The Rudolf Steiner Archive

3. The Four Different Aspects of the Depiction of Christ in the Four Gospels

[ 1 ] The reflections offered in connection with the Gospels of John and Luke, and the mindset from which they were conceived, can only be characterized by stating that these reflections were based on the following perspective: What we refer to as the Christ Jesus Being is—insofar as human understanding is at all possible in our present time—so great, so all-encompassing, and so mighty that any reflection cannot presume to say, in any one-sided way, who Christ Jesus was and what significance his Being holds for every individual human spirit and for every individual soul. That would have appeared within our reflections as a lack of reverence toward the greatest problem facing the world today. Reverence and awe—these are the words that describe the attitudes from which our reflections have been offered. Awe and reverence, which might be expressed in the following sentiment: Try not to place human understanding too highly when you face the greatest problem. Try never to place too high a value on anything—not even what the highest spiritual science can offer you—even if it ascends to the highest realms, when it comes to facing the greatest problem of life. And do not believe that a human word would suffice to say anything other than what characterizes this great and mighty problem from one perspective. All the lectures that have been given over the course of the last three years have centered on a word that appears in the Gospel of John itself. “I am the light of the world” is this word. All the lectures delivered on the Gospel of John were intended to help us understand this word from the Gospel of John. And the lectures given in connection with the Gospel of John are sufficient, if one makes them one’s own, to gradually come to understand—perhaps only intuitively—what it means in the Gospel of John itself: “I am the light of the world.”

[ 2 ] When you see a light shining, do you understand, simply by looking into that light, that what is shining there is a light? And once you have grasped something about the color and nature of that light, have you then understood what is shining there? Do you know the sun because you look up at the sunlight and receive the white sunlight as a revelation? Could you not imagine that there is something else involved in comprehending the luminous than merely the light within the luminous? Because the being of whom we have spoken can say of himself, “I am the light of the world,” we were compelled to understand this word, and thus we have understood of that being no more than this expression of his life: “I am the light of the world.” All the reflections that have been offered in connection with the Gospel of John were necessary to show that this being, who contains within himself the wisdom of the world, is the light of the world. But this being is far more than what could be characterized in the Gospel of John. And whoever believes that they can understand Christ Jesus or have grasped him from the lectures on the Gospel of John believes that they can understand the entire luminous being from a single expression of life that they intuitively recognize.

[ 3 ] Then came the lectures on the Gospel of Luke, and we gained a different perspective from them. Just as we could regard what was said in all our reflections on the Gospel of John as a means of understanding the words “I am the light of the world,” so too, if one has grasped them deeply enough, the reflection on the Gospel of Luke could be understood as a paraphrase of the words: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” or: “Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit.” That which Christ Jesus is—not merely as the light of the world, but as the Being who makes the greatest sacrifice of self-surrender, who is able to unite all things within himself without losing himself, which has been characterized as the sacrifice of self-surrender— the Being who encompasses within himself the possibility of the greatest sacrifice, the greatest conceivable devotion, and is thereby the source of compassion and love that pours forth warmly through all future human and earthly life—everything that could be expressed in these words—reveals a second aspect of what we call the Being of Christ Jesus.

[ 4 ] Thus we have characterized this being as one who, through compassion, is able to make the great sacrifice, and who, through the power of his light, shines upon all human existence. We have described light and love as they were in the being of Christ Jesus. And whoever takes in the full scope of the reflections on the Gospels of John and Luke can, in a certain sense, gain a glimpse of what was “light” in Christ Jesus and what was “love and compassion” in him. We have sought to understand two qualities in their universal significance in Christ Jesus. What can be said about Christ as the spiritual light of the world—which, as primeval wisdom, pours itself into all things to live and weave within them—can be revealed through spiritual contemplation; this shines forth to us once again from the Gospel of John, and there is no wisdom that can be attained that is not, in a certain sense, contained within the Gospel of John. All the wisdom of the world is contained in this Gospel of John, because the one who contemplates the wisdom of the world in Christ Jesus contemplates it as it has not only been realized in the distant past, but will also be realized into the distant future. Therefore, in the contemplations that connect to the Gospel of John, one soars high in the air like an eagle above all human existence. Thus, when one has to unfold the great ideas that make an understanding of the Gospel of John possible, one soars with the all-encompassing and comprehensive ideas above what is taking place in the individual human soul. These all-encompassing world ideas engage that Sophia which flows to us when we engage in contemplation in connection with the Gospel of John. And then what flows from the Gospel of John appears to us, itself circling at eagle’s height above all that takes place in the daily, hourly, and momentary fate of humanity.

