The Flavor of the Martyr

Since my late teens, after a first-hand exposure to third-world missions in Brazilia, Brazil, I have been enraptured by the testimonies of those who have given up everything for the sake of the call, especially those called to martyrdom. One who came to be one of my favorites was Dietrich Bonhoeffer, author of The Cost of Discipleship. During World War II, he was a formidable antagonist to the socialistic/fascist regime of Hitler both as a spiritual leader and participant in the German underground. His friends, knowing his uncompromising faith and character, feared for his safety as war broke out and tried to convince him to flee to safety within English borders. They managed to convince him for a time, but the compassion for his fellow believers in Germany who were being persecuted, his sense of duty to combat tyranny in his homeland, and his righteous anger against the apathy and indifference of the Church, drove him back to endure the hardship of battle on the front lines. In the article “Death of a Martyr,” written by Reinhold Niebuhr in his book Christianity and Crisis, Bonhoeffer is quoted from a letter he wrote to Niebuhr before returning to Germany as to his reasoning that drew him back:

“I shall have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people. . . Christians in Germany will face the terrible alternative of either willing the defeat of their nation in order that Christian civilization may survive, or willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying our civilization. I know which of these alternatives I must choose; but I cannot make this choice in security.”

Years later he wrote in prison, “You must never doubt that I am thankful and glad to go the way which I am being led. My past life is abundantly full of God’s mercy, and, above all sin, stands the forgiving love of the Crucified.” In 1945, in a German concentration camp that was liberated only a few weeks later, Bonhoeffer was killed for his role in opposing the existing regime, for opposing the forces of darkness.

Let me be clear by saying my purpose in posting Bonhoeffer’s testimony is not to compare Obama with Hitler; my purpose is not about Obama at all. We as the Church are asleep and our country continues to reflect the results of our apathy. Bonhoeffer was a major contributor to the ecumenical movement given his understanding of the powerlessness invoked by division, however he knew ecumenism would not happen until individual believers came to terms with the living God in whom they professed faith and the gospel they claimed to profess. Just as it is not possible to be in the presence of God without being changed, it is equally impossible to be in his presence without being called to action. As Christians we are made salt to be used as salt. “Naysaying Christians who would prefer to be salt kept in privatized bottles on isolated shelves must be reminded that the reign of God we proclaim calls for radical commitment to our identity (we are salt) and sacrificial immersion (salt must be dispersed in order to season).”* Like Bonhoeffer, let us go forth as salt, adding to our world the same evocative flavor.

*Jill Carratini, A Slice of Infinity, “Living With a Foreign Worldview.”