The Feast Day for Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Before a noose silenced his truth and ended his life, Bonhoeffer said, “This is the end–for me the beginning of life.”

Today is Wednesday, April 9, 2025, and it is the day that Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed in a German concentration camp in 1945.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a pastor, a brilliant theologian, and a prolific writer on Christian discipleship, despite being murdered by the Nazi regime at the age of 39 Because of his personal discipleship to Christ, Bonhoeffer became a public dissident speaking out against Nazism while living in Germany during Hitler’s rise to power in Europe. The martyred Bonhoeffer had spoken publicly and boldly against Hitler when few had the faith and the courage to do so..

Because of his dissidence, Bonhoeffer was forbidden by Bishop Theodor Heckel to teach in the seminary. In defiance of that ban , Bonhoeffer taught seminarians in an underground seminary in a remote area called Finkenwalde for several years. It became a center of resistance to the Nazis. With other theologians like Karl Barth, Bonhoeffer created a new “Confessing Church” that accused the German Church, which supported the Fuhrer, instead of God, of being false and heretical.

Bonhoeffer was arrested and imprisoned in 1943, but continued to teach even from prison, until he was moved to the Flossenburg concentration camp. While in Flossenburg, the pastor was condemned to death. Without due process, he was hung to death, one month before the war ended. An eyewitness to the brutal murder, said, “In the almost fifty years that I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.^”

Before a noose silenced his truth and ended his life, Bonhoeffer said, “This is the end–for me the beginning of life.”

A particular quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer stands out to me on this day is:

When a madman is tearing through the streets in a car, I can, as a pastor who happens to be on the scene, do more than merely console or bury those who have been run over. I must jump in front of the car and stop it.

Being a consoling and accepting pastor, is what Bonhoeffer called “cheap grace;” but standing up and speaking out against a mad and evil man, is what he called “costly grace following Jesus, no matter what the cost.

Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field, for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.

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We witness more and more people being run over every day, by Donald Trump in a runaway car, accompanied by his billionaire executor of policies, Elon Musk.

Those impacted include:

• Terrified Brown and Black immigrants facing mass deportations, with no record of crimes–some of whom, have already been sent to a brutally violent prison in El Salvador in a careless and heartless error by a White House that refuses to fix it with a simple phone call.

• Women and men who are literally picked up off the street with no warning, by masked unidentified federal agents and sent to unknown locations for simply voicing public opinions the Trump Administration doesn’t like.

• Elderly and disabled citizens unable to get their hard-earned Social Security checks because of surgical cuts in federal staff and the closing of regional offices.

• Thousands of veterans and others in federal service agencies who have lost their jobs and their capacity to serve millions of others.

• Multitudes of people around the world are now starving and dying, along with pregnant women who are losing their babies–and even their lives-because vital humanitarian and health foreign aid is already being wiped out by the destruction of USAID and other agencies.

• Marginalized people, especially people of color who had previously been protected by legislation and well established government policies; with racially directed attacks to reverse civil rights gains and erase Black history from American history that are aggressively and deliberately underway.

• Medical care and research is being cut across the board in vital health services, with devastating cuts in Medicaid now becoming likely for millions of needy people.

All those people, made in the image of God, are now being run over by a car driven by the madmen Trump and Musk.

The question now before us is what clergy and faith leaders will do about the deadly and destructive car which has shown no limits to its speed and no safety from its path.

A young pastor, whom I deeply admire, just sent me this quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, yesterday.

I shall have no right to take part in the restoration of Christian life after the war unless I share the trials of this time with my people.

A rising leader in his community, he also sent this reminder of “two enduring truths.”

“First, we stand in a long line of faithful Christians who followed Jesus while confronting injustice and influenced each other in powerful ways.”

“Second, while it may seem like lonely work, God has not left us without friends. As C. S, Lewis puts it, ‘the great master of ceremonies’ has made us for each other. The road ahead is uncertain, and sometimes terrifying but we do not walk it alone. I often find myself despairing, fatigued, and worn thin. In these times, God has reminded me of your witness and ministry.”

This young pastor has no idea how much I needed to hear that yesterday. And how it brought to my mind and heart so many faithful brothers and sisters, past and present, who have done that for me. Let us all keep loving and mentoring each other as we seek what God is now calling us to do–to walk in the path of Bonhoeffer paved for us for so many years.

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