Three Lectures on Easter and Pentecost
GA 203
27 March 1921, Dornach
I. Thoughts on Easter
There is an important difference between thoughts on Christmas and thoughts on Easter. Those who can compare these thoughts in the sense often spoken of here, and then bring them into the right relationship to each other, making this relationship inwardly alive, will be aware of an inner experience which in a certain sense contains the whole secret of humanity.
Christmas thoughts speak to us of birth; we know that through birth the eternal part of man enters a world from which he derives his visible, sensible nature. When we approach the thought of Christmas from this standpoint, we feel it as something that connects us with what is super-sensible. Along with everything else it brings with it, such a thought seems to direct us to one pole of our existence where as physical beings of sense we come in touch with spiritual, super-sensible existence. On this account, the birth of man, taken in its full meaning, can never be understood by a science which draws its conclusions merely from observation of physical sense existence.
The thoughts that form the basis of the Easter Festival lie at the other pole of human experience, and in the course of Western evolution they have developed more and more into thoughts that have built up the materialistic conceptions of the West. The thought of Easter can be grasped — at first perhaps somewhat abstractly — when one realises that the eternal, immortal, part of men — the part that is not born — has come down like the spirit, from super-sensible worlds, and has clothed itself with the human physical body. I have frequently shown from the most varied standpoints that the activity of the spirit within the physical body has from the beginning of this physical existence, really been an introduction of the physical body to death, and that with the thought of birth the thought of death also enters.
On other occasions I have explained to you how the organisation of the human head is only to be understood when we know that, fundamentally speaking, continual death is taking place there, and that this is only counteracted by the life forces of the rest of the human organism. The forces of death are always present in the human head, making man's thought nature possible, and the moment these gain the upper hand over his mortal nature, death occurs. The thought of death is really but the other side of the thought of birth, and therefore cannot enter into the thought of Easter. At the time when Christianity still found its earliest form within Eastern mentality, the Pauline church directed the attention of men not so much to the death of Christ Jesus, but to His resurrection, and declared in the powerful words of Paul: “If the Christ be not risen, then is your faith dead.”
The resurrection, the triumph over death, was primarily the Easter thought in early Christianity, that form of Christianity which was still influenced by the wisdom of the East. On the other side, however, we see pictures rise which represent Christ Jesus as the Good Shepherd Who watches over the eternal interests of man who sleeps through his mortal existence. Above all, we see how early Christianity is directed to the words of the Gospel: “He whom ye seek is not here; you must not seek Him on the physical plane (so we might supplement the words); if you do we can but tell you — He Whom ye seek as physical Being is no longer here in this physical world of the senses.”
The great and comprehensive wisdom which in the early Christian centuries was still capable of penetrating to the Mystery of Golgotha and to all that went with it, died down soon afterwards into the materialism of the West. This materialism had not fully emerged in the early centuries; it was prepared gradually. The early, as yet feeble, materialistic impulse of the first centuries, which was hardly perceptible, only changed much later into something that developed into a materialism that more and more permeated the whole civilisation of the West. The religious thought of the East had been joined to the evolving state-controlled thought of the West. In the fourth century Christianity became the state religion, which means that something entered Christianity which no longer was religion.
Julian, the Apostate, who though no Christian was a religious man, could in no way accept what Christianity had become through Constantine. In the blending of Christianity with declining Romanism, we see how, at first weakly, but quite noticeably, the influence of Western materialism made its first appearance. It was under this influence that a representation of Christ Jesus appeared which was not seen anywhere at first, and, indeed, did not exist in original Christianity: the representation of Christ Jesus as the crucified suffering Man of Sorrows, as the Man Who perished under the burden of the unspeakable sufferings that came upon Him.
Through this a break occurred in the whole outlook of the Christian world; for this presentation of the crucified, pain-filled Christ, which since then has continued through the centuries, is a Christ Who can no longer be grasped in His spiritual nature, but only in His corporal nature. The more that signs of suffering were imprinted on the human body, the more that Art, in all its perfection, gave expression to the suffering Redeemer throughout the various epochs, so much the more were seeds of materialism implanted in Christian perception. The crucifix expresses the transition into Christian materialism. This in no way denies that what Art has embodied as the pain of the Redeemer in so stupendous a way must not be recognised in its full depth and meaning; but all the same it is true that with this presentation of the Redeemer dying under the sufferings of the Cross a departure was made from the really spiritual acceptance of Christianity.
With this acceptance of Christ as the Man of sorrow was mingled the idea of “Christ, the Judge of the World,” in whom we have really to see another expression of Jahve or Jehova, especially of that Jehova transformed into a judge in so magnificent a manner in the Sistine chapel in Rome. The Spirit that was victor over death, that triumphed over the grave from which the Redeemer rose victorious, is the same Spirit which, in the representation of the crucifix we are permitted to lose sight of; this is the same Spirit, which in the year 869 at the Eighth Œcumenical Council in Constantinople, was declared to be something that it was unnecessary for man to believe. At that Council it was decreed that man must be held to consist of body and soul, and that spirit only occurs in certain attributes of the soul. Just as we have seen the Spirit expelled from the crucifix, and only that left which pain-racked souls can feel without the Spirit triumphant, the Spirit that supports, and at the same time cares for men, so in the conclusions of the Council of Constantinople we have to see the Spirit struck off from the nature of man.
Good Friday and the Easter Day festival of the Resurrection were compressed into one. In the days when men were not so dry and void of understanding as they became later, the Festival of Good Friday, became, in a certain sense, a festival in which the thoughts of Easter were transformed in an absolutely egotistic manner. Individual souls steeped themselves in pain; they rejoiced, as it were, to wallow in pain. During long periods of time this was the thought of Good Friday which had been intended originally to serve but as a background for the thought of Easter. All comprehension of Easter in its true acceptance became less and less possible. For those persons who had exalted into belief the principle that they consisted of body and soul alone, required to have their feelings stirred by the representation of the dying Redeemer. They required to be confronted with a picture of physical pain, in order that it might serve as a background (at least in an outward sense) for the perception which was theirs originally, that the living Spirit must always be victor over anything that might happen to the physical body. Men had need of the picture of the martyrs' death in order to experience, by way of contrast, the true thoughts of Easter. You must try to experience more and more deeply, how true spiritual perception and the true spiritual point of view gradually weakened, and to look with amazement, and at the same time with a consciousness of the tragedy of it all, on the artistic attempts that were made to represent the suffering Man on the Cross. It is not enough that we should turn our attention, with a few casual thoughts and feelings, to the things that are necessary for our day. We must thoroughly investigate that which, in respect to what is spiritual, has for long been on the downward path in Western civilisation. It is very necessary for us at the present time that those things which are greatest in one realm should also be felt as something to which humanity must rise. We have need of the thoughts of Easter throughout all Western civilisation. In other words, we have need of something that will raise us again to that which is spiritual. The holy mystery of birth — the mystery of Christmas — which emerged magnificently at one time in Western culture, has gradually been lost sight of in the evolving civilisation of the West; it has sunk down into those sentimentalities which are but the other pole of a materialistic development, and which simply revel in all kinds of songs about the little Jesus. It was a plunging into pleasurable emotions regarding the little child. Instead of feeling the stupendous mystery of the entrance of a super-earthly Spirit in the Christmas mystery; trivial songs about the Babe Jesus gained a predominant influence and set the fashion all through Europe. It is characteristic of the development of that Christianity which followed purely intellectual lines, that up to the present day certain writers in this domain have gone so far as to say: The gospels are not mainly concerned with the Son but with the Father — yet even this Christianity retains the resurrection, though thoughts of the resurrection are always mixed up with thoughts of death. It is, however, characteristic of the modern evolution of Christianity that the thought of Good Friday, in the form I have just described it, has come ever more to the fore, and the thought of the Resurrection — the true Easter thought — has gradually retired. Thoughts on Easter must point especially to a time in which man must experience the resurrection of his being through the Spirit. We have need of Easter thoughts, and of a full understanding of such thoughts. For this, however, it is necessary that we realise that the Man of Sorrows is just as much the sign of the entrance of materialism into Western civilisation as is, on the other hand, the idea of the purely juridical World-Judge.
We have, indeed, need of the Christ as a super-sensible Being, as a Being Who is above and beyond the earth and yet has entered into earthly evolution. We must reach up with our human conceptions to such solar conceptions.
Just as we must realise that thoughts of the birth at Christmas have become such that they have dragged trivial sentimental feelings into one of the greatest of mysteries, so we have also to recognise how necessary it is to stress the fact that something entered earthly evolution at that time which is incomprehensible to earthly means of cognition, but is comprehensible to spiritual knowledge.
Spiritual knowledge finds its greatest support in the Resurrection, and recognises that the eternal spiritual part, even of man, is untouched by what is physical and of the body. It recognises in the words of St. Paul, “If Christ be not risen, then is your faith vain,” confirmation of the real nature of the Christ, a confirmation which in time to come will be reached by other and more conscious methods.
