The Call to Discipleship

At a glance

The chapter heading text (KJV)

“And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the receipt of custom, and said unto him, Follow me. And he arose and followed him.”

Mark 2:14 KJV

Summary

This long chapter builds its argument from a single, deliberately bare narrative detail: when Mark tells us Levi got up from his tax booth and followed, the text shows no interest in what Levi believed beforehand, what he already knew of Jesus, or what inner process led to his decision. Bonhoeffer treats that silence as the whole point. Interpreters who insist some prior faith or acquaintance must explain the obedience are, in his view, trying to protect human reason's right to understand before it obeys — but Scripture puts obedience first because it is Christ himself, not an argument about Christ, that does the calling.

From there Bonhoeffer works through a series of New Testament scenes — Peter walking on the water, the rich young ruler, the man who wants to bury his father first — to show the same pattern: the call always demands a single, concrete step taken before the disciple can see where it leads or what it will cost. Faith which waits for certainty before it moves has already refused the call in its own way; only the step itself opens up what discipleship means. He is equally hard on ‘enthusiasts’ and legalists who want the call reduced to a general spiritual principle rather than a specific, unrepeatable summons to this person to leave this security.

He turns this into a sustained critique of what he calls ‘cheap grace’'s’ twin, a purely internal or intellectual Christianity satisfied with correct belief and unchanged conduct. Faith that does not act, he argues, has not encountered the living Christ at all, only an idea of him; and action which is not rooted in Christ's call is only self-willed activism. He works carefully to avoid collapsing this into salvation by works — obedience does not earn the call, it is simply what a call, truly heard, produces.

By the chapter's end Bonhoeffer has reframed the whole question of how faith and obedience relate. They are not two separate things, one following the other in sequence; they are two descriptions of a single event, seen from two sides. You cannot have the one without the other appearing, because both are simply what happens when a person actually meets Jesus Christ rather than a doctrine, a memory, or an institution wearing his name.

Key points

• Mark's account of Levi's call deliberately gives no psychological explanation — call and obedience are narrated back to back with nothing in between.
• Bonhoeffer reads that gap theologically: it is Christ's own presence in the call, not prior belief or evidence, that makes obedience the only fitting response.
• Across several Gospel scenes, the call demands a concrete, unrepeatable step taken before its outcome can be seen — faith that waits for certainty has already declined.
• He rejects both an intellectual faith that never acts and a self-willed activism detached from Christ's call.
• Faith and obedience are not sequential; they are one event described from two angles — you cannot really have either without the other showing up.

Related Scripture

• Matthew 14:28–31
• Matthew 8:21–22
• Luke 5:1–11
• James 2:17

For reflection and discussion

1. Can you think of a time you wanted ‘more certainty’ before obeying something you already sensed God asking of you? What did the waiting actually cost you?
2. Bonhoeffer resists the idea that Levi's obedience must have been preceded by prior faith or knowledge. Does that unsettle or clarify how you think about your own path to faith?
3. Where in your life right now is belief and action drifting apart — correct conviction with no corresponding step, or activity with no real reference to Christ's call?