The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Ninth Lecture

[ 1 ] Yesterday, our explanations ended with the statement that we are now faced with the most important aspect of the Christ impulse: death and its meaning itself. But before we come to the description of Christ's death and thus to the climax of our cycle of lectures, it will be necessary today to say something about the actual meaning and significance of many things in the Gospel of John itself and about the relationship of what is described there to the other Gospels.

[ 2 ] In recent days, we have attempted to understand the Christ impulse from entirely different sources, from the clairvoyant observation of the Akashic Chronicle, and to present it as an actual event in the development of humanity. And we have, so to speak, referred only to what appears in the Gospels as a confirmation of what could first be declared true through clairvoyant research. Today, however, for the sake of furthering our considerations, we want to take a few glances at the Gospel of John itself and characterize this important document of humanity from one perspective. This Gospel of John, of which we said yesterday that contemporary theological research, insofar as it is afflicted by materialism, cannot gain a proper position in relation to it, that it is unable to understand the historical, this Gospel of John will appear to us, when we look at it with a spiritual scientific eye, as one of the most wonderful documents that humanity has. It can be said that the Gospel of John is one of the greatest not only among religious documents, but among all — let us use the profane word — among all literary documents. Let us approach the content of this document from this angle.

[ 3 ] In terms of its composition, the Gospel of John is, even in its very first chapters, if one understands them correctly, if one knows what actually lies in the words, one of the most stylish, most well-rounded documents that exist in the world. However, this cannot be seen from a superficial examination. At first glance, it appears that the writer of the Gospel of John—we now know him from the list of miracles up to the actual event of Lazarus—lists exactly seven such miracles. The significance of the number seven will be discussed in the next few days. What are these seven miracles or signs?

1. The sign given by the wedding at Cana in Galilee,
2. the sign given by the healing of the royal official's son,
3. the sign given by the healing of the man who had been sick for thirty-eight years at the pool of Bethesda,
4. the feeding of the five thousand,
5. the sign given by the walking of Christ on the sea,
6. the sign given by the healing of the man born blind, and finally
7. the greatest sign, the initiation or dedication of Lazarus, the transformation of Lazarus into the writer of the Gospel of John himself.

[ 4 ] These are seven of the signs. Now we must ask ourselves: What is the meaning of these signs, of these miracles?

[ 5 ] If you have listened attentively to what has been said to you in the last few days in many different ways, you will remember that it was said that the state of consciousness of human beings has changed in the course of our entire human evolution. We have looked back to ancient times. We have seen that human beings did not start out from a purely animal stage of development, but from a form in which they still possessed clairvoyance as a natural ability. Human beings used to be clairvoyant, even though they had a consciousness that did not yet allow them to say, “I am.” Humans had to gradually acquire the ability of self-consciousness; but in return they had to give up their old clairvoyance. In the future, a time will come again when all humans will be clairvoyant, even though they will have retained the “I am,” the self-consciousness. These are the three stages that humanity has partly gone through and partly still has to go through. In Atlantis, people still lived in a kind of dream consciousness, but in a clairvoyant consciousness. Then it came about that they gradually gained self-consciousness, the consciousness of external objects, but in return they had to give up their old, dull clairvoyant gift. And finally, in the future, humans will have a clairvoyant consciousness connected with this self-consciousness. Thus, humans are moving from an old, dull clairvoyance through a non-clairvoyant consciousness of objects and rising again to a self-conscious clairvoyance.

[ 6 ] But apart from consciousness, everything else in humanity has also changed. It is really only human short-sightedness to believe that things must always have been as they are today. Everything has developed. It was not always so. Even the relationship between human beings was not always as it is today.

[ 7 ] We have already been able to gather from the hints of the last few days that in ancient times, up until the time when the Christ impulse entered human development, there was a much greater influence from soul to soul. People were predisposed to this. People did not only hear what the other person opposite them said in outwardly audible words, but if the other person felt something vividly, thought something vividly, the person opposite them could feel and know this in a certain way. In earlier times, love was something quite different from what it is today, although it was certainly more closely linked to blood relationship. Today it has taken on a more spiritual character, but it has become weaker. It will only regain its strength when the Christ impulse enters all human hearts. When love worked in ancient times, this love had at the same time something like a healing, balm-like power for the other soul. With the development of the intellect and wisdom, which of course only formed gradually, these ancient influences from soul to soul have faded away.

