Bonhoeffer is quoted a lot. I am familiar with folks who use Bonhoeffer as part of sermon illustrations, especially if they relate to Christian discipleship. I have done that very thing myself. But reading his works provided me a new appreciation for him. Why? There did not seem to be a schism–a divide/separation/gap—between Bonhoeffer’s orthodoxy and orthopraxy. To put it perhaps too plainly, he practiced what he preached. He was not a ‘Sunday Christian’. He was a Christian.

Some folks want to continually divide over Bonhoeffer’s role and relationship to the planned assassination of Hitler. But no matter how many times I read Bonhoeffer’s writing, and I read of his fellow prisoners’ testimonies of Bonhoeffer’s faithfulness to them as pastor, theologian, suffering servant-shepherd, Christian, martyr, et al, I am moved to the depths.

He was a sinner, no doubt. His theology was imperfect. Who among us does not have blind spots? He was the first to admit his need of Christ as Savior and Lord. But he put skin in the game. He walked the walk. And he was hanged for it. And some of us still read him today. Because he was the real deal. And in a world of staggering pretense, facades, and inane superficiality that all characterize our thoroughly pagan, largely illiterate, degenerate society, it’s refreshing to see that some men knew what it meant to count the costs of being a believer and being obedient to the end.