Friday, March 04, 2005
The cost of discipleship
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a book called the cost of discipleship.
In it he stated "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die."
For Bonhoeffer we could not seperate discipleship from its cost, it has to cost us something.
Last night in my class we were discussing the Good Samaritan. We were discussing the social aspects of that story, what the social reality was for each of the characters. Perhaps what that story meant in 1st Century Palestine. Then of course, the question was asked "what does it mean for today". The thing about the story that jumped out at me last night was that the Samaritan paid 2 denariis, 2 days wages, to the inn keeper for looking after the victim. It cost the Samaritan a fair bit to be a good neighbour. And of course jesus command is to "go and do likewise"
I know that I have never spent $200 looking after a victim of a bashing or robbery.
If you don't know the story of Bonhoeffer, then you should enter him into yahoo and read some of the background to his story. He is an amazing man.
He grew up in Germany in the years between the world wars. He left Germany after Hitler came to power but felt God call him back to Germany to minister to his people. He was actually on the last passenger boat to travel from the US to Germany before the war broke out.
His convictions led him to question what did God mean, what did discipleship mean in Hitler's Germany.
Martin Luther once wrote: "A religion that gives nothing, costs nothing, and suffers nothing, is worth nothing."
In it he stated "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die."
For Bonhoeffer we could not seperate discipleship from its cost, it has to cost us something.
Last night in my class we were discussing the Good Samaritan. We were discussing the social aspects of that story, what the social reality was for each of the characters. Perhaps what that story meant in 1st Century Palestine. Then of course, the question was asked "what does it mean for today". The thing about the story that jumped out at me last night was that the Samaritan paid 2 denariis, 2 days wages, to the inn keeper for looking after the victim. It cost the Samaritan a fair bit to be a good neighbour. And of course jesus command is to "go and do likewise"
I know that I have never spent $200 looking after a victim of a bashing or robbery.
If you don't know the story of Bonhoeffer, then you should enter him into yahoo and read some of the background to his story. He is an amazing man.
He grew up in Germany in the years between the world wars. He left Germany after Hitler came to power but felt God call him back to Germany to minister to his people. He was actually on the last passenger boat to travel from the US to Germany before the war broke out.
His convictions led him to question what did God mean, what did discipleship mean in Hitler's Germany.
Martin Luther once wrote: "A religion that gives nothing, costs nothing, and suffers nothing, is worth nothing."