It is in this way that we must recall thoughts of Easter at the present time. In this way we must make of this season an inward festival, one in which we solemnise the victory of the Spirit over that which is of the body.
As we cannot disregard history, we must keep before us the pain-stricken Jesus on the Cross — the Man of Sorrow; but above the Cross must appear the Victor, untouched equally by birth and death, Who can alone direct our gaze to the everlasting fields of spiritual life. Only in this way can we approach the true nature of the Christ. Western humanity has drawn the Christ down to its own level, has drawn Him down as a little child, as One pre-eminent in suffering and death.
I have frequently said that the words of Buddha, “Death is evil,” came from his lips just as long before the Mystery of Golgotha as the crucifix appeared after they were uttered. Men looked on the crucified One and found death was no evil but something that in truth did not exist. This feeling, which arose out of the wisdom of the West, yet is profounder than Buddhism, underlay the other which adhered firmly to the view of the pain-oppressed Sufferer. We must rise not only in thought — for these are most inadequate — but with the whole scope of our feeling to what I might call the fate which in the course of the centuries overtook man's conception of the Mystery of Golgotha. We must keep in mind that even among the ancient Hebrews, Jahve was not thought of as a judge of the world in a juristic sense. The Book of Job, the greatest dramatic presentation of religious feeling among the ancient Hebrews, which presents to us the suffering Job, excludes the idea of external justice. Job is a suffering man, a man who regards what happens to him in the external world as fate. The legal idea of retaliation only entered gradually into the organisation of the world. Yet in a certain way what is represented in Michael Angelo's masterpiece in the Sistine Chapel is like a revival of the Jahve-Principle. It is the Christ we have need of, however, the Christ Whom we can seek in our own inner beings, and Who at once appears when we do seek Him. We have need of the Christ Who enters into our wills, Who gives warmth and fire to our wills that they may become strong to accomplish those deeds on behalf of humanity for which we long. We have need of that Christ, Whom we do not regard as the suffering Man of Sorrows, but as He Who has risen above the Cross, and thence looks down on that unreality which ended with the Cross. We have need of the vivid consciousness of the eternity of the Spirit.
We do not have this vivid consciousness of the Spirit when we lose ourselves in contemplation of the picture of the crucifixion; and when we see how this has gradually been changed more and more into something that calls up feeling of sorrow and suffering, we will realise what power this tendency of men's feeling has acquired. It has turned men's eyes from what is truly spiritual, and directed them to that which is earthly and physical. It is certainly occasionally expressed in a grand way, but it has always seemed to men like Goethe, for example, who have ever felt the need for our civilisation to reach up once more to what is spiritual, to be something in which they could not really participate. Goethe has said often enough that the crucified Saviour does not express to him what he feels in Christianity: the uplifting of man to that which is spiritual.
Of necessity it has come to pass that the characteristic note of Good Friday as well as that of Easter has changed. Good Friday has become that which brings along with it the contemplation of the end of Jesus; and with this the feeling that what is then contemplated is but the other side of birth, and those who do not see death equally in birth do not see with completeness.
Those who are not capable of feeling that in the atmosphere of death with which Good Friday is associated only one side of existence is presented to them; the opposite pole being that which is presented by the entrance of a child at birth into the world, are not prepared in the right way for the real Easter note, which is that we should realise: Whatever may be the human sheaths that here are born, the real man is not born nor does he die. The real man must unite himself with that which has entered the world as the Christ Who cannot die, and he must regard something other than himself when he looks on the suffering man on the Cross. We must feel what really has happened since the end of the early centuries through Western civilisation having gradually lost the conception of what is spiritual. The Easter of the world will only come when a sufficient number of people feel that the Spirit must rise again within Western civilisation. Outwardly this will find expression in that men will no longer wish to explore what is going to happen to them, will not explore natural laws or the laws of past history which are similar to natural laws, but they will have a great longing for knowledge of their own wills, of their own freedom; they will desire greatly to realise the nature of their own will which can bear them beyond the gates of death but which must be considered spiritually if it is to be perceived in its true form.
How is man to gain power to rise to the thought of Pentecost, the outpouring of the Spirit, since the eighth Œcumenical Council has dogmatically explained the thought of Pentecost to be an empty phrase?
How is man to win to the power of this thought if he does not do so by way of Easter thoughts — by true Easter thoughts, thoughts of the resurrection of the Spirit!
Man must not allow himself to be led astray by the picture of the dying, suffering Redeemer, but must learn how pain is bound up with the whole composition of human existence. This was a fundamental principle of that ancient wisdom which sprang from the instinctive depths of human knowledge. We must strive to re-acquire this instinctive knowledge with the help of conscious knowledge. One of the fundamental principles of this knowledge was that pain had its origin in matter. In any case it would be foolishness to think that the Christ did not suffer pain because He passed through death as a Divine Being, it would be to think without reality were it said that the pain of the Mystery was only apparent. It must be considered real in the most actual sense, and not merely as symbolical. Something further has to be gained from what faces us when, with the whole of human evolution in view, we contemplate the mystery of Golgotha.
In ancient times a pupil of the mysteries who was about to be initiated was shown a picture of a man who had reached the highest point of freedom. Such a pupil when he had gone through the necessary preparation and had fulfilled all the exercises required of him in order that he might gain certain knowledge, was confronted with dramatic pictures; he was ultimately placed before the picture of a man who had passed through the severest physical sufferings, who was clothed in a red-purple robe and had a crown of thorns on his head — the picture of the Chrestos. In looking upon this Chrestos the soul of the aspirant to initiation was expected to gain the power which would make of him a true man. The drops of blood which were shown to the aspirant on all the more important places of that ancient Chrestos were for the purpose of removing all human weaknesses and calling up the triumphant Spirit from the man's inner being.
The contemplation of suffering was intended to indicate the resurrection of the spiritual nature. It was sought to place before men in the most profound sense what may be expressed in the following simple words — Thou hast to thank many things in life for thy happiness, but if thou hast acquired knowledge — gained insight into spiritual connections, thou hast to thank suffering for these. Thou must be thankful that thou hast not succumbed to sorrow and suffering, but hast had the power to rise above them.
This is the reason why in the mysteries of old, the picture of the suffering Chrestos was replaced by the other picture — that of the triumphant Christ, who looked down upon the suffering Chrestos as on something that had been surmounted.
In a similar way it must be found possible once again to have the triumphant Christ before and in our souls, and especially in our wills. This is what we must keep before us at the present time, and more especially we must keep it before us with regard to what we wish to do to help in bringing about a sound future for humanity.
We will never be able to grasp the true thought of Easter unless we realize that in speaking of the Christ we must look upwards from what is merely earthly to what is cosmic. Modern thought has made a corpse of the cosmos. To-day we look at the stars and calculate their courses. This means we calculate something about the corpse of the world — we do not see that life dwells in the stars, and that in the courses of the stars the intentions of the cosmic Spirit rule. Christ came down among men in order to unite the souls of men with the Cosmic Spirit. Only a true expounder of the Gospel of Christ points out that what we see in the physical sun is the outward expression of the Spirit of our universe — the resurrecting Spirit of our universe.
Such connection as that between this World-Spirit and the sun is something that must become living to us, and the way in which the festival of Easter is determined — through the relationship of sun and moon in spring — must become living to us again. We must be able to associate with it what the Easter festival has ordained for earthly evolution from out the cosmos itself. We must realise that it was the most watchfully protective Cosmic Spirits who, by means of the world timepiece whose pointers for earthly existence are the sun and moon, made us understand that the moment in which the resurrection occurred has to be regarded as the greatest and most important point of time in the evolution of both the universe and man. Through the spirit we must learn to feel the movements of these two pointers (sun and moon) just as for physical occasions we must learn the movements of the hands of a clock. We must learn to connect what is earthly and physical with what is super-earthly and super-physical.
The thought of Easter can only bear interpretation by what is super-earthly, for in the Mystery of Golgotha (in so far as it is a resurrection mystery) something took place which distinguishes it from all other events.
Through it the earth has been endowed with cosmic powers, and because of what she has become through this, human forces of will have arisen within human alimentation. A new concentration of will power has entered earthly activities because of the Mystery of Golgotha, something took place on earth at that time which might be described as Cosmic activities, for which the earth was but a stage. Through these activities man has once more been united with the cosmos.
This is something which must be understood, and comprehension of it in all its fullness is first given by the thought of Easter. Therefore, however beautifully, however splendidly Art has represented the crucifixion, it alone must not rise before our souls with the thought of Easter, but the thought must rise: “He Whom thou seekest is not here.” Beyond the cross He must appear, He Who is here now, He Who speaks to us from the Spirit, in order to awaken the spirit in us.
This is what must enter human evolution as the thought of Easter; it is this to which the human heart and the human mind must rise.
