The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Week 10: The Messengers — The Mission Discourse
Read Chapters 23-26 of The Cost of Discipleship (on the harvest, the apostles, the work and suffering of the messengers). Key passages: Matthew 9:35–10:42.
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Bonhoeffer now moves from the Sermon to the missionary sending of the disciples — the community formed by the Beatitudes is now sent out into the world, and the same costly logic applies.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.Bonhoeffer opens this section with Jesus' compassion for the crowds "harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd." He insists that this compassion is the motive for mission — not strategy, not church growth, but the suffering of people who have no shepherd. Does compassion or strategy more often drive your involvement in outreach?
2.He notes that Jesus tells his disciples to "pray the Lord of the harvest to send out workers" — and then immediately sends them. Prayer and mission are inseparable in the text. How does your experience of prayer connect to (or disconnect from) your engagement in mission?
3.The disciples are sent with nothing — no bag, no money, no extra tunic. Bonhoeffer reads this radical dependence not as an ascetic ideal but as a theological statement: the messenger must not be distracted by material security. How does material security either enable or impede your witness today?
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