[ 8 ] To influence the soul of another, to allow the power that one had in one's own soul to flow over to another, was a gift that was entirely characteristic of the peoples of ancient times. Therefore, you must also think of a much greater power that could be received from soul to soul at that time, you must think of a much greater influence that could be exerted from soul to soul. Even if there are no external historical records of this, even if the stones and monuments say nothing, clairvoyant observation in the Akashic Records shows us that in those ancient times, for example, healing of the sick could take place in a comprehensive manner through psychic influence from one person to another. And the soul was capable of much more in those times. What sounds like a fairy tale to people today—that the will of human beings, for example, had the power, if they strove for it and trained themselves especially for it, to have a soothing effect on plant growth, to accelerate or delay the growth of plants—was a fact in those days. Today, only sparse remnants of all this remain.

[ 9 ] So human life was very different back then. In ancient times, no one would have been surprised if, somewhere, when the right relationship existed between people, such a spiritual influence had passed from one personality to another. However, we must note that it always took two or more people for such a spiritual influence to be exerted. One could imagine in our time that a person with the power of Christ would come among people. But those who would have the strength of faith in him would be very few, and he would not be able to accomplish what can be achieved through spiritual influence from one soul to another. For this, it is not only necessary that something be done, but that someone be there who is ready to receive this effect. If in ancient times there were more people who could receive such effects, we should not be surprised to hear that at that time there were means of healing the sick which worked through psychic influence, but that other effects which today can only be achieved by mechanical means were also achieved through psychic influence.

[ 10 ] When did the Christ event occur within human evolution? It occurred at a very specific time — we must keep this in mind. Only the last remnants of such soul currents from one human being to another remained, protruding like a relic from the Atlantean epoch. Humanity was just beginning to enter more and more into the material world and to have less and less opportunity to allow such soul currents to work. It was into this situation that the Christ impulse had to come, which, precisely because of its nature, was able to have an infinite effect on those who were still receptive to it.

[ 11 ] Anyone who truly understands the development of humanity will therefore find it natural that, once the Christ Being had entered the body of Jesus of Nazareth, at about the age of thirty, it was able to work in this body, in this shell, in a very special way. For this shell had matured from ancient times. We mentioned yesterday that the individuality of Jesus of Nazareth had already been embodied once before in ancient Persia, that it then passed through incarnations again and again, rising higher and higher in its spiritual development with each incarnation. It depended on this that Christ could dwell in such a body, that this body could be offered to him as a sacrifice. The evangelists knew this very well. That is why they presented everything in such a way that it is perfectly understandable to the spiritual researcher.

[ 12 ] But we must take everything in the Gospels literally, that is, we must first learn to read them. Why, for example, is it emphasized in the first of the signs—as I said, we will learn the deeper meaning of the miracles later—in the account of the wedding at Cana in Galilee that this happened “at Cana in Galilee”? There is no other Cana in ancient Palestine, in the area that was known at that time, no matter where you look. But is a special addition necessary for places that are unique? Why does the evangelist nevertheless say, when he comes to mention this miracle, that it happened “at Cana in Galilee”? Because it is important to emphasize that something happened there that had to happen in Galilee. That is to say, Christ would not have found the people who were necessary for this in any other region than Galilee. I have already said that an effect does not depend only on the one who produces it, but also on others who are suitably disposed to receive it. Christ could not have made his first appearance within the Jewish community itself, but rather in Galilee, where the most diverse tribes and peoples were mixed together. Precisely because people from the most diverse parts of the world had come together in one place, precisely because of this, here in Galilee there was no longer the same blood relationship and, above all, no longer the belief in this blood relationship as in Judea, among the more closely knit Hebrew people. The people in Galilee were mixed together. But why did Christ feel particularly called upon to do this because of his impulse?