It is not enough in our time that we should be able to enter thoroughly into and steep ourselves in what has been created up to now. We must become newly creative. Even were it at the cross, with all the beauty with which artists have endowed it, we may not rest there: we must harken to the words of the Spiritual Being Who, when we look for Him in death and suffering, calls to us: “He Whom ye seek is no longer here.”
Therefore we must seek that which is here. At Easter we must learn to turn to the Spirit, and the picture of the resurrection is alone able to present this to us. Only with it before us can we pass in the right way from the sorrow-filled atmosphere of Good Friday to the joyful atmosphere of Easter Day. In it we will be able to find what we have to grasp with our wills in order that we may become active in changing the downward tending forces of humanity into upward tending forces. We are in need of forces capable of doing this.
The moment that we understand the resurrection thought of Easter aright, this thought, warm and illuminating, will kindle in us the forces that are necessary for the future evolution of mankind.
Sechzehnter Vortrag
[ 1 ] Es ist ein bedeutsamer Gegensatz vorhanden zwischen dem Weihnachtsgedanken und dem Ostergedanken, und wer die beiden Gedanken, von denen in unserem Zusammenhange oftmals gesprochen worden ist, einander gegenüberzustellen vermag, sie in entsprechender Weise zu verbinden imstande ist und daraus dann innerlich lebendigmachen kann ihr Zusammenwirken — das Zusammenwirken des Weihnachtsgedankens und des Ostergedankens -, der wird hingewiesen auf innerliches Erleben, das in gewissem Sinne die Menschheitsrätsel in umfassender Weise umschreibt.
[ 2 ] Der Weihnachtsgedanke weist uns ja hin auf die Geburt. Wir wissen, wie durch die Geburt das Ewige des Menschen hereinzieht in die Welt, aus der des Menschen sinnlich-sichtbare leibliche Wesenheit genommen ist. Und wenn wir uns mit dieser Anschauung dem Weihnachtsgedanken nähern, dann erscheint er uns als der Gedanke, der uns verbindet mit dem Übersinnlichen. Dann erscheint er neben allem übrigen, was er uns nahebringt, so, daß er gewissermaßen an den einen Pol unseres Daseins hinweist, wo wir als sinnlich-physische Wesen zusammenhängen mit dem Geistig-Übersinnlichen. Deshalb wird, voll umfaßt, die Geburt des Menschen niemals begreiflich erscheinen können aus einer Wissenschaft, welche ihre Voraussetzungen nur aus der Beobachtung des sinnlich-physischen Daseins nimmt.
[ 3 ] Am anderen Pol des menschlichen Erlebens liegt der Gedanke, der dem Osterfeste zugrunde liegt und der ja immer mehr und mehr im Lauf der abendländischen Entwickelung zu einem Gedanken geworden ist, der das materialistische Vorstellen des Abendlandes vorbereitet hat. Der Ostergedanke kann, zunächst in einer mehr abstrakten Weise, erfaßt werden, wenn man sich klar darüber ist, wie das Ewige, das Unsterbliche des Menschen, das also auch nicht geboren werden kann, wie das Geistig-Übersinnliche heruntersteigt aus geistigen Welten und sich umkleidet mit dem menschlichen physischen Leibe. Vom Beginne dieses physischen Daseins an — das habe ich von den verschiedensten Gesichtspunkten her vor Ihnen hier ausgeführt — ist dieses Wirken des Geistes im physischen Leibe eigentlich ein Hinführen des physischen Leibes zum Sterben, und mit dem Gedanken der Geburt ist zu gleicher Zeit der Gedanke des Sterbens gegeben.
[ 4 ] Ich habe darauf hingewiesen, wie ja die Hauptesorganisation des Menschen nur dadurch zu verstehen ist, daß man weiß: Im Grunde genommen ist im Haupte ein fortwährendes Sterben vorhanden, das nur bekämpft wird von den Lebekräften des übrigen menschlichen Organismus. Und in dem Augenblicke, wo die Sterbekräfte, die immer im Menschen im Haupte vorhanden sind und des Menschen Denkernatur bedingen, in dem Augenblicke, wo diese Sterbekräfte die Oberhand bekommen über das menschliche vergängliche Wesen, in diesem Augenblicke tritt der wirkliche Tod ein.
[ 5 ] So ist in Wahrheit der Todesgedanke nur, ich möchte sagen, die andere Seite des Geburtsgedankens, und es kann daher im Ostergedanken nicht der Todesgedanke zum Ausdrucke kommen. In der Zeit, als das Christentum noch aus einer morgenländischen Anschauung heraus seine erste Gestalt gefunden hat, sehen wir, wie das Paulinische Christentum vor allen Dingen die Menschen hinweist nicht auf den Tod des Christus Jesus, sondern auf die Auferstehung, wie dieses Christentum darauf hinweist mit so starken Worten, wie sie Paulus spricht: «Ist der Christus nicht auferstanden, so ist euer Glaube tot.»
[ 6 ] Die Auferstehung, der Triumph über den Tod, die Überwindung des Todes, das ist es, was vor allen Dingen als der Ostergedanke vorhanden gewesen ist in der ersten, noch durch die Weisheit des Morgenlandes bedingten Form des Christentums. Oder aber wir können auch sehen, wie auf der anderen Seite uns Bilder auftreten, wo der Christus Jesus dargestellt wird als der gute Hirte, der da wacht gewissermaßen über die ewigen Angelegenheiten des in seinem zeitlichen Dasein schlafenden Menschen. Wir sehen überall, daß im Grunde genommen die erste Christenheit hingewiesen wird auf die Worte des Evangeliums: «Der, den ihr suchet, der ist nicht mehr hier.» Ihr müßt ihn suchen — so können wir ergänzend hinzufügen, in geistigen Welten; ihr dürft ihn nicht suchen in der physisch-sinnlichen Welt. Suchet ihr ihn in der physischsinnlichen Welt, so kann euch nur gesagt werden: Der, den ihr als Physisch-Sinnlichen suchet, der ist nicht mehr hier in der physisch-sinnlichen Welt.
[ 7 ] Die große, umfassende Weisheit, welche sich in den ersten Jahrhunderten des Christentums noch angeschickt hat, das Mysterium von Golgatha mit allem, was dazu gehört, zu durchdringen, sie tauchte zunächst unter in den Materialismus des Abendlandes. Dieser Materialismus war in den ersten Jahrhunderten noch nicht zum vollen Durchbruch gekommen. Er bereitete sich langsam vor. Man möchte sagen, die ersten, noch ganz schwachen materialistischen Impulse der ersten Jahrhunderte, die kaum bemerkbar waren, wandelten sich erst viel später um in das, was immer mehr und mehr Materialismus wurde und immer mehr die Zivilisation des Abendlandes durchdrang. Verbunden hat sich ja der morgenländische Religionsgedanke mit dem im Abendlande heraufziehenden Staatsgedanken. Im 4. Jahrhundert wurde das Christentum Staatsreligion, das heißt, es drang in das Christentum etwas ein, was nicht mehr Religion sein kann.
[ 8 ] Julian Apostata, der kein Christ, aber ein religiöser Mensch war, konnte vor allen Dingen nicht ja sagen zu dem, was aus dem Christentum durch den Konstantinismus geworden war. Und so sehen wir, wie erst ganz schwach, aber eben doch schon etwas bemerkbar in der Vermischung des Christentums mit dem untergehenden Römertum, wie da der Materialismus des Abendlandes seine ersten Strahlen wirft. Unter diesem Einflusse entstand auch jenes Bild des Christus Jesus, das im Anfange gar nicht vorhanden war, das durchaus nicht im Ursprunge des Christentums liegt: das Bild des Christus Jesus als des Gekreuzigten, Leidenden, als des Schmerzensmannes, als desjenigen, der in Schmerzen vergeht unter dem Eindrucke des unsäglichen Leides, das ihm zugefügt worden ist.
[ 9 ] Damit war ein Bruch gekommen in die ganze Anschauung der christlichen Welt; denn dieses Bild, welches fortan durch die Jahrhunderte gegangen ist — der am Kreuz hängende, schmerzdurchtränkte Christus -, das ist der Christus, welcher nicht mehr in seiner geistigen Wesenheit aufgefaßt werden kann, sondern allein in seiner leiblich-körperhaften Wesenheit. Und je mehr die Schmerzensmerkmale dem menschlichen Leibe aufgeprägt wurden, je mehr es die Kunst in ihrer großen Vollkommenheit zu verschiedenen Epochen zustande gebracht hat, dem am Kreuze hängenden Erlöser die Schmerzensmerkmale aufzudrücken, um so mehr wurden die Keime materialistisch-christlichen Empfindens gelegt. Der Kruzifixus ist der Ausdruck für den Übergang zum christlichen Materialismus. Dem widerspricht nicht, daß in einer großen, gewaltigen Weise gerade das, was als Schmerz des Erlösers durch die Kunst verkörpert worden ist, in seiner vollen Tiefe und Bedeutung anerkannt werde. Trotzdem bleibt es wahr, daß mit diesem Bilde des Erlösers, der am Kreuze unter Schmerzen vergeht, von einer eigentlich geistigen Auffassung des Christentums der Abschied genommen worden ist.
