"But Our Eyes Are Upon Thee"

I just finished reading the biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It left me heart sore. I read his Cost of Discipleship several years ago and was deeply impressed with the life he described therein. So when I saw an interview with the author of this biography, I was intrigued. Eric Metaxas said he did not want to write this book; God made him write it. We bought Caleb a copy for Christmas, but I didn't know Kregg had also bought me one.

Bonhoeffer was, to many, a paradox in the end. To reconcile his written and spoken words throughout his extensive ministry with his participation in the plot to assassinate Hitler proved, for many, impossible. He, however, saw it as perfect obedience to God and he went to meet his Father in complete confidence and peace. It is believed that Hitler personally ordered his execution just two weeks before Allied forces liberated the prisons and concentration camps in that area of Germany. Hitler had come into possession of General Canaris' diary detailing the conspiracy against him and, even though Hitler knew his defeat was imminent, his personal vindictiveness would require extraordinary means and resources to insure that his revenge was extracted. 

For over 500 pages, we see the growth of a soul. We watch as Bonhoeffer refuses to ever take the easy way out. Repeatedly throughout his years, he chooses to always press in deeper to the Father's Heart, to truly understand obedience. He refused the delusion of religion, wanting nothing but Christ. His life profoundly impacted everyone he came in contact with, even his enemies. The camp doctor at the prison camp where Bonhoeffer was executed watched his last minutes on earth. Years later he said this: "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."

"A human being's moral integrity begins when he is prepared to sacrifice his life for his convictions."                                                                           Dietrich Bonhoeffer

There were so many points during the book, even knowing the outcome, where I would find myself hoping against hope that the message Bonhoeffer kept delivering would be heard and acted upon. Over and over and over again, he had the right message for the right audience, but that audience refused to believe the depth of the evil they faced in Hitler's regime. From a historical perspective, everything is so clear, so obvious. But I have to ask myself whether, in that situation under those circumstances, would I have known the Truth when it was spoken. Or would I, like so many then, have believed that things "would right themselves." 

Bonhoeffer recognized the point at which he parted ways with most all the Christians in Germany: when the German churches refused to stand up for the Jews, in his mind they ceased being the Church. Metaxas said, "As would happen so often in the future, he (Bonhoeffer) was deeply disappointed in the inability of his fellow Christians to take a definite stand. They always erred on the side of conceding too much, of trying too hard to ingratiate themselves with their opponents." 


"He had become convinced that a church that was not willing to stand up for the Jews in its midst was not the real church of Jesus Christ. On that, he was quite decided."


In the end, he believed his faith required his action. And so he aligned himself with those plotting the death of "evil incarnate." He believed, to the dismay of many, that he was absolutely within obedience to the calling God had on his life to practice deception as he assisted the conspirators. 


Metaxas says it this way:
" . . . many . . . thought he actually had gone over to the 'other' side and was working for Hitler and the Nazis. . . Bonhoeffer was quite willing . . . to forgo his previous position of outward opposition to it on another, more fundamental level. This involved deception. Many of the serious Christians of Bonhoeffer's day were theologically unable to follow him to this point, nor did he ask them to. For many of them, such deception as Bonhoeffer would soon be involved in was no different from lying. Bonhoeffer's willingness to engage in deception stemmed not from a cavalier attitude toward the truth, but from a respect for the truth that was so deep, it forced him beyond the easy legalism of truth telling."


Therein lies the paradox that, for many, defined Dietrich Bonhoeffer's life for decades. This biography reveals the depth of the thought processes and spiritual growth that brought him to the point of being Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Prophet, Martyr, Spy. 

"But our eyes are upon Thee" was the central message of the eulogy given at the memorial service held in England when the news of his fate finally made it out of Germany. The service was broadcast into Germany so that even his elderly parents were able, from Berlin, to hear the service honoring their beloved son. 


This is #5 out of 52 in the 52 in 52 challenge, and it gets 5 stars from this reader.