[ 13 ] We have said that one of his most important words was: “Before Abraham was, I am,” and the other: “I and the Father are one.” He meant to say that for those who cling to the old ways of life, the I is only secure within a blood relationship. Those who were true believers in the Old Testament felt something very special in the words, “I and the Father Abraham are one,” something that is difficult for people today to understand. What people call their own self, what is enclosed between birth and death, people see as passing away. But those who truly professed the Old Testament, who were touched by the teachings that flowed through humanity at that time, said, not merely as an allegorical saying, but as a fact: “For me, I am an individual, but I am a member of a large organism, of a large life connection that goes back to Father Abraham.” Just as the finger can only exist as a living limb as long as it is part of my body, so I too have only meaning as long as I feel that I am a limb of the great organic body of the people that goes back to the father Abraham. I am just as attached to the great organic body of the people as the finger is to my body. If you cut off the finger, it is soon no longer a finger; it is only safe when it is on my hand, the hand on my arm, and the arm on my body; it has no meaning when it is separated from the hand. In the same way, I only have meaning when I feel myself to be a member of all the generations through which the blood of Father Abraham flows. Then I feel safe! My individual self is temporary and fleeting, but this whole great national organism, stretching back to Father Abraham, is not temporary. When I feel myself completely within it, when I feel completely at home within it, then I overcome my temporary self; then I am secure in a greater self, in the national self that has flowed down through the blood of generations from Father Abraham to me! So said the confessor of the Old Testament.

[ 14 ] Through the power of this inner experience, which lies in the words, “I and Father Abraham are one,” everything great that happened within the Old Testament, everything that still seems wonderful today, came to pass. But because the time came when people were no longer called to have such a state of consciousness, this was gradually lost. Christ therefore did not have to go to those who, on the one hand, had lost the ability to work through the magical power that lies in blood ties and, on the other hand, still believed only in communion with Father Abraham. For in them he could not find the faith necessary to bring about what could flow from his soul into other souls; he had to go to those who, through their mixture of blood, no longer had such faith; he had to go to the Galileans. Here he had to begin his mission. Even though the old state of consciousness was generally in decline, he found among them a mixture of peoples who were just at the beginning of their intermingling. Tribes came together here from all sides, which before this convergence had still been under the influence of the old blood ties. They had just come to find the transition. They still had a vivid feeling within themselves: Our fathers still had the old states of consciousness; they still had the magical powers that work from soul to soul. With them he could work with his new mission, which consisted in giving human beings an ego-consciousness that was no longer tied to blood relationship, an ego-consciousness that could say: In myself I find the connection with the spiritual father, with the father who does not physically pass on his blood through the generations, but who sends his spiritual power into each individual soul. The I that is within me and has a direct relationship with the spiritual Father was there before Abraham was. Therefore, I am called to pour such a power into the I, which is strengthened by the awareness of the connection with the spiritual Father power of the world. “I and the Father are one,” not I and the Father Abraham, that is, a physical ancestor, are one.

[ 15 ] And Christ went to those who had just reached the point of understanding this — who needed to find, not in the blood ties that they were breaking through their intermingling, but in the individual soul, the strong force that can lead people to gradually express the spiritual in the physical. Do not say: Why do we not see today that such things are happening as they happened then? Apart from the fact that those who want to see can see, it must be remembered that human beings have stepped out of this state of consciousness, that they have descended into the material world, and that those times were precisely the turning point when Christ showed the last examples of the evolving humanity what the spirit can do above the physical. The signs that occurred when the old state of consciousness still existed but was in the process of disappearing were set up as examples and symbols, as symbols of faith.

[ 16 ] Now let us take a look at these signs. The wedding at Cana in Galilee itself. If I were to develop all the details of the Gospel of John here before you, word for word, that which is really the content of the Gospels, then fourteen lectures would not suffice; it would take a few years. But all this literal development would only be a confirmation of what I can indicate to you in brief discussions.