[ 10 ] Es mischte sich ja dann hinein in diese Auffassung des Schmerzensmannes jene von Christus, dem Weltenrichter, den wir eigentlich nur als einen anderen Ausdruck für Jahve oder Jehova, nämlich für den Jahve oder Jehova, der ins Juristische umgewandelt ist, in der Sixtinischen Kapelle in Rom in so großartiger Weise sehen. Derselbe Geist, der von der Vorstellung des Grabes, aus dem der Erlöser sich erhebt, aus dem der Erlöser heraus triumphiert, der aus diesem Bilde hat verschwinden lassen den triumphierenden Geist, den Sieger über den Tod derselbe Geist hat 869 am achten allgemeinen ökumenischen Konzil in Konstantinopel den Geist als etwas erklärt, an das man nicht glauben dürfe, hat dekretiert, daß der Mensch nur vorzustellen ist als aus Leib und Seele bestehend und daß der Geist nur in einigen Eigenschaften bestehe, die die Seele trüge.
[ 11 ] Wie wir hinweggehaucht sehen aus dem Kruzifixus das Geistige, wie wir im Physischen, das allein zur äußeren Darstellung kommt, die schmerzdurchtränkte Seele fühlen, ohne den Geist als Triumphator, ohne den Geist als Träger und zu gleicher Zeit als den für die Menschheit Sorgenden, so sehen wir durch Konzilsbeschluß auch aus der menschlichen Wesenheit den Geist hinweggestrichen.
[ 12 ] Und zusammengeschoben wurde das Karfreitagsfest und das Auferstehungsfest, das Osterfest. Das Karfreitagsfest war in gewissem Sinne in den Zeiten, in denen die Menschen noch nicht so trocken und nüchtern und verstandesöde waren, zu einem Fest geworden, in dem der Ostergedanke umgewandelt war in einer durch und durch egoistischen Weise. Im Schmerze wühlen, die eigene Seele wie wollüstig in den Schmerz eintauchen, Schmerzensseligkeiten empfinden, das war durch Zeitalter hindurch der Karfreitagsgedanke, der gewissermaßen nur den Hintergrund abgeben sollte für einen Ostergedanken, zu dessen Erfassung man in seiner wahren Gestalt immer weniger fähig wurde. Denn dieselbe Menschheit, die zum Glauben hat erheben lassen das Prinzip, daß der Mensch nur aus Leib und Seele bestehe, dieselbe Menschheit forderte für ihr Gefühl den bloß sterbenden Erlöser, forderte das Gegenbild ihres eigenen physischen Schmerzes, damit sie einen Hintergrund habe, um - allerdings nur in einem äußerlichen Übergang -— zu empfinden, was ursprünglich elementar empfunden werden sollte als das Bewußtsein, daß der lebendige Geist immerdar siegen muß über alles, was im physischen Leib geschehen kann. Man brauchte erst das Marterbild des Todes, um als Kontrast zu empfinden den eigentlichen Ostergedanken.
[ 13 ] Man wird es immer tief empfinden müssen, wie auf diese Weise allmählich aus der abendländischen Kultur die eigentliche Geistanschauung und Geistempfindung gewichen ist, und man wird gewiß mit Bewunderung, aber auch zugleich mit dem Gefühle einer gewissen Tragik hinschauen auf all die künstlerischen Versuche, den Schmerzensmann an dem Kreuze darzustellen. Es genügt nicht, daß man sich mit einigen hingeworfenen Gedanken und mit einigen eingestreuten Empfindungen zu dem erhebe, was unserer Zeit notwendig ist. Man muß alles das voll durchschauen, was auf abschüssiger Bahn seit langem war in bezug auf das Geistige in der abendländischen Kultur.
[ 14 ] Wir haben es heute nötig, daß auch dasjenige, was auf einem Gebiete zu dem Größten gehört, zu gleicher Zeit empfunden werde als etwas, worüber sich die Menschheit heute erheben muß. Wir brauchen aber innerhalb unserer ganzen abendländischen Kultur den Ostergedanken. Wir brauchen mit anderen Worten wiederum die Erhebung zum Geiste. Was einstmals in grandioser Weise aufgetaucht ist als das heilige Mysterium der Geburt, das Weihnachtsmysterium, das tauchte allmählich innerhalb der sich entwickelnden abendländischen Kultur ein in jene Sentimentalitäten, die doch nur der Gegenpol für die materialistische Entwickelung waren, in jene Sentimentalitäten, welche schwelgten und schwelgten in allen möglichen Liedern über das Jesulein. Es war ein wollüstiges Schwelgen in der Empfindung des kleinen Kindes. Statt das große, gewaltige Mysterium des Hereindringens eines überirdischen Geistes im Weihnachtsmysterium zu empfinden, wurden die nüchternen Philisterlieder von dem «Jesulein» allmählich das Tonangebende und das Maßgebliche.
[ 15 ] Es ist charakteristisch für die rein in den Bahnen des Verstandes wandelnde Entwickelung des Christentums — die es bis heute in gewissen Vertretern schon dahin gebracht hat, zu sagen, der Sohn gehöre überhaupt nicht in das Evangelium, sondern der Vater gehöre in das Evangelium —, daß diese Entwickelung dennoch den Auferstehungsgedanken beibehält, indem der Auferstehungsgedanke noch immer mit dem Todesgedanken verquickt wird, auch für dieses Christentum. Aber charakteristisch ist, wie immer mehr in der Form, wie ich es eben dargestellt habe, der Karfreitagsgedanke mit der modernen Entwickelung in den Vordergrund getreten ist, und wie der Auferstehungsgedanke, der wahre Ostergedanke, allmählich immer mehr zurückgetreten ist.
[ 16 ] Eine Zeit, die darauf hinweisen muß, daß der Mensch die Auferstehung seines Wesens aus dem Geiste heraus wieder erleben müsse, die muß gerade den Ostergedanken in besonderer Art betonen. Wir brauchen den Ostergedanken, wir brauchen ein völliges Verständnis des Ostergedankens. Dazu ist es aber notwendig, daß wir uns klarwerden, daß der Schmerzensmann ebenso der Ausdruck für das Hineingehen der abendländischen Entwickelung in den Materialismus ist wie auf der anderen Seite der bloß juristisch richtende Weltenrichter. Wir brauchen ja den Christus als übersinnliche Wesenheit, als Wesenheit, welche außerirdischer Art ist und dennoch hereingezogen ist in die irdische Entwickelung. Wir müssen uns zu diesem Sonnengedanken allen menschlichen Vorstellens durchringen.
[ 17 ] So wie wir durchschauen müssen, daß der Weihnachtsgeburtsgedanke zu etwas geworden ist, was, ich möchte sagen, das größte Mysterium hereingezogen hat in das triviale Empfinden der Sentimentalität, ebenso müssen wir durchschauen, wie es notwendig ist, am Ostergedanken zu betonen, daß da in die menschliche Entwickelung etwas hineinzieht, was aus irdischen Voraussetzungen heraus nicht verständlich ist, was aber verständlich ist aus der Voraussetzung geistigen Wissens, aus geistiger Erkenntnis heraus.
[ 18 ] Geistige Erkenntnis muß an dem Auferstehungsgedanken den ersten großen Halt finden, muß auch im Menschen anerkennen das Unberührtsein des Geistig-Ewigen von dem, was leiblich-physisch ist, muß sehen in dem paulinischen Wort: «Und ist der Christus nicht auferstanden, so ist euer Glaube tot» eine Bekräftigung - die in der neueren Zeit nur auf andere, bewußtere Weise errungen werden muß -, eine Bekräftigung dessen, was im Grunde genommen die eigentliche Wesenheit des Christus ausmacht.
[ 19 ] In dieser Art müssen wir uns heute wiederum an den Ostergedanken erinnern. In dieser Art muß uns die Zeit, in der wir uns an den Ostergedanken erinnern können, wiederum ein innerliches Fest werden, ein Fest, an dem wir für uns selber den Sieg des Geistes über die Leiblichkeit feiern. Uns muß, weil wir ja nicht unhistorisch sein dürfen, vor Augen stehen der schmerzgeplagte Jesus am Kreuze, der Schmerzensmann; uns muß aber über dem Kreuze erscheinen der Triumphator, der unberührt bleibt sowohl von der Geburt wie vom Tode, und der allein unseren Blick hinaufwenden kann zu den ewigen Gefilden des geistigen Lebens. Erst dadurch werden wir uns der wahren Wesenheit des Christus wiederum nähern.