[ 5 ] And when one then looks down and observes individual human life hour by hour, day by day, year by year, century by century, millennium by millennium—when one observes, in particular, those forces we call human love—then one sees this love surging and weaving through the living human hearts and souls across the millennia. Then one sees how this love, on the one hand, accomplishes the greatest, most significant, and most heroic deeds within humanity; then one sees how humanity’s greatest sacrifices have flowed from love for this or that being, for this or that cause. Then one sees how this love accomplishes the highest in human hearts, yet how it is at the same time something like a double-edged sword: Here we have a mother; she loves her child dearly, deeply. The child commits some misdeed; the mother loves her child, and in her deep, fervent love, she cannot bring herself to punish the child. And the child commits a second misdeed, and once again, in her deep love, the mother cannot bring herself to punish the child. And so it goes on, and the child grows up, becomes useless, a troublemaker in life. When dealing with such significant matters, it is not good to draw on examples from the present, and so a more distant example shall be cited. In the first half of the 19th century, there was a mother who loved her child deeply, deeply. It must be stated explicitly: nothing can praise this love highly enough; under all circumstances, love is one of the highest human qualities. Now, that mother loved her child and could not bring herself to punish her child for a petty theft the child committed within the family. Then the child committed a second theft, and again she could not punish it—the child became a notorious poisoner. She became so because of a motherly love not guided by wisdom. Love accomplishes the greatest deeds when it is imbued with wisdom. But that was precisely the significance of the love that flowed from Golgotha into the world: that it is united in one being with the light of the world, with wisdom. Therefore, when we look to Christ Jesus and consider these two qualities, we recognize that love is the highest thing in the world, yet at the same time we recognize how love and wisdom belong together in the deepest sense.

[ 6 ] But what have we understood after considering all these reflections on the Gospels of John and Luke? We have understood nothing more than that quality of Christ Jesus which can be called the universal light of wisdom, the universal warmth of love, which flowed through him as through no other being in the world, and which can never be grasped by human understanding. And while, in connection with the Gospel of John, we speak of great, mighty ideas that soar above human heads like eagles, in the Gospel of Luke we find that which speaks into every single human heart at every moment. This is the significance of the Gospel of Luke: that it fills us with such warmth, which is the outward expression of love, with an understanding of that love which is ready for the greatest sacrifice, which is ready to give itself up and desires nothing other than to give itself up.

[ 7 ] Maan feels something like this—if one wants to picture that mood, that state of mind one is in when contemplating the Gospel of Luke, if one considers it in the proper sense—that which confronts us in those Mithras images where the sacrificial bull is depicted rushing forward. Upon it one sees the human being seated, with the course of great world events above and the course of earthly events below. The human being plunges his axe into the body of the bleeding sacrificial bull, which gives its life so that the human being may overcome what he must overcome. When one contemplates this sacrificial bull beneath the human being, which must be sacrificed so that the human being may walk his path of life, then one has roughly the emotional and mental state that provides the proper underlying mood for a meditation linked to the Gospel of Luke. What the sacrificial bull has always been to those who have understood what lies within the sacrificial bull—in the expression of love to be deepened within oneself—they understand something of the description of the qualities of love that is to be conveyed through the contemplation of the Gospel of Luke. For nothing other than a second quality of Christ Jesus was to be described. But does the one who knows two attributes of a being know the whole being? Because the greatest mystery confronts us in this being, the explanations regarding the understanding of two attributes have been necessary. Yet no one should presume to be able to grasp this being itself from the contemplation of two attributes.

[ 8 ] We have described two attributes of Christ Jesus and have spared no effort to do everything that might lead us to a glimpse of the profound significance of these two attributes. But we have too much reverence and awe for this Being Himself to believe that we have already grasped anything of the other attributes that this Being still holds within Himself. Now a third characteristic is still possible, and since this third characteristic relates to something not yet addressed in the reflections within our movement, it can only be characterized in general terms. One could say: When one describes the Christ of the Gospel of John, one depicts him as acting indeed as a high being, but as a being who makes use of the realm of the wise cherubim. Thus, one depicts him in the spirit of the Gospel of John with the mood evoked by the cherubim soaring in the heights of the eagle. If one depicts him in the spirit of the Gospel of Luke, then one depicts that which wells up from the heart of Christ as the warm fire of love. One describes what he was to the world by virtue of his working at that height where the seraphim dwell. The fire of love of the seraphim flows through the world, and it was imparted to our earth through Christ Jesus.