[ 17 ] First, we are told of this first sign: There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee. Now we must be aware that there is not a single word in the Gospel of John that does not have a special meaning. Why, then, a “wedding”? Because the wedding brings about what is brought about in such an eminent way by the Christ mission: through the wedding, people are brought together. And a wedding “in Galilee”? It was in Galilee that the old blood ties were broken, that foreign blood mixed with foreign blood. But what Christ was to do was precisely connected with the mixing of blood. So we are dealing with a union between people in order to have offspring, between people who are no longer related by blood. Now, what I am about to tell you will seem quite wonderful to you. What would people in ancient times have felt in such a case as this, in times when what we might call “close marriage” in the spiritual-scientific sense still existed? For it is definitely part of human development that an original “close marriage” has transformed into a “distant marriage.” And what I have said so far already expresses what close marriage is. In all peoples in ancient times, you find that it would have been against a law of the people to marry outside the tribe, outside the blood relationship. Those who were related by blood, who belonged to the same tribe, married each other; and this marriage within the same tribe, within the same bloodline, had the wonderful effect, which can be confirmed at any time by spiritual scientific research, that great magical power could be exercised. The descendants within a blood-related tribe had magical powers through these marriages between relatives, which worked from soul to soul. If we had been called to a wedding in ancient times, what would have happened? Let us suppose that, for my sake, the drink that was needed at that time, i.e., wine, had run out. What would have happened? All that would have been needed was the right relationship within this blood-related wedding family, and through the magical power of blood love, we could have experienced, for example, that the water served instead of wine at a later point in the wedding celebration would have been perceived as wine by the others through the spiritual influence of these personalities. The others would have drunk wine if the right magical relationship between the one personality and the others had been present. Don't say: But this wine would have been water! A reasonable person must answer: For human beings, things are what they communicate to their organism, what they become for human beings, not what they look like. I believe that even today, some wine lovers would be quite happy if they were served water, if only some influence could be brought to bear to make the water taste like wine and have the effect of wine on their organism. All that is necessary is that water is wine for human beings. So what was necessary in ancient times for such a sign to occur, that there was water in the vessels, but that it was wine when drunk? It was the magical power brought about by blood relationship that was necessary. But the power in the souls to feel such a thing was present in the people at the wedding in Cana in Galilee. All that was needed was for a transition to be created.

[ 18 ] The Gospel of John (2: 1ff.) continues: “And the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.” And since there was no wine, the mother of Jesus pointed this out to him and said to him, “They have no wine.”

[ 19 ] A transition, I said, had to be created so that something like this could happen. The spiritual power had to be supported by something. What could support it? This brings us to the word which, in the way it is usually translated, is actually blasphemy. For I do not believe that a sensitive person would not find it unpleasant to say, “You have no wine!” and receive the reply, “Woman, what have I to do with you? My hour has not yet come!” It is impossible that this could be accepted in such a document. One should imagine: the ideal of love as described to us in the Gospels, Jesus of Nazareth, should use the expression “Woman, what have I to do with you?” in his relationship with his mother. There is no need to say more, for the rest must be felt. But these words are not there! Look at this passage in the Gospel of John. You only need to open the Greek text, and there you have nothing more than the words that are spoken when Jesus of Nazareth points to something: “Woman, this is going from me to you!” It is precisely this subtle, intimate power from soul to soul, which passes from him to his mother, that he is pointing to. But he needs this at this moment. He cannot yet perform a higher sign at this moment; his time must first ripen. That is why he says: My time, when I will work solely through a power, has not yet come! For now the magnetic soul bond that passes from the soul of Jesus of Nazareth to his mother is still necessary. “Woman, this is from me to you!” How else could the mother, after these words, “Woman, what have I to do with you?”, come to say to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you”? It is necessary that she be endowed with the ancient powers of which people today have no idea, and that she knows that he is pointing to this blood bond between son and mother, pointing to the bond that is to lead over to the others. She knows that something is now at work like an invisible spiritual force that can bring about something here. And now I ask you to really read the Gospel. I would like to know how those who believe that something — yes, I don't know what exactly — is supposed to have happened, who believe that there were six ordinary jars there, as they say, “for Jewish purification,” and then, according to this very ordinary view, without anything else—which was precisely what has just been discussed—how could the water have turned into wine, how could this have happened outwardly?

[ 20 ] What is it? And likewise: What is the belief that the one speaking here before you has in this miracle, which only someone can have in a miracle, that here one substance has been transformed into another for human beings? But you cannot come to terms with this by means of an ordinary interpretation.

[ 21 ] One must imagine that the jars that stood there were probably not filled with water. It is not said that they had been emptied. That is not stated. But if they had been emptied and refilled—it says that they were filled—then one would have to believe that if the water had really been transformed into wine, as if by a conjurer's trick, then the water that had been in them would also have been transformed into wine. So this does not make sense. The whole thing is not right. But it must be clear that these jars were obviously empty, that they were empty for the reason that their filling had a special meaning.

