In the chapter, Preliminary Questions, Bonhoeffer is asking whether the first disciples had an advantage over us in hearing and seeing and responding to Jesus. When he points out that we usually ask the wrong questions, he does so because he maintains that our questions reveal that we think Jesus Christ is dead and that we don’t live in His Presence.
Bonhoeffer writes that Jesus Christ, “is still speaking to us today through the testimony of scripture. He is present with us today, in bodily form and with his word” (page 178).
Bonhoeffer argues that the first disciples did not immediately recognize Jesus as the Christ, but rather that it was through receiving His Word and command to follow Him in discipleship that they recognized Him. In other words, whether we live in 2025 or A.D. 33, the essential experience of following Jesus and knowing Him is the same – we must receive His Word and respond in obedience to His Word to know Him.
“Jesus’ command always has a single purpose: it demands faith from an undivided heart, and love of God and neighbor with all our heart and soul” (page 180). This not only flows from the Great Commandment of Mark 12:29 – 31, but also from Paul’s letter to Timothy, “The goal of our commandment is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Timothy 1:5).
I can’t count the times over the years that people have talked to me about wanting to know the will of God, they present me with numerous options and want to know which option they should choose. They view God’s will as ambiguous.
Bonhoeffer acknowledges that the call can seem ambiguous, but he insists that, “What counts is not the call as such, but the one who calls” (page 178). However, the ambiguity ought to give way to the continual unveiling of Christ and to the core call to love God and our neighbor. As Bonhoeffer reflects on the first disciples he writes, “For them, as for us, it is the hidden Christ who calls” (page 178).
If we aren’t loving God and others today then nothing else matters, we are foolish to speak of wanting to better understand God’s call and His will if we are not loving Him and others with undivided hearts. If we are not obeying the light that we do have, then the light that we don’t have doesn’t matter.
When Bonhoeffer explores whether the first disciples had an advantage over us in understanding the call of Jesus to discipleship and in knowing Him, he has what might be a surprising conclusion:
“The gift Jesus gave to his disciples is thus fully available to us too. In fact, it is even more readily available to us now that Jesus has ascended, by our knowledge of His transfiguration, and by the Holy Spirit that has been sent” (page 180).
It is only by following Bonhoeffer in the following chapters that we will have an opportunity to understand what he means, after all, right now he is asking preliminary questions and making preliminary statements. Perhaps he is saying, “Let’s get real with Jesus Christ. If He is truly alive then let’s think and act like it, let’s align our desires and expectations with the reality of His resurrection and Presence with us today.”
The word of Jesus Christ, he writes, “Then and now…is the gracious call to enter his kingdom and to submit to his rule” (page 180). Here is a fundamental element of the Gospel and of historic Christian teaching, which we have abandoned, to follow Jesus Christ is to belong to Him, it is to surrender all right to ourselves – as individuals, marriages, families, congregations, and as the transcendent Church of Jesus Christ – and follow Jesus. We are no longer our own, we have been purchased by the blood of the Lamb.
“Scripture does not present us with a collection of Christian types to be imitated according to our own choice. Rather, in every passage it proclaims to us the one Jesus Christ. It is him alone whom I ought to hear. He is one and the same everywhere” (page 180).
This is one of the lessons from the Mount of Transfiguration; as Peter wants to build three tabernacles, one for Moses, one for Elijah, and one for Jesus, the Father shuts Peter down by proclaiming, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear Him!” (Matthew 17:1 – 8).
(How many tabernacles have we built on the Mount? Isn’t so much of our internal conflict over what additional tabernacles we will allow on the Mount? How many of us identify with our traditions and doctrinal distinctives, before we identify with Jesus Christ? How many voices are we hearing that drown out the Voice of Jesus?)
If we are not seeing and hearing Jesus Christ from Genesis through Revelation then we are not reading and seeing the Bible, for the Bible is all about Jesus Christ. In and through the Bible we are to partake of the Divine Nature (2 Peter 1:4). As we behold Jesus Christ we are transformed into His image (2 Corinthians 3:17 – 18; Romans 8:29; 12:1-2; 1 John 3:1 – 3; Colossians 3:1 – 4).
What a wonderful promise and expectation we can have everyday of our lives – that we will see and hear Jesus Christ, that we will live in His Presence, that we will have deep fellowship (koinonia) with one another in Him, and that we will live in the very unity, love, and joy of the Trinity (John Chapter 17; 1 John 1:3; 1 Corinthians 12:12).
Is this our expectation today?
Are we living in the Presence of Jesus Christ?
Are we knowing Him as our Lord, our Friend, our Brother?
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