[ 20 ] Die abendländische Menschheit hat den Christus zu sich heruntergezogen: heruntergezogen als kleines Kind, heruntergezogen als denjenigen, der vorzugsweise empfunden wird im Vergehen, im Schmerz. Es ist von mir des öfteren hervorgehoben worden, wie ebensolange Zeit, als vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha aus des Buddha Munde die Worte tönen, der Tod sei das Übel, nach dem Mysterium von Golgatha auftritt der Kruzifixus, der Gekreuzigte, wie da hingeschaut wird auf den Tod, und er als kein Übel empfunden wird, sondern als etwas, was in Wahrheit kein Dasein hat.
[ 21 ] Aber diese Empfindung, die noch hereintaucht aus einer morgenländischen Weisheit, die tiefer ist als der Buddhismus, diese Empfindung unterliegt der anderen, die sich festhaftet an dem Anblicke des Schmerzgepreßten. Wir müssen nicht nur mit unseren Gedanken, denn die sind meist kurzmaschig, wir müssen mit der ganzen Weite unserer Gefühle hinauf zu dem, was das Schicksal ist der menschlichen Vorstellungen von dem Mysterium von Golgatha im Laufe der Jahrhunderte. Wir müssen uns klar darüber werden, daß wir zu einem reinen, echten Verständnis des Mysteriums von Golgatha zurückkehren müssen. Wir müssen bedenken, wie selbst noch im hebräischen Altertum Jahve nicht als Weltenrichter im juristischen Sinne gedacht wird. Die größte dramatische Darstellung des religiösen Empfindens des hebräischen Altertums, das Buch Hiob, das den duldenden Hiob darstellt, schließt im Grunde genommen die Empfindung des äußerlich Gerechtsamen aus. Hiob ist der duldende Mensch, der Mensch, der das, was ihm von der Außenwelt geschieht, als ein Schicksal ansieht. Erst allmählich zieht der juristische Begriff der Vergeltung auch in die Weltenordnung ein. Aber in einer gewissen Weise ist es doch wie ein Aufleben des Jahve-Prinzips, was wir in dem Bilde am Altar der Sixtinischen Kapelle von Michelangelo vor uns haben.
[ 22 ] Wir aber brauchen den Christus, den wir in unserem Inneren suchen können, weil er, wenn wir ihn suchen, alsbald erscheint. Wir brauchen den Christus, welcher in unseren Willen einzieht, der unseren Willen durchwärmt und durchfeuert, damit dieser Wille kraftvoll werde zu denjenigen Taten, die für die Menschheitsentwickelung von uns verlangt werden. Wir brauchen denjenigen Christus, den wir nicht als den leidenden anschauen, sondern der da schwebt oberhalb des Kreuzes und herüberschaut auf das, was wesenlos am Kreuze endet. Wir brauchen das starke Bewußtsein von der Ewigkeit des Geistes.
[ 23 ] Wir gewinnen das starke Bewußtsein von der Ewigkeit des Geistes nicht, wenn wir uns verlieren in dem Bilde des bloßen Kruzifixus. Und wenn wir sehen, wie das Bild des Kruzifixus nach und nach immer mehr umgestellt worden ist zum Leidenden und Schmerzfühlenden, so werden wir sehen, welche Kraft gerade diese Richtung menschlichen Empfindens gewonnen hat. Es ist die Abwendung des Blickes der Menschheit von dem eigentlich Geistigen und die Hinwendung zu dem bloß Irdisch-Physischen. Das ist ja zuweilen in einer grandiosen Weise ausgedrückt; aber denen, die zum Beispiel wie Goethe schon etwas empfunden haben von der Notwendigkeit, daß unsere Zivilisation wieder zum Geiste durchdringe, solchen Menschen ist es immer als etwas erschienen, mit dem sie eigentlich nicht mitgehen. Goethe hat es ja oft genug zum Ausdruck gebracht, daß der gekreuzigte Erlöser im Grunde genommen eigentlich nicht dasjenige zum Ausdrucke bringt, was er an dem Christentum empfindet: die Erhebung des Menschen zum Geistigen.
[ 24 ] Es ist die Notwendigkeit vorhanden, daß sowohl die Karfreitagsstimmung wie die Osterstimmung sich wandle, daß die Karfreitagsstimmung zu einer solchen sich gestalte, welche in sich trägt das Hinschauen auf den endenden Jesus und damit im Grunde genommen empfindet: dieses ist nur die andere Seite des Geborenwerdens. Wer nicht sieht im Geborenwerden zugleich das Sterbende, der sieht nicht vollständig. Wer imstande ist, das, was in der Todesstimmung des Karfreitags auftritt, so zu empfinden, daß ihm da nur die eine Seite des Menschlichen gegeben wird, die der andere Pol ist dessen, was in dem Hereintreten des Kindes bei der Geburt gegeben ist, der wird sich in der richtigen Weise vorbereiten für die eigentliche Osterstimmung, für jene Stimmung, die nur darin bestehen kann, daß der Mensch weiß: Und was auch meine menschliche Hülle ist, die geboren wird — der eigentliche Mensch ist ungeboren, wie er unsterblich ist.
[ 25 ] Der eigentliche Mensch muß sich verbinden mit demjenigen, was hereingekommen ist in die Welt als der Christus, der nicht sterben kann, der auf ein anderes als auf sich selbst hinabsieht, wenn er den Schmerzensmann des Kreuzes ansieht. Es muß empfunden werden, was eigentlich geschehen ist dadurch, daß die Geistesvorstellung seit dem Ende des ersten Jahrhunderts allmählich der abendländischen Zivilisation verlorengegangen ist. Und es wird der Welt-Ostergedanke sein, wenn eine genügend große Anzahl von Menschen empfinden, daß der Geist innerhalb der modernen Zivilisation wieder auferstehen muß.
[ 26 ] ÄAußerlich wird man das so auszudrücken haben, daß der Mensch nicht allein wird forschen wollen über dasjenige, was über ihn verhängt ist, nicht allein wird suchen nach Naturgesetzen oder nach Geschichtsgesetzen, die ähnlich den Naturgesetzen sind, sondern daß der Mensch Verlangen tragen wird nach der Erkenntnis seines eigenen Willens, nach der Erkenntnis seiner eigenen Freiheit, daß der Mensch darnach Verlangen tragen wird, die eigentliche Natur des Willens zu empfinden, der den Menschen über die Pforte des Todes hinausträgt, der aber geistig angeschaut werden muß, damit er in seiner wahren Gestalt gesehen werden kann.
[ 27 ] Wie soll der Mensch die Kraft gewinnen zu dem Pfingstgedanken, zu der Ausgießung des Geistes, nachdem am achten allgemeinen ökumenischen Konzil von Konstantinopel der Pfingstgedanke dogmatisch zur bloßen Phrase erklärt worden ist? Wie soll der Mensch die Kraft gewinnen zu diesem Pfingstgedanken, wenn er nicht durchzudringen vermag zu dem Ostergedanken, zu dem wahren Ostergedanken, zu dem Gedanken von der Auferstehung des Geistes! Es darf der Mensch nicht betäubt werden durch das Bild des sterbenden, des schmerzdurchdrungenen Erlösers. Es muß der Mensch lernen das Verbundensein des Schmerzes mit dem Zusammengefügtsein mit dem materiellen Dasein.
[ 28 ] Das war ein Grundprinzip der alten Weisheit, die noch aus instinktiven Untergründen des menschlichen Erkennens heraus gekommen ist. Wir müssen uns diese Erkenntnis durch bewußtes Erkennen wiederum erringen. Das war aber ein Grundprinzip, daß des Schmerzes Ursprung die Verbindung mit der Materie ist, daß das Leiden stammt von der Verbindung des Menschen mit der Materie. Ein Unding wäre es allerdings, zu glauben, daß der Christus, weil er als göttlich-geistiges Wesen durch den Tod hindurchgegangen ist, den Schmerz nicht erlitten habe. Den Schmerz beim Mysterium von Golgatha für einen bloßen Scheinschmerz zu erklären, wäre unreal gedacht. Er muß im allerbedeutendsten Sinne als wirklich gedacht werden, aber er darf nicht gedacht werden als sein Gegenbild. Es muß wieder etwas gewonnen werden von dem, was vor uns steht, wenn wir mit dem Überblick über die ganze Menschheitsentwickelung das Mysterium von Golgatha vor uns hinstellen.
[ 29 ] Wenn den alten zu initiierenden Schülern der freieste Mensch im Bilde vorgeführt werden sollte, wenn diese zu initiierenden Schüler die verschiedensten Vorstufen durchgemacht hatten, wenn sie durchgegangen waren durch alle die Übungen, durch die sie sich gewisse Erkenntnisse erringen konnten, und die ihnen im Bilde dramatisch vorgeführt worden sind, dann wurden sie zuletzt geführt vor das Bild des ganz und gar in seinem physischen Leibe leidenden Menschen im roten Purpurmantel mit der Dornenkrone auf dem Haupte, vor das Bild des Chrestos. Und im Anschauen dieses Chrestos sollte sich der Seele entringen diejenige Kraft, die den Menschen zum eigentlichen Menschen macht. Und die Blutstropfen, die an allen wichtigeren Stellen jenes alten Chrestos dem Schauenden, dem zu Initiierenden entgegentraten, die sollten da sein zur Beseitigung der Ohnmacht und der menschlichen Schwäche und zum Erheben des triumphierenden Geistes aus dem menschlichen Inneren.