[ 22 ] “Do whatever he tells you,” the mother had said to the servants. What did Christ need water for? He needed water that came directly from the springs of nature. Therefore, it must be emphasized that the water had just been drawn. That water, which had not yet lost the inner forces that any element has as long as it is still connected with nature, was suitable for his purpose alone. As already said, no word in the Gospel of John is without deep meaning. Water that had just been drawn had to be used because Christ is the being who had just approached the earth, who had just become related to the forces working in the earth itself. As the living forces of the water interact again with what flows “from me to you,” what is described in the Gospel can happen: the steward is called, and he is under the impression that something special has happened here — but he does not know what has happened; it is expressly stated that he did not see what happened, the servants saw it, not he — and that now, under the impression of what has happened, he perceives the water as wine. This is stated very clearly, so that it is evident that the spiritual power has actually penetrated into an external element, that is, into the physical body of the human being. What must have been present in the mother of Jesus of Nazareth herself for her faith to be strong enough at that moment to bring about such an effect? She had to have something that was indeed present in her, namely the insight that the one who was called her son had become the spirit of the earth. Then her strong power of faith, in connection with his strong power—which works from him to her—could work so powerfully that what is described happened.

[ 23 ] Thus, in the first sign, we have shown through the entire constellation of circumstances how, out of the harmony of souls, out of what is still connected to the blood ties, something is brought into the physical world. This was the first sign that occurred, showing the power of Christ in its smallest measure. It still needed to be strengthened by the cohesion with the soul forces of the mother, and it needed to be strengthened by the forces still united with nature in the water, which are still present when the water is freshly drawn. Here we encounter the working power of the Christ Being in its smallest measure. But particular importance is attached to the fact that the Christ power works over to the other soul and, out of this other soul, which is suited to it, brings forth effects. The essential thing is that the Christ power has precisely the power to make the other soul suitable so that the effects occur. It had made the wedding guests suitable so that they also perceived the water as wine. But everything that is a real power strengthens its effect by itself. When Christ has to exercise this power a second time, it is already stronger. Just as the simplest power is strengthened by practice, so a spiritual power is especially strengthened when it is used successfully once.

[ 24 ] The second of the signs, as you know from the Gospel of John, is the healing of the son of a royal captain. How is the son of the royal captain healed? Here, too, you will only recognize what is correct if you read the Gospel of John in the right way, if you focus on the words that are most important in the relevant chapter. In the 50th verse of the fourth chapter, after the centurion has complained to Jesus of Nazareth about his suffering, it says:

“Jesus said to him, 'Go, your son lives.' The man believed the word that Jesus said to him and went away.”

[ 25 ] Again, there were two souls that were in agreement: the soul of Christ and the soul of the Father of the Son. And how does the word of Christ work: “Go, your son lives”? It works in such a way that it ignites the power in the other soul to believe what was spoken as such a word. These two powers worked together. The word of Christ had the power to ignite the other soul in such a way that the centurion believed. If the man had not believed, the son would not have been healed. Thus one power acts upon the other. Two are needed. Here, however, we already have a higher degree of Christ's power. At the wedding in Cana, it still needed the reinforcement of the mother's power in order to have any effect at all. Now the time has come when Christ's power can pour the igniting word into the soul of the centurion. There is an increase in Christ's power.

[ 26 ] Let us now turn to the third of the signs, the healing of the man who had been sick for thirty-eight years at the pool of Bethesda. Here we must again read the most important word, which sheds light on the whole matter. This is the passage which says:

“Jesus said to him, 'Get up, take your bed and go!'” (5:8)

[ 27 ] The sick man had previously said, when speaking of his need to remain lying down, that he could not move:

“Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am coming, another steps down before me” (5:7).

[ 28 ] But Christ says to him—and it is important to note that this is on the Sabbath, when there is a festive atmosphere everywhere, a time of the highest human love—and he clothes what he wants to say in the words: “Get up, take your bed and go!” (5:8). And we must keep this word together with the other one he says to him, which is just as important:

“See, you are well; sin no more, lest something worse happen to you” (5:14).

[ 29 ] What does this mean? It means that the illness of the man who had been sick for thirty-eight years was connected with his sin. Whether this sin was committed in this life or in a previous life, we will not discuss now. For us, the point is this: Christ poured into his soul the power to do something that reaches into the moral and spiritual nature of the other person. Here we see once again an increase in the power of Christ. Previously, it was merely a matter of something that was to have an effect to the extent that something physical happened. Now, however, there is an illness which Christ himself says is connected with the sin of the sick man. At this moment, Christ knows how to intervene in the sick man's own soul. Previously, the Father was still needed; now the power of Christ works into the soul of the sick man, which is given a special magic by the fact that it happens on the Sabbath. People today no longer have any real sense of such things. But for a believer in the Old Testament, it meant something that it happened on the Sabbath. It was something very special. That is why the Jews were particularly upset about the sick man, because he carried his bed on the Sabbath. This is an extremely important point. People should learn to think when they read the Gospels! They should not take it for granted that the sick man could be healed, that the one who had not been able to walk for thirty-eight years could now walk; they should reflect on such a passage:

“Then the Jews said to the man who had been healed, 'It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed.'” (5:10)

[ 30 ] They did not notice that he had been healed, but that he was carrying his bed on the Sabbath! So part of the healing of this sick man was the whole situation of performing the miracle on the holy day. In Christ himself is the thought: if the Sabbath is truly to be holy to God, then souls must have a special strength on this day through the power of God. Through this strength, he worked on the one standing before him, that is, it was transferred to the sick man's own soul. And while the sick man had previously found no strength in his soul to overcome the consequences of sin, he now had this strength through the effect of Christ's power. Again, an increase in Christ's power.

[ 31 ] And now let us continue. As I said, we will speak later about the actual nature of miracles.

[ 32 ] The fourth of the signs is the feeding of the five thousand. Here again we must consider the most important word. And what is that? - One must always bear in mind with such things that one cannot understand such an event with today's consciousness. If those who wrote about Christ at the time when the Gospel of John was written had believed what our materialistic age believes today, they would have written very differently; for then they would have noticed something different from what they did notice. But the most important word—the others do not particularly strike them, not even that five thousand can be fed with the little that is there—the word that is particularly emphasized is this:

“But Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those who were seated; and they ate as much as they wanted.” (6:11)

[ 33 ] What is Christ Jesus doing here? Here he makes use of the souls of the disciples, those who were with him, who had gradually matured to his greatness, in order to do what was to be done. They belong to him. They are around him; in them he can now awaken a spiritual power of beneficence. His power flows out into that of the disciples. We will talk more about how what happened here could have happened. But we also notice an increase in his power here again. Earlier, he let his power flow into the soul of the man who had been sick for thirty-eight years. But now his power flows into the power of the souls of the disciples. Here, the tension of forces emanating from the soul of the Lord to the souls of the disciples is at work. The power has expanded from the soul of one to the souls of the others. The power has become stronger. So what lives in the soul of Christ now also lives in the souls of the disciples.

[ 34 ] If people wanted to say, “What happens through such an influence?” they should simply look at the experience. They should try to observe what happened when the powerful force that was in Christ did not act alone, but ignited the power in the souls of other people, so that it then continued to work. There are no people today who believe so vividly—perhaps they believe theoretically, but not with sufficient power. Only then could they observe what happens. Spiritual research knows very well what happens.

[ 35 ] Thus we have a step-by-step strengthening of the power of Christ.

[ 36 ] And further: the fifth of the signs, which is recounted in the same chapter and begins:

“In the evening, the disciples went down to the sea, got into the boat, and set out across the sea toward Capernaum. It was already dark, and Jesus had not come to them.

And the sea was stirred up by a strong wind.

When they had rowed about twenty-five or thirty yards, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were afraid.” (6:16-19)

[ 37 ] Those who print the Gospels today write, for example, as a highly superfluous title: “Jesus walks on the sea,” as if that were written somewhere in this chapter. Where does it say, “Jesus walks on the sea”? It says, “The disciples saw Jesus walking on the sea.” That is all. We must take the Gospels literally. The power of Christ has just been strengthened again! It had become so strong through the natural reinforcement in the practice of the last deeds that now not only could the power of Christ work from one soul to another, not only could the soul of Christ communicate its powers to other souls, but Christ could live in his own form before the soul of another who was suited to it. So the event is this: someone is in another place, his power is so strong that it affects people who are far away. But the power of Christ is now so strong that it does not merely trigger a power in the disciples, as it did in those who had camped with him on the mountain; there, the power had merely passed over to the disciples in order to perform the miracle. Now they have the power, even though they cannot see with their physical eyes where Christ is, to see Christ and to see his own form. Christ could become visible in the distance to those with whom his soul bond had already been formed. Now his own form is so far advanced that it can be seen spiritually. At the moment when the disciples' physical sight disappears, their spiritual sight appears all the more, and they see Christ. Seeing into the distance is such that one has the image of the object as if it were in one's immediate vicinity. This is again an increase in the power of Christ. The next sign is the healing of the man born blind.

