Bonhoeffer’s Germ

During his year in Barcelona, at the age of 22, Bonhoeffer gave a lecture series to a handful of high schoolers. I can’t help but be impressed by the depth of Bonhoeffer’s material for his teenage audience. In one of these lectures, which aimed at differentiating between true Christianity and mere religiosity, Bonhoeffer says, “Christianity conceals within itself a germ hostile to the church.” Of course, Bonhoeffer was not speaking of the church in its purest form, but the church that had fallen into dead, Christless formalism and dry dogma. What is Bonhoeffer’s “germ”? While Bonhoeffer never explicitly defines his “germ” for us, it’s clear that he means the gospel and the radical demands that Jesus places on the lives of those who follow him. The gospel repudiates every man-made attempt to build an ethical ladder and climb to God, even those built in the name of God, Christ and his church. Jesus is not against ethics; he’s against ethics as a way to God or spiritual enlightenment. The ethical ladder is already there for us in the 10 commandments. The problem is that none of us can climb it. We slip and stumble on every rung. It doesn’t mean that the ladder is bad, but that those climbing it are. The gospel, as Bonhoeffer understood it, concerned Christ crucified and risen for sinners. For Bonhoeffer, the gospel was not just an abstract set of beliefs but a real life invitation to come, be cleansed, and follow Jesus at all costs. That’s a highly destructive germ to anyone looking for a new ethical system or a social and recreational safe-haven in the church. Jesus demands total commitment and promises personal transformation that will be messy, undignified, non-institutional, and very counter-cultural. He says, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matt. 10:39).