Bonhoeffer

  I received Eric Metaxas' biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, titled Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, as a gift several months ago, and as it takes me a little while to get around to any new books, only recently finished it.  It's a great read, though--it's hard to put down this engrossing story.

  I was trying to determine exactly what it was that made the story so captivating, and I think it's a combination of things.  The first is the backdrop of the story--as Hitler gains power and the atrocities escalate, it's hard to imagine that any human can be so purely evil.  I have studied the holocaust and know many of the fact, but the story still startles me in the degree of its terror and hatred.  Perhaps the story of one individual in the midst of such chaos is able to bring forth emotions that pure statistics cannot.  The loss of Bonhoeffer's life in the midst of violence is such a waste of a young mind.  And yet the telling of each story, one by one, makes the holocaust a story of six million tragedies, rather than just one.

  The second thing that makes this book so powerful is Bonhoeffer's stand against these horrors.  The pastor and theologian joins the resistance movement against Hitler, and his faith informs everything he does.  His integrity is amazing--he is so firmly rooted in the Scriptures and in his faith, and nothing the man does seems to drift from that anchor.  He sees God's call to resist the cultural shift towards Hitler and implores others to join in the resistance, to not be caught up in the worship of Hitler and Germany, but his voice is drowned out by the celebration of Germany's revival.

  Bonhoeffer's views on death are also somewhat inspiring, especially for me, a somewhat anxious pastor.  Bonhoeffer doesn't fear death.  For him it is a beginning--in his own words, 'That life only really begins when it ends here on earth, that all that is here is only the prologue before the curtain goes up--that is for young and old alike to think about.  Why are we so afraid when we think about death?...  Death is only dreadful for those who live in dread and fear of it. ...  Death is grace, the greatest gift of grace that God gives to people who believe in Him.  Death is mild, death is sweet & gentle; it beckons to us with heavenly power, if only we realize that it is the gateway to our homeland, the tabernacle of joy, the everlasting kingdom of peace.'

  The events in this book are surrounded by death, from the death of Bonhoeffer's brother during WWI to his own death at the conclusion of the book.  But death does not define the book any more than it define's Bonhoeffer's life.  His life is a story of victory, of good triumphing over evil, even when it seems as though evil will prevail.  Bonhoeffer knows the end of his story, the end of all our stories, and he urges us to cling to that truth, to let that truth affect everything we do, and live bold lives of faithfulness to God, rather than cowering in fear when the devil tries to win the day.