[ 9 ] Now we have a third aspect to describe: that which Christ has become for the earthly world not only by being the light of wisdom and the warmth of love, not only by embodying the cherubic and seraphic elements within earthly existence, but by the fact that he “was” and “is” in our earthly existence, when we contemplate him in all his power—what can be described as “acting through the realm of the Thrones,” through which all strength and power comes into the world to carry out what is in the sense of wisdom, in the sense of love. These are the three highest of the spiritual hierarchies: Cherubim, Seraphim, and Thrones. The Seraphim lead us into the depths of the human heart with their love; the Cherubim lead us up to eagle heights. Wisdom radiates from the realm of the Cherubim. Self-sacrificing love becomes a sacrifice; this is symbolized for us by the sacrificial bull. Strength that pulses through the world, strength that develops the power to realize everything, creative power that pulses through the world—this is symbolized for us in all its symbolism by the lion. That strength which has entered our earth through Christ Jesus, that strength which orders and judges all, which signifies the highest power when it is developed: this is described to us as the third attribute of Christ Jesus by the writer of the Gospel of Mark.

[ 10 ] When we speak, in the spirit of the Gospel of John, of the exalted solar being whom we call the Christ, as the light of the Earth’s sun in a spiritual sense, and when we speak, in the sense of the Gospel of Luke, of the warmth of love that wells up from the Earth’s sun of Christ, then, when we speak in the sense of the Gospel of Mark, we are speaking of the power of the Earth’s sun in a spiritual sense itself. All the forces present in the earth, all the secret and open earthly forces and powers that weave here and there—all of this would confront us in a contemplation undertaken in the light of the Gospel of Mark. If one dares, even if only intuitively, to understand the ideas that have come to Earth as the Earth-thoughts of Christ—when one lifts oneself up to him in the spirit of the Gospel of John—one can feel the warm breath of sacrificial love; when one allows the warmth of the Gospel of Luke to flow through oneself, one can intuit the thinking of Christ in the Gospel of John; and the feeling of Christ through the Gospel of Luke, then one comes to know the will of Christ through the Gospel of Mark. There one comes to know the individual powers through which he realizes love and wisdom.

[ 11 ] One would have intuitively grasped three qualities if one had added the reflections on the Gospel of Mark to the reflections on the Gospels of John and Luke. One would then say: In reverence we have drawn near to You and have gained an inkling of Your thinking, feeling, and willing, as these three qualities of Your soul stand before us as the greatest earthly models.

[ 12 ] We have thus conducted our reflections, as if we were observing a human being on a very small scale and saying that he consists of a sensory soul, an intellectual soul, and a conscious soul; and we now consider the characteristics of the sensory soul, the intellectual or emotional soul, and the conscious soul. When we apply the term “consciousness soul” to Christ, we can say: it is brought to our understanding in a sense of foreboding through the Gospel of John; the emotional soul of Christ: it is brought to our understanding through the Gospel of Luke; the sensory soul with all its powers of will: through the Gospel of Mark. This will, once we are able to contemplate it, shed light for us on the open and hidden forces of nature that exist in our world, concentrated in the unique individuality of Christ; it will shed light for us on the nature of all the forces that exist in the world. In the Gospel of John we have delved into the thoughts, in the Gospel of Luke into the feelings of this being, and because here the human being does not need to penetrate so deeply into this individuality, these contemplations are simple compared to what confronts us in the Gospel of Mark—as the system of all the hidden natural and spiritual forces of the world. All of this is contained in the Akashic Records. All of this will be reflected back to us when we allow the mighty document of the Gospel of Mark to take effect upon us. Then we will intuitively understand what is concentrated in the individual being of Christ: that which is otherwise distributed among the individual beings of the world. We will be able to understand, and it will appear to us in a higher radiance and light, what we have come to know as the fundamental and guiding principles of the various beings. When we allow the Gospel of Mark, which contains the mysteries of the entire world will, to reveal itself to us, we approach the center of the world, Christ Jesus, with reverence, gradually grasping his thinking, feeling, and willing.

[ 13 ] When we consider thinking, feeling, and willing as interacting with one another, this gives us a rough picture of the whole human being. But we cannot help but also consider thinking, feeling, and willing separately in the individual human being. If we take everything together, our perspective will still not be sufficient to take in the whole picture. While we make our task relatively easier by considering the three qualities separately and each on its own, our picture fades when we consider these three qualities together in the human soul. We do this for our own sake, because our strength is not sufficient to consider everything together; for when we bring the qualities together, the picture fades.

[ 14 ] Once one has examined the three Gospels—those of John, Luke, and Mark—and thereby gained some insight into the thoughts, feelings, and will of Christ Jesus, one can then synthesize these three aspects into a harmonious whole. The image will then necessarily become blurred and pale, for no human power can adequately summarize what we have kept separate. For in essence there is unity and no separation; only in the end may we summarize it into a unity. But then it will fade before us. Instead, what will ultimately stand before us is what Christ Jesus was first and foremost as an earthly human being, as a human being.

