BONHOEFFER’S THEOLOGY OF THE SUFFERING CHRIST AND HIS CROSS

The Jesus who walked this earth was in a very real sense a man. As a man, it would be incorrect to discern Jesus as being divine in some abstract manner.^[i] Rather, one must “speak of His weakness, of the cradle, and of the cross.”^[ii] The Incarnate Jesus is God in the flesh; therefore, He possessed the glory of God as well as fallen flesh.^[iii] This unity between man and God in the person of Christ causes flesh to become a part of the God-head from that point on. But the question arises at the foot of the cross: How can God possibly be glorified when the Incarnate One who possesses His glory dies on a cross?

When Jesus was incarnated, He automatically took on the humiliation caused by sin. However, this does not mean that Jesus was a sinner. Christ chose to enter a world that was less than perfect. Since the world was no longer good as it had been before the original sin, Christ automatically humiliated himself by leaving the perfect goodness of the heavens and entering a world filled with the ugliness of sin and death.

As a man, Jesus’ flesh contained “the law which was against God’s will.”^[iv] Therefore, Jesus was not the perfectly good man, like Adam before he sinned, because he was subject to the same sufferings, temptations, and struggles that fallen men have faced since Adam’s sin.^[v] Since the original sin, the law had ruled over men. Jesus overcame the law not by trying to avoid the condemnation of the law, but by submitting to the Father’s will apart from the law. Consequently, Jesus could be judged a law-breaker and be condemned to death by the law. On the other hand, Jesus could be judged as sinless and blameless in the eyes of God because He acted out the will of God. As Paul says in Hebrews 4:15, Jesus “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” Jesus was not concerned with the letter of the law; instead, he sought only to obey the spirit of the law which is the will of the Father. Armed with this mentality, Jesus faced the same temptations that are common to all men; moreover, Jesus even had to face direct temptations from the Satan himself in the wilderness.

The first question that Satan asks Jesus during the wilderness temptation period was in essence: “Why should the Son of God suffer when He has the power to avoid suffering?” If Jesus had succumbed to this temptation, then He would have surpassed the constraints of the flesh, and all hope for the salvation of men would be lost because He would no longer be man’s representative. To be a representative of mankind, Jesus must only use abilities common to men. In this case, Jesus overcomes Satan with man’s ability to trust God’s word.

In the second temptation, Jesus is tempted to make God prove His Son-ship. Here, Jesus is suffering spiritually because this temptation involves His relationship with God as opposed to His relationship with man. Satan wants Jesus to force God to prove His love for His Son. Once again, Jesus is forced to trust in God’s word instead of leaning on any of His divine qualities.

Similar to the first two temptations, the third temptation attacks Jesus’ allegiance to the Father and focuses on the combined natures of Jesus. In this temptation, Satan sought to draw Jesus away from His relationships with both God and man-kind. Thankfully, Jesus set the course for all Christians by standing on the Word of God to defeat Satan’s temptations and chose to keep His identity with man-kind.

As a man with fallen flesh, Jesus was held captive by the sentence of death given by the law. Because of His fallen flesh, Jesus’ actions should not be understood as “sinless, but ambiguous.”^[vi]  As a man, Jesus acts in ways that can be seen as both good and bad. On the other hand, the divine Jesus is without sin because He always acts in keeping with God’s nature. In this way, Jesus became a stumbling block to the Jews.

The Jews, especially the religious leaders, were focused on keeping the letter of the law. When Jesus broke the law by forgiving sins, the Jews judged him by the law. Jesus intentionally avoids proving His divinity when the various disputes with the religious leaders break out because that would cause people to believe based on visible evidence. Jesus wants a person’s faith to take “the form of Christus pro me.”^[vii] By believing that Christ is for us, a person chooses to identify with a humiliated Lord. Therefore, a true believer is reconciled to God by acknowledging the Messiah who suffered and died.

Jesus’ experience on the cross was the final temptation He had to endure to purchase the salvation of men. At the cross, He was left completely alone and abandoned by both God and men. This forced loneliness arises out of the power of Satan to isolate men from the presence of God. Jesus defeats Satan by submitting to God’s will and trusting His word. Since He was without sin in the eyes of God, Jesus was able to defeat death, and He was able to bear all the sins of men because the law judged Him even though He had not sinned against God.^[viii] Consequently, Jesus was able to take the sting of death away from the law.

The cross itself symbolizes suffering and rejection. By dying on the cross, Jesus dies “despised and rejected by men.”^[ix] As discussed previously in some detail, the Devil constantly sought to get Jesus to throw off the role of suffering. Even Peter, after confessing Jesus to be the Christ, attempts to draw His Lord away from the role of sufferer. Jesus, however, had to suffer so that He could identify with fallen men. Only after death is Jesus exalted above the humiliation and suffering of this present world. By suffering on the cross, Jesus makes it clear to the Church that their role in this world involves suffering.

[i].  Wayne W. Floyd, The Wisdom and Witness of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000), 85-87: Jesus Christ is the image of God. By associating the image of God with the fallen flesh of men, Jesus brought honor back to mankind. This image of God found in Christ was different than the image of God possessed by Adam and Eve. The difference is that the image of God in Christ was placed in fallen flesh. Because Christ had this image of God bound by sinful flesh, He had suffer through the temptations of life and death on the cross. In doing so, Jesus purchased life for all men who possessed fallen flesh.

[ii].  Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Christ the Center, trans. John Bowden (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1966), 109.

[iii].  Geffrey B. Kelly, Liberating Faith: Bonhoeffer’s Message for Today (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1984), 38-39: The center of Bonhoeffer’s Christology is his refusal to separate the natures of Christ and deal with each individually. Bonhoeffer wants to know “who is this man of whom it is testified He is God?” Jesus is the man who died for sinners; therefore, He identifies with all people throughout all ages. If Christ had of simply performed a power move on Satan, then his presence would not have been personal.

[iv].  Ibid, 112.

[v].  John A. Phillips, Christ for Us in the Theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1967), 73-83: As the God-man, Jesus faced the humiliation of living in a fallen world. Jesus’ endurance of this humiliation shows the glory of God. Bonhoeffer applies this understanding to the role of the church in this fallen world. That role is one of suffering and humiliation. By taking this role, the church itself embodies the Christ.

[vi].  Ibid, 113.

[vii].  Ibid, 114.

[viii].  John De Gruchy, Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Witness to Jesus Christ (London: Collins, 1988), 118-119: Because Jesus was fully man, He had to die as all men do. On the other hand, Jesus the God-man chose to face that death without appealing to His divine right to live. He faced the humiliation of death so that its sting could be taken away.

[ix].  Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, trans. Chr. Kaiser Verlag Munchen (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1959), 76.