RADICAL PASTOR
BECOMING LIKE CHRIST
Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes in his preface to Discipleship: 'When holy Scripture speaks of following Jesus, it proclaims that people are free from all human rules, from everything which pressures, burdens or causes worry and torment of conscience ...from the hard yoke of their own laws to be under the yoke of Jesus Christ ... only where Jesus' entire commandment and the call to unlimited discipleship remain intact are persons fully free to enter into Jesus' community. Those who follow Jesus' commandment entirely, who let Jesus' yoke rest on them without resistance, will find the burdens they must bear to be light.' 1
'Costly grace is the hidden treasure in the field, for the sake of which people go and sell everything they have.' 2 Bonhoeffer writes, 'The first time, when Luther entered the monastery, he left everything behind except himself, his pious self. This time even that was taken from him. He followed, not by his own merit, but by God's grace.' 3 Discipleship is costly for it identifies us with Jesus. 'Just as Christ is only Christ as one who suffers and is rejected, so a disciple is a disciple only in suffering and being rejected, thereby participating in the crucifixion.' 4 Describing discipleship, he writes, 'Self-denial means knowing only Christ, no longer knowing oneself. It means no longer seeing oneself, only him who is going ahead, no longer seeing the way which is too difficult for us.' 5
Discipleship is for every baptised person. 'The cross is not the terrible end of a pious, happy life. Instead, it stands at the beginning of community with Jesus Christ ... because Jesus' every command calls us to die with our wishes and desires, and because we cannot want our own death, therefore Jesus Christ in his word has to be our death and our life. The call to follow Jesus, baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, is death and life.' 6
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