[ 15 ] A consideration of who Christ Jesus was as a human being, and how he acted as a human being during the thirty-three years of his earthly life, can be developed in connection with the Gospel of Matthew. What is contained in the Gospel of Matthew gives us a harmonious picture of humanity. Whereas in the Gospel of John we have described a cosmic God-man belonging to the entire universe, and in the Gospel of Luke we had to portray a self-sacrificing individual being of love, and in the Gospel of Mark we had to portray the world-will in a single individual, then in the Gospel of Matthew we have the true form of the individual human being from Palestine, that human being who lived there for thirty-three years, in whom there is a unity of all that we can gain through the contemplation of the other three Gospels. In connection with the Gospel of Matthew, the figure of Christ Jesus appears to us in a wholly human way, as the individual earthly human being, whom one cannot understand, however, unless the other contemplations have preceded it. Even if the individual earthly human being then fades into the background, what has been gained through the other contemplations is nevertheless reflected in this faded image. Only a meditation that builds upon the Gospel of Matthew can provide a picture of the personality of Christ.

[ 16 ] This is how the matter now presents itself, which we had to characterize differently when we first approached the first Gospel. Now that we have completed our examination of the two Gospels, we can say how these Gospels relate to one another internally, and how we can only gain a picture of Christ Jesus when, having prepared ourselves appropriately, we approach the human being who came into being on earth through Christ Jesus. The God-man comes to meet us in these meditations, building upon the Gospel of John, and, building upon the Gospel of Luke, that being who unites within himself the currents that flowed from all sides into what developed on earth in Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, and the teachings of compassion and love. Everything that existed before came before us as we approached the meditations with regard to the Gospel of Luke. When the Gospel of Matthew is considered, what will meet us above all intimately and precisely is that which is born out of its own people, out of the ancient Hebrew people: the human being Jesus, as he is rooted in his people, the human being Jesus, as he had to be precisely within the ancient Hebrew people. And we will recognize why the blood of the ancient Hebrew people had to be used in a very specific way in order to contribute this very blood of Christ Jesus to humanity on earth.

[ 17 ] As we contemplate the Gospel of Matthew, we will encounter the essence of ancient Hebrew antiquity; but not only the essence of ancient Hebrew antiquity, but also the mission of this people for the whole world, the birth of a new era, the birth of Christianity from within the ancient Hebrew world. And if one can learn great, significant, comprehensive ideas through the Gospel of John, if one can gain a sense of the warmest, boundlessly warm sacrificial love through the Gospel of Luke, if one can gain an understanding of the forces of all beings and realms through contemplation of the Gospel of Mark, then one gains an understanding and a sense of what lives within humanity and within human development on Earth through Christ Jesus in Palestine. What Christ Jesus was as a human being, what he is as a human being, all the mysteries of human history and human development are contained in the Gospel of Matthew. If the Gospel of Mark contains the mysteries of all the realms and beings of the Earth and the cosmos that belongs to the Earth, then the mysteries of human history are to be found in the Gospel of Matthew. If one learns the ideas of Sophia through the Gospel of John, the mysteries of sacrifice and love through the Gospel of Luke, and the forces of the Earth and the world through the Gospel of Mark, then one comes to know human life, human history, and human destiny through contemplation of the Gospel of Matthew.

[ 18 ] If, during the seven years of our spiritual science movement, four years had been devoted to working through the guiding principles and three years to deepening our understanding of them—as a light to be shed upon the various areas of life—then we could now proceed to a study of the Gospel of Mark. Then, finally, the entire edifice could have been crowned by a contemplation of Christ Jesus in light of the Gospel of Matthew. But since human life is imperfect, and that was not the case—at least not for everyone involved in the spiritual science movement—it is not possible to proceed immediately to a contemplation of the Gospel of Mark without giving rise to misunderstanding. One would completely misjudge the figure of Christ if one believed that any knowledge of the nature of Christ Jesus could be derived from a consideration of the Gospel of John or Luke. One would, in turn, believe that one could apply everything that ought to be said regarding the Gospel of Mark in a one-sided manner. And the misunderstandings would be even greater than they already have been. Therefore, in light of this, the other path must be chosen. What must now follow, as best as possible in the near future, is a study of the Gospel of Matthew. In doing so, we will initially set aside the great depths of the Gospel of Mark, but we will thereby avoid anyone again believing that a single characteristic is sufficient to describe the whole person. This will make it possible to eliminate misunderstandings. And we will first undertake a study, as far as possible, of the emergence of Christ Jesus from the ancient Hebrew people, of what one might call the birth of Christianity in Palestine. Our reflections will focus on this in the near future with regard to the Gospel of Matthew, thereby preventing the confusion of a single characteristic with the consideration of the entire being. Then it will be easier to follow what needs to be said regarding the Gospel of Mark.