what you see is what you get” kind of man. Now should Peter have done better? Of course, especially considering his position as one of the leading apostles. I imagine Peter learned through this, as hopefully we’ve learned when we’ve been confronted with peer pressure and hypocrisy. 

We’ll continue to ponder this in the next reflection in this series. 

Finishing the Race – Strong! (10)

 

People who are on the same team and passionate about something are likely to have conflict. People who are in love with Jesus and passionate about Him are also likely to have conflict with one another. Conflict is not, in and of itself, bad; it is the nature of the conflict that can be bad and whether the conflict is resolved to the glory of Jesus and our friendships and partnerships strengthened. Sometimes conflict can blindside us, other times we see it coming. 

Before Mark set out with Barnabas in Acts15, in the midst of conflict between Paul and Barnabas, he witnessed another conflict in Antioch, this one was between Paul and Peter, and I think the importance of this conflict and its result cannot be overstated. I also think that Paul and Peter demonstrate things we need to learn about relationships and the lordship of Jesus Christ. We read about this in Galatians 2:11 – 21. 

[11] But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. [12] For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. [13] And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. [14] But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

[15] We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; [16] yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

[17] But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! [18] For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. [19] For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. [20] I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. [21] I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. (ESV)

What do you see about Peter, Paul, and Barnabas in this passage? What can we learn about the relationship between Paul and Peter? What might we have thought had we been witnesses to this? 

We’ll pick this back up in our next post in the series.