[ 30 ] Die Schmerzesanschauung sollte bedeuten die Auferstehung des geistigen Wesens. Im tiefsten Sinne sollte im Bilde vor dem Menschen stehen, was man in einfachen Worten so ausdrücken kann: Deiner Lust magst du manches im Leben verdanken; hast du dir aber Erkenntnis, hast du dir Einsicht in die geistigen Zusammenhänge verschafft, so verdankst du das deinem Leide, deinem Schmerze. Du verdankst es dem Umstande, daß du in deinem Leide und deinem Schmerze nicht untergegangen bist, sondern die Kraft hattest, dich aus ihnen zu erheben. — Deshalb wurde in den alten Mysterien das Bild des leiddenden Chrestos abgelöst durch das andere Bild des triumphierenden Christus, der herunterschaut auf den leidenden Chrestos als auf dasjenige, was überwunden ist.
[ 31 ] Wiedergefunden werden muß so die Möglichkeit, den triumphierenden geistigen Christus vor der Seele und in der Seele und namentlich im Willen zu haben. Das ist dasjenige, was uns bevorstehen muß in der Gegenwart und insbesondere in dem, was wir tun wollen in dieser Gegenwart zu der Herbeiführung einer heilsamen menschlichen Zukunft. Aber nimmermehr werden wir diesen Ostergedanken, diesen wahren Ostergedanken fassen können, wenn wir nicht einzusehen vermögen, daß wir hinausblicken müssen von dem bloß Irdischen in das Kosmische, wenn wir überhaupt von dem Christus sprechen wollen.
[ 32 ] Das neuere Denken hat uns den Kosmos zum Leichnam gemacht. Wir erblicken heute die Sterne und den Gang der Sterne und berechnen das alles. Das heißt, wir rechnen etwas aus über den Leichnam der Welt - und wir sehen nicht, wie in den Sternen lebt das Leben und wie in dem Gang der Sterne walten die Absichten des kosmischen Geistes. Der Christus ist heruntergestiegen in die Menschheit, um die Menschenseelen zu verbinden mit diesem kosmischen Geiste. Und nur derjenige ist ein wahrer Verkünder des Evangeliums von Christus selber, der da hinweist darauf, daß dasjenige, was physisch-sinnlich in der Sonne erscheint, der äußere Ausdruck ist für den Geist unserer Welt, den auferstehenden Geist unserer Welt.
[ 33 ] Lebendig muß werden so etwas wie die Zusammengehörigkeit desjenigen, was der Abglanz des Weltengeistes ist im Monde, und desjenigen, was dieser Weltengeist selber ist in der Sonne. Lebendig muß wieder werden, wie das Osterfest bestimmt worden ist durch die Verhältnisse von Sonne und Mond im Frühling. Anknüpfen müssen wir können an dasjenige, was das Osterfest aus dem Kosmos selber für die Erdenentwickelung bestimmt hat. Wir müssen wissen, daß es die schützendsten und wachesten Geister des Kosmos waren, die aus dieser Weltenuhr, deren Zeiger Sonne und Mond für das irdische Dasein sind, verständlich gemacht haben die große, bedeutsame Stunde in der Welt- und Menschheitsentwickelung, in welche die Auferstehung zu setzen ist. Lernen müssen wir es vom Geistigen, zu empfinden den Gang dieser beiden Zeiger Sonne und Mond, wie wir für unsere physischen Angelegenheiten verstehenlernen den Gang der Zeiger der Uhr. Anknüpfen müssen wir das Physische, Irdische an das Überphysische, Überirdische.
[ 34 ] Der Ostergedanke verträgt nur die Interpretation aus dem Überirdischen heraus. Denn geschehen ist mit dem Mysterium von Golgotha, insofern es das Auferstehungsmysterium ist, etwas, was sich unterscheidet von den übrigen Angelegenheiten der Menschen. Die übrigen Angelegenheiten der Menschen verlaufen auf der Erde in einer ganz anderen Art als das, was mit dem Mysterium von Golgatha geschehen ist. Die Erde hat aufgenommen die kosmischen Kräfte, und aus dem, was sie selber geworden ist, sprießen sie hervor die menschlichen Willenskräfte in den menschlichen Stoffwechsel hinein. Als aber das Mysterium von Golgatha sich abgespielt hat, da drang ein neuer Zusammenfluß des Willens in das irdische Geschehen herein. Da geschah auf der Erde etwas, was kosmisches Geschehen ist, und wofür die Erde nur Schauplatz ist. Der Mensch wurde wiederum mit dem Kosmos verbunden.
[ 35 ] Das ist es, was verstanden werden muß, und das Verständnis davon gibt erst den Ostergedanken in seinem vollen Umfange. Daher muß vor unserer Seele erstehen nicht nur das Bild des Kruzifixus. Und hätte die Kunst das Schönste, das Größte, das Bedeutendste, das Erhabenste hervorgebracht in dem Bilde des Kruzifixus — erstehen muß der Gedanke: «Der, den ihr suchet, der ist nicht hier.» Erscheinen muß euch über dem Kreuze derjenige, der nun hier ist, und der aus dem Geiste heraus für den Geist, Geist erweckend, zu euch spricht.
[ 36 ] Das ist es, was als Ostergedanke in die Menschheitsentwickelung hineinkommen muß; das ist dasjenige, zu dem sich das menschliche Herz und der menschliche Sinn erheben müssen. Von uns wird in unserer Zeit nicht bloß verlangt, daß wir Altes bewundern. Von uns wird nicht bloß verlangt, daß wir uns hineinvertiefen und hineinversenken können in das, was geschaffen worden ist. Wir müssen Neu-Schaffende werden. Und sei es selbst das Kreuz mit all dem Schönen, was Künstler aus ihm gemacht haben, wir dürfen es nicht dabei belassen. Wir müssen hören die Worte der geistigen Wesen, die uns, wenn wir suchen im Tode und im Leiden, zurufen: Der, den ihr suchet, er ist nicht mehr hier! — Und so müssen wir suchen denjenigen, der da hier ist.
[ 37 ] Wir müssen verstehen, zu Ostern uns hinzuwenden zu dem Geiste, der uns allein in dem Bilde der Auferstehung gegeben werden kann. Dann werden wir in der richtigen Weise vorschreiten können von der Leidens-Karfreitagsstimmung zu der geistigen Stimmung des Ostertages. Dann werden wir aber auch fähig werden, in dieser Stimmung des Ostertages dasjenige zu finden, was unser Wille aufnehmen muß, damit wir Wirkende werden können gegenüber den Niedergangskräften in den Aufgangskräften der Menschheit. Und solche Kräfte, die da mitwirken können, die brauchen wir. Und in dem Augenblicke, wo wir in der richtigen Weise den Auferstehungs-Ostergedanken verstehen, wird dieser Ostergedanke, warm und uns durchleuchtend, die Kräfte in uns entzünden, die wir für die zukünftige Menschheitsentwickelung brauchen.
Sixteenth Lecture
[ 1 ] There is a significant contrast between the Christmas idea and the Easter idea, and anyone who is able to compare these two ideas, which have often been discussed in our context, connect them in an appropriate way, and then bring their interaction to life within themselves — the interaction between the Christmas idea and the Easter idea — will be pointed to an inner experience that, in a certain sense, comprehensively describes the riddles of humanity.
[ 2 ] The Christmas idea points us to birth. We know how, through birth, the eternal element of the human being enters the world from which the human being's sensory-visible physical being is taken. And when we approach the Christmas idea with this view, it appears to us as the idea that connects us with the supersensible. Then, in addition to everything else it brings us, it appears in such a way that it points, as it were, to the one pole of our existence, where we, as sensual-physical beings, are connected with the spiritual-supersensible. That is why, when fully understood, the birth of the human being can never be comprehended by a science that takes its premises solely from the observation of sensory-physical existence.
[ 3 ] At the other pole of human experience lies the idea underlying the Easter festival, which in the course of Western development has increasingly become an idea that has prepared the way for the materialistic conception of the West. The idea of Easter can be grasped, initially in a more abstract way, if one is clear about how the eternal, the immortal in man, which therefore cannot be born, descends from spiritual worlds and clothes itself in the human physical body. From the beginning of this physical existence — as I have explained to you here from various points of view — this working of the spirit in the physical body is actually a leading of the physical body toward death, and with the idea of birth there is at the same time the idea of death.
