Costly Change Of Heart

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran pastor who served in Germany during World War II when Hitler was in power. Inspired by his Christian faith, he spoke out against the Nazi regime. His resistance led to his imprisonment and eventual death by hanging.

During his brief life, he wrote several books, the most influential of which was The Cost of Discipleship. In it,  he reflected on the Sermon on the Mount and what it meant for Christian life. Following Christ is costly. It requires a total commitment of ourselves to His Kingdom. The cost of following Jesus is nothing less than our very lives. It is no doubt that it is because of Bonhoeffer’s willingness to give his life in witness to the dignity of every human person that this book has become such a classic.

One of the most powerful sections of his book is the chapter in which he distinguishes “cheap grace” from “costly grace”. He explains that cheap grace “is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession.” He goes on to write that cheap grace seeks out Jesus without the commitment to pick up His cross and follow Him.

On the other hand, “costly grace” is what the disciples experienced when they left their nets behind to follow Jesus. It is the willingness to bring our thoughts, words and deeds in line with the demands of the gospel. It requires exchanging our bitterness for forgiveness, our apathy for love and our indifference for compassion. Costly grace takes responsibility for living a good Christian life even when it means that others will reject and ridicule us.

This message is especially important to us who gather here today to begin our Lenten journey. During these forty days we will commit ourselves to making sacrifices in preparation for the great celebration of Jesus’ resurrection on Easter Sunday. Lent is one of our Church’s great treasures. However, it is very easy for us to fall into the trap of making our sacrifices an “empty show” as Jesus warns us in today’s gospel.  On the outside, we may appear to be following the rules but, on the inside, our hearts are not changing. When that happens, when we settle for cheap grace, there is no real and lasting benefit to these forty days.

The ashes we will receive on our foreheads today will do no good if our souls are not also seared with sorrow for our sins. It does no good for us to give up sweets if, in our hearts, we are indulging in bitterness. Going without meat on Fridays does not please God if we are also going without compassion for those who never have meat on their tables. Any extra devotions we may take on this Lent will have no meaning if we do not also take on devotion to our neighbor. Following the rules will get us nowhere if we are not also following Jesus. Without a real interior change of heart, nothing we do will please God or do us any good.

The point of our Lenten sacrifices is not to prove to God how good we are. Neither do we reflect on our sinfulness to beat ourselves up. Rather our prayers and sacrifices during this season help us to search our soul in an honest way. Through them, we come to realize how much we need God. It is only when we confront our weakness that we learn to rely on His strength. It is only when we seek to carry the cross that we learn the power of His resurrection. It is only when we realize how powerless we are to change ourselves that we can open our hearts to the grace of real conversion that He offers us.

The prophet Joel calls us in today’s first reading to “rend our hearts not our garments”. The point of this Lenten Season is to become more like Jesus not just in our exterior actions but in our interior attitude. The real change of heart that God is calling us to is costly. However, if we let Jesus in during these days and allow Him to work within us, it will pay great dividends. Our hearts will be relieved of the burdens of bitterness and grief. We will experience peace and joy as God’s presence in our lives becomes more palpable. With each passing day, our sacrifices and prayers will become less about “giving something up” and more about “loving God more.” Then we will really experience what Lent is all about - growing in intimacy with Jesus and experiencing the power of His resurrection in our daily lives.