[ 38 ] This healing of the man born blind, as it appears in the Gospel of John, is now again particularly distorted. You have probably read the story often in the Gospel:

“And Jesus passed by and saw one who was blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, 'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?

Jesus answered, 'Neither this man nor his parents sinned; but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.'” (9:1-3)

[ 39 ] And then he heals him. One need only ask: Is it a Christian sentiment to interpret this as follows: Here is a man born blind. It is not his parents who have sinned so that he was born blind, nor has he sinned, but he has been made blind by God so that Christ may come and perform a miracle for the glory of God. So in order for an effect to be attributed to God, the person concerned first had to be made blind by God! But this is simply not read correctly. It does not say at all that “the works of God should be revealed in this blind man.”

[ 40 ] If we want to understand this sign, we must go back to the usage of the word ”God.” You will find this most easily if you turn to another chapter where Christ is accused of claiming that he is one with God. How does he respond?

“Jesus answered them, 'Is it not written in your law, “I have said you are gods”?'” (10:34)

[ 41 ] That is, Christ answers: In the innermost part of the human soul is the potential for a god. It is something divine. How often have we said that the fourth member of the human being is the potential for the divine in man. “You are gods!” means: something divine dwells in you! This divine is something other than the human being, other than the person of the human being as he lives here between birth and death; it is also something other than what a human being has inherited from his parents. Where does this divine, this individuality of the human being, come from? It passes from embodiment to embodiment through repeated earthly lives. This individuality comes from a previous earthly life, from a previous incarnation. So it is not his parents who have sinned, nor his personality, which we usually call “I.” But in a previous life, this human being laid the cause for being born blind in this life. He became blind because the works of God in him from a previous life are manifesting themselves in his blindness. Karma, the law of cause and effect, is clearly indicated here by Christ Jesus. So what must be worked on now if this illness is to be healed? It must be worked on what does not live as a transitory I between birth and death, but the forces must penetrate deeper into the I that goes from life to life. The Christ force has increased once again. Until now, we have seen that it has only worked on what stands opposite it. Now it acts upon that which survives human life between birth and death, that which passes from life to life. Christ feels himself to be the representative of the I-am. By pouring his power into the I-am, by the high God of Christ thus communicating himself to the God in man, man receives the power to heal himself from within. Now Christ has penetrated into the innermost being of the soul. His power has worked into the eternal individuality of the sick person and has strengthened it by allowing Christ's own power to appear in the individuality of the sick person and thus also to work into the consequences of earlier incarnations.

[ 42 ] What further increase is there now for the power of Christ? Only the increase that Christ approaches a human being and awakens in him that which awakens his own impulse in the other human being, so that the other human being takes in the power of Christ in such a way that his whole being is permeated by it, and he becomes a different human being, a human being permeated by Christ. This happens in the raising of Lazarus! Here we have another increase in the power of Christ. The power of Christ increases from stage to stage.

[ 43 ] Where in the world do you have a lyrical document that is so magnificently composed? No other writer has had such compositions. Who would not bow in awe when the events are described here in such a way that they increase from stage to stage and in such a wonderful way! If we consider the Gospel of John from the point of view of artistic composition alone, we must bow in awe before it. Here everything grows from stage to stage and increases.

[ 44 ] There is one more thing left to show. We must ask ourselves: We have picked out individual examples that show us the intensification of the signs and miracles. There are also many other things in between. How does this fit into the whole?

[ 45 ] Tomorrow it will be our task to show that in the Gospel of John there is not only an admirable intensification in its miracles, but that all the other intermediate passages fit in with a special intention, so that one can well understand that it could not have been filled in better than the writer of the Gospel of John has done.

[ 46 ] Today we have looked at the Gospel of John artistically in terms of its composition, and we see that it is truly almost inconceivable that a work of art could be more artistically composed and more beautifully presented than the Gospel of John up to its description of the raising of Lazarus.

[ 47 ] But only those who can read and know what is important can sense the great, powerful meaning of the Gospel of John. Theosophy today is called upon to bring this great meaning to our souls. But there is even more to this Gospel of John. Our explanations will be followed by explanations of the Gospel of John, and these will in turn have a higher wisdom than ours. But their wisdom will in turn serve to find new truths, just as our wisdom has served us for thirty years to find that which cannot be found without theosophy.