[ 4 ] I have pointed out that the main organization of the human being can only be understood if one knows that, in essence, there is a constant dying process in the head, which is only counteracted by the life forces of the rest of the human organism. And at the moment when the forces of death, which are always present in the human head and determine the thinking nature of the human being, at the moment when these forces of death gain the upper hand over the transitory human being, at that moment real death occurs.
[ 5 ] Thus, in truth, the thought of death is only, I would say, the other side of the thought of birth, and therefore the thought of death cannot find expression in the Easter thought. At the time when Christianity was still taking shape from an Eastern perspective, we see how Pauline Christianity points people above all not to the death of Christ Jesus, but to the resurrection, as this Christianity points out in such strong words as those spoken by Paul: “If Christ has not been raised, then your faith is dead.”
[ 6 ] The resurrection, the triumph over death, the overcoming of death, that is what was present above all as the Easter idea in the first form of Christianity, which was still conditioned by the wisdom of the East. Or we can also see how, on the other hand, images appear in which Christ Jesus is depicted as the good shepherd who watches over the eternal affairs of human beings sleeping in their temporal existence. We see everywhere that, basically, early Christianity refers to the words of the Gospel: “He whom you seek is not here.” You must seek him — we might add, in spiritual worlds; you must not seek him in the physical-sensory world. If you seek him in the physical-sensory world, you can only be told: He whom you seek as physical-sensory is no longer here in the physical-sensory world.
[ 7 ] The great, comprehensive wisdom that in the first centuries of Christianity was still preparing to penetrate the mystery of Golgotha with all that belongs to it, initially submerged in the materialism of the West. This materialism had not yet fully broken through in the first centuries. It prepared itself slowly. One might say that the first, still very weak materialistic impulses of the first centuries, which were hardly noticeable, only much later transformed into what became more and more materialism and increasingly permeated Western civilization. The Eastern religious idea was connected with the idea of the state that was emerging in the West. In the 4th century, Christianity became the state religion, which means that something entered Christianity that could no longer be religion.
[ 8 ] Julian the Apostate, who was not a Christian but a religious man, could not accept what Christianity had become under Constantine. And so we see how, at first very weakly, but nevertheless already somewhat noticeable in the mixture of Christianity with the declining Roman Empire, the materialism of the West casts its first rays. Under this influence, the image of Jesus Christ arose, which was not present at the beginning and which is certainly not found in the origins of Christianity: the image of Jesus Christ as the crucified, suffering man, as the man of sorrows, as the one who dies in pain under the impression of the unspeakable suffering that has been inflicted on him.
[ 9 ] This marked a break in the entire view of the Christian world, for this image, which has been passed down through the centuries—Christ hanging on the cross, drenched in pain—is a Christ who can no longer be understood in his spiritual essence, but only in his physical, corporeal essence. And the more the marks of suffering were imprinted on the human body, the more art in its great perfection at various epochs succeeded in imprinting the marks of suffering on the Savior hanging on the cross, the more the seeds of materialistic Christian sentiment were sown. The crucifix is the expression of the transition to Christian materialism. This does not contradict the fact that, in a great and powerful way, precisely that which has been embodied in art as the suffering of the Redeemer is recognized in its full depth and meaning. Nevertheless, it remains true that with this image of the Redeemer dying in pain on the cross, Christianity has departed from a truly spiritual understanding of itself.
[ 10 ] This conception of the Man of Sorrows was then mixed with that of Christ as the judge of the world, whom we actually see only as another expression of Yahweh or Jehovah, namely, the Yahweh or Jehovah who has been transformed into a legal entity, as we see so magnificently in the Sistine Chapel in Rome. The same spirit that arose from the idea of the tomb from which the Redeemer rises, from which the Redeemer triumphs, that spirit that made the triumphant spirit, the victor over death, disappear from this image, that same spirit declared at the Eighth Ecumenical Council in Constantinople in 869 that the spirit is something that cannot be believed in, decreed that man is to be conceived as consisting only of body and soul, and that the spirit exists only in certain properties which the soul carries.
[ 11 ] Just as we see the spiritual being breathed away from the crucifix, just as we feel the soul steeped in pain in the physical, which alone is visible to the senses, without the spirit as triumphant, without the spirit as bearer and at the same time as the one who cares for humanity, so we see, by decision of the Council, the spirit wiped away from human nature.
[ 12 ] And the Good Friday celebration and the Resurrection celebration, Easter, were pushed together. In a certain sense, at a time when people were not yet so dry and sober and intellectually barren, Good Friday had become a festival in which the idea of Easter was transformed in a thoroughly selfish way. To wallow in pain, to immerse one's soul in pain as if in pleasure, to feel bliss in suffering—this was the idea of Good Friday throughout the ages, which was supposed to serve only as a backdrop for the idea of Easter, which people were becoming less and less able to grasp in its true form. For the same humanity that had elevated to a belief the principle that man consists only of body and soul, the same humanity demanded for its feelings a merely dying savior, demanded the counter-image of its own physical pain, so that it might have a background against which to feel — albeit only in an external transition — what was originally meant to be felt as the consciousness that the living spirit must always triumph over everything that can happen in the physical body. It was first necessary to have the image of martyrdom in order to feel the contrast to the actual idea of Easter.
[ 13 ] One will always have to feel deeply how, in this way, the actual spiritual view and spiritual feeling have gradually disappeared from Western culture, and one will certainly look with admiration, but also with a feeling of a certain tragedy, at all the artistic attempts to depict the man of sorrows on the cross. It is not enough to rise to what is necessary for our time with a few hastily thrown together thoughts and a few scattered feelings. We must fully understand everything that has long been on a slippery slope with regard to the spiritual in Western culture.
[ 14 ] Today we need that which belongs to the greatest in a particular field to be felt at the same time as something above which humanity must rise. But we need the Easter idea within our entire Western culture. In other words, we need once again to be uplifted to the spirit. What once appeared in a grandiose manner as the holy mystery of birth, the mystery of Christmas, gradually sank within the developing Western culture into those sentiments that were only the antithesis of materialistic development, into those sentiments that reveled and reveled in all kinds of songs about the baby Jesus. It was a voluptuous reveling in the feelings of the little child. Instead of feeling the great, powerful mystery of the intrusion of a supernatural spirit in the Christmas mystery, the sober philistine songs about the “little Jesus” gradually became the dominant and authoritative tone.
[ 15 ] It is characteristic of the development of Christianity, which has been purely intellectual, that it has led certain representatives to say that the Son does not belong in the Gospel at all, but rather the Father belongs in the Gospel — that this development nevertheless retains the idea of resurrection, in that the idea of resurrection is still intertwined with the idea of death, even for this Christianity. But it is characteristic how, as I have just described, the idea of Good Friday has come to the fore in the modern development, and how the idea of resurrection, the true idea of Easter, has gradually receded.
[ 16 ] A time that must point to the fact that human beings must experience the resurrection of their being out of the spirit must emphasize the idea of Easter in a special way. We need the Easter idea; we need a complete understanding of the Easter idea. To do this, however, it is necessary for us to realize that the Man of Sorrows is just as much an expression of the Western development into materialism as, on the other hand, the world judge who merely judges according to the law. We need Christ as a supersensible being, as a being who is of an extraterrestrial nature and yet has been drawn into earthly development. We must bring ourselves to accept this idea of the sun in all human imagination.
[ 17 ] Just as we must see that the idea of the Christmas birth has become something which, I would say, has brought the greatest mystery into the trivial sentimentality of the age, so must we see how necessary it is to emphasize in the Easter idea that something is drawn into human development which cannot be understood from earthly premises, but which can be understood from the premise of spiritual knowledge, from spiritual insight.
[ 18 ] Spiritual knowledge must find its first great foothold in the idea of resurrection, must also recognize in human beings the untouched nature of the spiritual-eternal from what is physical-corporeal, must see in the Pauline words: “And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is dead,” an affirmation—which in modern times must be achieved in a different, more conscious way—an affirmation of what essentially constitutes the true nature of Christ.
[ 19 ] In this way we must remember the Easter thought again today. In this way the time in which we can remember the Easter thought must again become an inner celebration for us, a celebration in which we celebrate for ourselves the victory of the spirit over physicality. Because we must not be unhistorical, we must keep before our eyes the pain-racked Jesus on the cross, the Man of Sorrows; but above the cross we must see the Triumphant One, untouched by birth or death, who alone can lift our gaze to the eternal realms of spiritual life. Only in this way will we once again approach the true essence of Christ.
[ 20 ] Western humanity has pulled Christ down to itself: pulled him down as a small child, pulled him down as the one who is primarily felt in passing, in pain. I have often emphasized this, that just as long as the words of the Buddha resounded before the mystery of Golgotha, that death is evil, so after the mystery of Golgotha the crucifix appears, the crucified one, and death is looked upon and perceived not as evil, but as something that in truth has no existence.
