Cheap Grace and Costly Grace

September 7, 2025

Today’s Gospel reminded me of a famous book called ‘The Cost of Discipleship’ by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran theologian living at the time of the rise of Nazi Germany. In the book Bonhoeffer reflects on what he calls cheap grace and costly grace.  As he writes :

“Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheapjacks' wares. The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices. …. Costly grace is the Gospel which must be sought again and again,… Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, …. It is costly because it costs a man his life,….’’

 

In short cheap grace is the kind of grace we claim to have received by fulfilling religious practices without really changing our lives.  In real life Bonhoeffer chose not to go away to the USA where he was offered a post as professor of theology in a reputed university, and where he could have quietly lived out his life in safety. Instead he chose to stay in Germany and oppose Hitler, eventually being caught and executed because of his participation in a plot to kill Hitler. 

Since, however, I have taken up this theme of cheap grace and costly grace ( though I have not named it as that) in many blogs in different ways (e.g. Does being Christian really make any difference in my life? January 19, 2025), I leave you today only with this poem I read recently, written by an unknown author:

Don’t preach to me.

Don’t throw scripture like a shield while turning your back on suffering.

Don’t lecture me with psalms while defending the powerful and ignoring the oppressed.

 

Show me.

Show me in how you treat people who have nothing to offer you.

Show me in how you speak up when it’s uncomfortable, and stand firm when silence is easy.

Show me that your God walks with the poor, the wounded, the silenced — not just the saved.

 

Faith without justice is empty noise.

Holiness without compassion is just ego in a robe.

If you say yes to God, then say no — loudly — to everything that breaks what God loves: people, truth, peace, and dignity.

 

Don’t tell me what you believe.

Live it.

 

First Reading: Wisdom 9: 13-18b

For who among us, who is the one that can know the counsel of God? or who can think what the will of God is?

For the thoughts of mortal men are fearful, and our counsels uncertain.

For the corruptible body is a load upon the soul, and the earthly habitation presses down on the mind that thinks about many things.

And hardly do we guess aright at things that are upon earth: and with labour do we find the things that are before us. But the things that are in heaven, who shall search them out?

And who shall know Thy thought, except Thou give wisdom, and send thy Holy Spirit from above:

And so the ways of them that are upon earth may be corrected.

 

Second Reading: Philemon 1: 9-10, 12-17

Yet I prefer to appeal to you on the basis of love. It is as none other than Paul—an old man and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus—  that I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains.  Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me.

I am sending him—who is my very heart—back to you.  I would have liked to keep him with me so that he could take your place in helping me while I am in chains for the gospel.  But I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that any favor you do would not seem forced but would be voluntary.  Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back forever—  no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a fellow man and as a brother in the Lord.

So if you consider me a partner, welcome him as you would welcome me.

 

Gospel: Luke 14: 25-33

Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said:  “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.  And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?  For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you,  saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand?  If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.  In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.