Come & Die
Not the cheeriest invitation, but a true summary of the Christian life. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran pastor in Germany who remained there in order to serve the cause of gospel during Hitler’s reign. He went to prison in 1943 after money used to send Jews to Switzerland was traced to him. When friends attempted to free him from prison in the fall of 1944, he chose to remain in order to protect others who would have been harmed or killed as a result of his escape. He met his death on April 9th, 1945 at the hands of the S.S. Black Guards, just three weeks before the allies liberated the city.
“Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. It may be a death like that of the first disciples who had to leave home and work to follow him, or it may be a death like Luther’s, who had to leave the monastery and go out into the world. But it is the same death every time—death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old man at his call. Jesus’ summons to the rich young man was a calling him to die, because only the man who is dead to his own will can follow Christ. In fact every command of Jesus is a call to die, with all our affections and lusts. But we do not want to die, and therefore Jesus Christ and his call are necessarily our death as well as our life. The call to discipleship, and baptism in the name of Jesus Christ means both death and life. The call of Christ, his baptism, sets the Christian in the middle of the daily arena against sin and the devil. Every day he encounters new temptations, and every day he must suffer anew for Jesus Christ’s sake. The wounds and scars he receives in the fray are living tokens of this participation in the cross of his Lord.” The Cost of Discipleship