The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Week 4: Discipleship and the Cross
Read Chapter 4 of The Cost of Discipleship ("Discipleship and the Cross"). Key passages: Matthew 10:38; Mark 8:31-38; Luke 14:27.
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Here Bonhoeffer unpacks the most startling feature of the call — that it leads directly toward suffering and death — and he insists this is not an unfortunate side effect but the very heart of what it means to follow.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.Bonhoeffer writes that "to endure the cross is not a tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ." What distinction is he drawing between the crosses Christians are called to bear and the ordinary suffering that comes to everyone in a fallen world?
2.He argues that the cross is not chosen by the disciple — it is laid upon us by our allegiance to Jesus in a world that rejected him. How does this change the way we might think about difficulties in our own lives? Which hardships in your life might be crosses, and which are simply troubles?
3.Bonhoeffer makes the arresting claim that Jesus' call to "deny yourself" means to say "no" to the self — to cease treating the self as the reference point of all decisions. How is this different from ordinary self-discipline or self-improvement?
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