[ 21 ] But this feeling, which still springs from an Eastern wisdom that is deeper than Buddhism, is subject to another feeling that clings to the sight of the pain-stricken. We must not only use our thoughts, for they are usually short-sighted, but we must use the whole breadth of our feelings to reach up to what is the destiny of human ideas about the mystery of Golgotha over the centuries. We must realize that we must return to a pure, genuine understanding of the mystery of Golgotha. We must remember that even in Hebrew antiquity, Yahweh was not conceived as a judge of the world in the legal sense. The greatest dramatic representation of the religious sentiment of Hebrew antiquity, the Book of Job, which depicts the long-suffering Job, basically excludes the feeling of external justice. Job is the long-suffering man, the man who regards what happens to him from the outside world as fate. Only gradually does the legal concept of retribution enter into the world order. But in a certain sense, it is like a revival of the principle of Yahweh, which we see in Michelangelo's painting on the altar of the Sistine Chapel.
[ 22 ] But we need the Christ whom we can seek within ourselves, because when we seek him, he appears immediately. We need the Christ who enters into our will, who warms and fires our will, so that this will may become powerful for the deeds that are required of us for the development of humanity. We need the Christ whom we do not see as the suffering one, but who hovers above the cross and looks down upon that which ends without substance on the cross. We need a strong awareness of the eternity of the spirit.
[ 23 ] We do not gain a strong awareness of the eternity of the spirit if we lose ourselves in the image of the mere crucifix. And when we see how the image of the crucifix has gradually been transformed into that of a suffering and pain-filled figure, we will see what power this particular direction of human feeling has gained. It is the turning away of humanity's gaze from the truly spiritual and the turning toward the merely earthly and physical. This is sometimes expressed in a grandiose manner; but to those who, like Goethe, for example, have already sensed something of the necessity for our civilization to penetrate once more to the spirit, such things have always appeared to be something they cannot really go along with. Goethe often said that the crucified Savior does not really express what he feels about Christianity: the elevation of man to the spiritual realm.
[ 24 ] There is a need for both the mood of Good Friday and the mood of Easter to change, for the mood of Good Friday to become one that looks at the dying Jesus and thus feels, in essence, that this is only the other side of being born. Those who do not see in birth the dying at the same time do not see completely. Those who are able to feel what arises in the mood of death on Good Friday in such a way that they see only one side of humanity, which is the opposite pole of what is given in the arrival of the child at birth, will prepare themselves in the right way for the true Easter mood, for that mood which can only consist in the knowledge that And whatever my human shell may be that is born — the real human being is unborn, just as he is immortal.
[ 25 ] The real human being must connect with that which has come into the world as Christ, who cannot die, who looks down on something other than himself when he looks at the Man of Sorrows on the cross. It must be felt what has actually happened as a result of the gradual loss of spiritual conception in Western civilization since the end of the first century. And it will be the world Easter idea when a sufficiently large number of people feel that the spirit must rise again within modern civilization.
[ 26 ] Outwardly, this will have to be expressed in such a way that human beings will not want to investigate only what has been imposed upon them, will not seek only natural laws or historical laws similar to natural laws, but that human beings will have a desire for knowledge of their own will, for knowledge of their own freedom, that human beings will have a desire to feel the true nature of the will that carries them beyond the gates of death, but which must be viewed spiritually in order to be seen in its true form.
[ 27 ] How can man gain the strength for the idea of Pentecost, for the outpouring of the Spirit, after the eighth general ecumenical council of Constantinople declared the idea of Pentecost to be mere dogmatic phraseology? How can human beings gain the strength for this idea of Pentecost if they are unable to penetrate the idea of Easter, the true idea of Easter, the idea of the resurrection of the spirit? Human beings must not be numbed by the image of the dying, pain-filled Savior. Man must learn to understand the connection between pain and his union with material existence.
[ 28 ] This was a fundamental principle of ancient wisdom, which arose from the instinctive foundations of human knowledge. We must regain this insight through conscious recognition. But it was a fundamental principle that the origin of pain is the connection with matter, that suffering stems from the connection of man with matter. It would be absurd, however, to believe that Christ, because he passed through death as a divine-spiritual being, did not suffer pain. It would be unrealistic to explain the pain of the Mystery of Golgotha as mere apparent pain. It must be thought of as real in the most significant sense, but it must not be thought of as its opposite. Something must be regained from what stands before us when we place the Mystery of Golgotha before us with an overview of the entire development of humanity.
[ 29 ] When the ancient disciples who were to be initiated were shown the freest human being in a picture, when these disciples had gone through the most varied preliminary stages, when they had gone through all the exercises through which they could gain certain insights, and which had been dramatically presented to them in images, then they were finally led before the image of the human being suffering completely in his physical body, clothed in a red purple robe with a crown of thorns on his head, before the image of Christ. And in beholding this Christ, the soul was to wrest from itself the power that makes human beings truly human. And the drops of blood that appeared in all the important places on that old Chrestos, facing the viewer, the initiate, were there to remove powerlessness and human weakness and to raise the triumphant spirit from within the human being.
[ 30 ] The perception of pain should mean the resurrection of the spiritual being. In the deepest sense, the image before the human being should express what can be expressed in simple words: You may owe many things in life to your desires; but if you have gained knowledge, if you have gained insight into spiritual connections, then you owe this to your suffering, to your pain. You owe it to the fact that you did not perish in your suffering and pain, but had the strength to rise above them. — That is why, in the ancient mysteries, the image of the suffering Christ was replaced by the image of the triumphant Christ looking down on the suffering Christ as something that has been overcome.
[ 31 ] We must rediscover the possibility of having the triumphant spiritual Christ before our souls and within our souls, and especially in our will. This is what lies ahead of us in the present, and especially in what we want to do in this present to bring about a healing human future. But we will never be able to grasp this Easter idea, this true Easter idea, if we cannot see that we must look beyond the merely earthly into the cosmic, if we want to speak of Christ at all.
[ 32 ] The new way of thinking has turned the cosmos into a corpse. Today we look at the stars and the course of the stars and calculate everything. That means we calculate something about the corpse of the world—and we do not see how life lives in the stars and how the intentions of the cosmic spirit rule in the course of the stars. Christ descended into humanity in order to connect human souls with this cosmic spirit. And only he is a true herald of the gospel of Christ himself who points out that what appears physically and sensually in the sun is the outer expression of the spirit of our world, the rising spirit of our world.
[ 33 ] Something like the unity of what is the reflection of the world spirit in the moon and what this world spirit itself is in the sun must become alive. The way Easter has been determined by the relationship between the sun and the moon in spring must become alive again. We must be able to connect with what Easter has determined for the development of the earth from the cosmos itself. We must know that it was the most protective and watchful spirits of the cosmos who, from this world clock, whose hands are the sun and moon for earthly existence, made understandable the great and significant hour in the evolution of the world and humanity in which the resurrection is to be placed. We must learn from the spiritual realm to perceive the movement of these two hands, the sun and the moon, just as we learn to understand the movement of the hands of a clock in relation to our physical affairs. We must connect the physical, earthly realm with the superphysical, superearthly realm.
[ 34 ] The idea of Easter can only be interpreted from the super-earthly. For with the Mystery of Golgotha, insofar as it is the Mystery of the Resurrection, something has happened that is different from all other human affairs. The other affairs of human beings take place on earth in a completely different way than what happened with the mystery of Golgotha. The earth has taken in the cosmic forces, and from what it has become, the human will forces sprout forth into the human metabolism. But when the mystery of Golgotha took place, a new confluence of will entered into earthly events. Something happened on earth that is a cosmic event, for which the earth is only the scene. Human beings were once again connected with the cosmos.
[ 35 ] This is what must be understood, and only this understanding gives the Easter idea its full meaning. Therefore, it is not only the image of the crucifix that must arise before our soul. And even if art had produced the most beautiful, the greatest, the most significant, the most sublime image of the crucifix, the thought must arise: “He whom you seek is not here.” Above the cross must appear the one who is now here, who speaks to you from the spirit, awakening the spirit for the spirit.
[ 36 ] This is what must enter into human evolution as the Easter thought; this is what the human heart and the human mind must rise to. In our time, we are not merely required to admire the old. We are not merely required to be able to immerse ourselves in what has been created. We must become creators ourselves. And even if it is the cross with all the beauty that artists have made of it, we must not leave it at that. We must hear the words of the spiritual beings who call out to us when we search in death and suffering: He whom you seek is no longer here! — And so we must seek the one who is here.
[ 37 ] At Easter, we must understand that we must turn to the spirit that can be given to us alone in the image of the Resurrection. Then we will be able to progress in the right way from the mood of suffering on Good Friday to the spiritual mood of Easter Day. Then we will also be able to find in this mood of Easter Day what our will must take up so that we can become active forces against the forces of decline in the forces of ascent in humanity. And we need such forces that can work in this way. And at the moment when we understand the Easter idea of resurrection in the right way, this Easter idea, warm and illuminating us, will ignite the forces within us that we need for the future development of humanity.