Discipleship, in times like these, comes with a cost

By Johnny Zokovitch

During my college years, one of my professors turned me on to the philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard. What I found so compelling in Kierkegaard was his insistence on the way that faith had been co-opted by culture. Kierkegaard reflected on how, for the early Christian community, their allegiance to their faith could cost them so much for being in conflict with the culture surrounding them — resulting in their loss of livelihood, social and economic isolation, the severing of family bonds, and perhaps even their lives. He contrasted this with the Christianity of his own time, when he asserted that to call oneself a Christian cost one nothing at all, so completely co-opted by the culture had the church become.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian martyred by the Nazis toward the end of World War II, picked up what Kierkegaard was laying down. One of his earliest books, The Cost of Discipleship, was written against the backdrop of the rise of Nazism, when much of the Christian church either looked the other way or cozied up to Hitler’s movement, extending its blessing rather than risk persecution, or even to gain or maintain power and status.

I’m reminded these days of one of Bonhoeffer’s most poignant assertions about the role of Christians when faced with political and social power wielded in direct contrast to the message of Jesus — and about what Bonhoeffer suggested it might then cost to stand on the side of Jesus.

Bonhoeffer spoke of how important it was for the church to do what it has always done throughout history — to bandage the wounds of those crushed under the wheel of injustice. But he also insisted — without equivocation and with full knowledge of just how heavy the consequences might be — that the church must drive a spike into the spokes of the wheel of injustice itself.

As each day passes with some new wave of cruelty unleashed, this particular vocation of the church seems more and more imperative, vital, required.

Maria Stephan, chief organizer of the Horizons Project and promoter of nonviolent resistance as the antidote to tyranny, echoes Bonhoeffer when she calls on people of faith to organize and train, to harness the power of moral protest, and to undertake actions of noncooperation alongside efforts meant to offer mutual aid and to mitigate harm. Such acts of resistance are aimed, as Bonhoeffer called for, at disrupting and slowing the murderous inhumanity we’re witnessing in our communities at home and globally.

Pax Christi USA announced this week that we have joined the Center on Faith and Justice at Georgetown University, Sojourners, the Interfaith Alliance, and the Horizons Project in  launching a national effort “to build local and regional interfaith cohorts of clergy, lay, and community leaders committed to moral, faith-rooted, and strategic action.” The effort is aimed at grounding people in the legacy and practice of faith-led nonviolence.

Such efforts align perfectly with Jesus who confronted the unjust powers of his time — and with what he asks of those who would follow him today. Despite how shamelessly many so-called Christian leaders — including Catholic ones — offer cover and justification for the savagery of the current administration and its promoters, no serious disciple of Jesus can mistake this vision with God’s reign of compassion, justice, mercy and love.

For those who are willing to stand up and stand out because of their discipleship to Jesus, there can be no illusion about the risk that may be involved. Following Jesus, as Bonhoeffer maintained, will come at a cost.

Johnny Zokovitch is the former executive director of Pax Christi USA. He currently serves on the board of the Pax Christi International Fund for Peace and is in pastoral leadership at St. Cronan Catholic Church in St. Louis.

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Cover photo shows statues of modern martyrs at Westminster Abbey, l-r: Janani Luwum from Uganda; Grand Duchess Elizabeth from Russia; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr; St. Oscar Romero; Dietrich Bonhoeffer; and Esther John from Pakistan.