The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Eleventh Lecture

[ 1 ] The Gospel of John is therefore not only a historical account of the events in Palestine, but also a description of the seven stages of Christian initiation. Those who have undergone this process need no external proof of the historical event, for they already know it through the Akashic Records. This is also the path from the historical to the mystical Christ.

[ 2 ] With the help of these documents, it is no longer difficult for us to resolve the apparent contradictions in the Gospels. The men who wrote them describe the events in Palestine according to what each of them already knew from their own initiation. That is why, as far as inner experiences are concerned, the Gospel written by the man whom Christ himself initiated is the most important. The other evangelists had been initiated into various mystery temples. So when they saw the same great drama—which had been symbolically enacted in the initiation temples—unfolding on Golgotha as a real event in physical life, they knew that the great Initiator of humanity had come, and that they could now describe the initiation drama and apply it to Christ Jesus. Depending on whether they then turned their attention to one aspect or another of his life, they saw and understood different aspects of it.

[ 3 ] However, the initiation rituals were not the same in all the different temples, which is why they often recounted the same events in different ways and with different words. This is also how they recorded Jesus’ last words on the cross differently. In Matthew and Mark, these words are as follows: “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani!”—My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? [Elohai, Elohai lama sabachthani!—My gods, why have you turned away from me, why have you forsaken me?]

[ 4 ] In Matthew and Mark, these words are not an initiation formula in the strict sense. After the initiate in the Egyptian or Pythagorean mysteries had been placed in a coffin or stretched out on a cross by the hierophants, he lived for three and a half days in the spiritual world. When he was raised again, everything he had experienced stood clearly before his consciousness. It was a deeply moving moment for him when all these experiences rose from within him like powerful, living images. At that moment, words such as “My God, how you have glorified me!” rushed from his lips.

[ 5 ] In the Nordic mysteries, in which the initiate had, so to speak, extinguished his own inner life and merged with the cosmos, a different cry would escape him, such as: “My God, why have you forsaken me!” The experiences he then had in the spiritual world provided him with an answer to this question. These words are therefore not an exclamation of pain, but a repetition of the initiation ceremony and an expression of the overwhelming impressions the initiate received in the spiritual world.

[ 6 ] [The two initiations were meant to converge: the extinction of one’s inner self and the merging into the great cosmos were condensed into the words: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” The answer came to him from the spiritual world outside.)

[ 7 ] The fact that the evangelists recorded Jesus’ words from the cross in different ways is due to their varying degrees of initiation. They regarded the Golgotha Mystery as an act in the drama of initiation, and each of them had focused his attention on words and expressions that corresponded to what one was accustomed to seeing and hearing on such occasions. That is why Mark, who was initiated into the northern mysteries, was able to hear the words: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Whereas Luke, the healer, who had now developed a particular capacity for self-mastery as an instrument for the healing forces of the cosmos, naturally had to hear different words. In the temples where the therapists were trained, it was understood that the initiate’s own inner self had to be silenced first and foremost if the spiritual forces of the cosmos were to work through him, and the success of his work rested precisely on this ability of his to forget himself entirely and be merely an instrument for higher powers. That is why Luke heard the words from the cross: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”—“Father, into your hands I place all that is of my own spirit within me,” for these were the words of the initiated therapist at the final act of initiation—and the ones Luke was accustomed to hearing.

Overview of the Powers of Thought - John.
Overview of the Powers of Feeling - Luke.
Development of the Magical Powers of Will - Mark.
Harmony - Matthew.

[ 8 ] In Christ, the greatest of all initiates, magic, healing, and wisdom were united; and that is why each of the evangelists was able to put into his mouth the words he already knew from his own temple of initiation.

[ 9 ] John, having been initiated by Christ himself, looked more deeply into his essence than anyone else and therefore understood his mission on Earth better than anyone else. To understand Jesus’ mission, we must first clarify the purpose of our Earth. What, then, is the true mission of the Earth? As we know, our Earth is, after all, a reincarnation of other planetary beings. [The last lunar catastrophe killed its being through a cyanide compound, through hydrocyanic acid (which the lunar beings breathed).] In a previous incarnation, it was the Moon; before that, the Sun; and before the solar period, it had been Saturn. If we look back at the last, the lunar period, we find no signs whatsoever of what we might call love—neither at the lower nor at the higher stages of development. An inner attraction from being to being, a spiritual love, did not exist on the Moon; rather, the beings who lived there were driven by an unconscious, instinct-like law to interact. When a weight pushes down on a scale, we do not speak of love. Nor should we call this law “love,” which drove these beings toward one another. Wisdom, however, was gradually implanted during the Moon’s development, and that is why we find wisdom everywhere on our Earth.

[ 10 ] In the same way, love is to be instilled during the Earth’s evolution, so that in the next Earth incarnation, love will radiate toward all beings—just as wisdom now meets us everywhere. This love, which during the Lemurian era operated only at the lowest stage as physical love, is to be increasingly perfected and spiritualized with the evolution of the Earth, so that in the next Earth incarnation as Jupiter, everything will be permeated by and radiate love, just as everything is now carried by wisdom.

[ 11 ] In 600 B.C., humanity received the teaching of compassion and love for the first time through Buddha. But if, in our own time, some people are mature enough to put this teaching into practice, it is due to the spiritual power that Christ has bestowed upon the human race. Let us illustrate this with an example. Take, for example, the Sistine Madonna: we can conjure the image in our memory, and we can even understand it to some extent. But does that mean we can paint it? There is a great difference between understanding something and actually doing it. And just as it is a greater feat to be able to paint the picture than merely to understand it, so too is the power of love more than just the teaching of love and compassion.

[ 12 ] Christ poured this power of love and compassion into humanity, but this could not have happened without the Mystery of Golgotha. Christ’s great mission was to give humanity the first impulse toward love in the spiritual sense. And the disciple whom he himself had initiated was, of course, the one best placed to understand and acknowledge this. To him he could entrust his deepest secret. Until then, only the bond of blood had united people with one another. Now a spiritual bond was to be established that would connect soul to soul just as intimately and deeply as the blood bond between mother and son. In the words that Christ addressed from the cross to his mother: “Mother, behold your son,” and to the disciple: “Behold your mother,” he established an entirely new relationship among human beings. [The entire future of love on Earth speaks down from the cross at this moment.] This was the great brotherly love among human beings, the bond of universal brotherhood, which was established here as a model for the future development of the Earth. It was a spiritual relationship between a mother in spirit and a son in spirit; and in the words spoken from the cross at that moment lies the entire future of love. John had to write down these words so that people might understand the great impulse that Christ had given them.

[ 13 ] Jesus could not tell his disciples everything at that time. “I have much more to say to you, but you cannot bear it now.”

[ 14 ] But the Spirit should reveal what lies within the seed buried in the earth, what sprouts from the night of death; and then it will be understood what lies hidden in the human soul.

[ 15 ] Around the year 3101 B.C., as we already know, the ancient ability to see into the spiritual world had begun to slowly fade among individuals; and the spiritual world had become increasingly inaccessible to them. To the same extent that clairvoyance was disappearing, however, self-awareness had developed—and by the time of Jesus, it had reached its full development. But in order for it to be sustained, Christ’s message that the Kingdom of Heaven had come was necessary.

[ 16 ] But the Kali Yuga, the dark age of humanity that began in 3101 B.C., came to an end in 1899. And in our time, we are moving toward a different phase of development. New spiritual powers are to be developed in human beings, and the year 1932 to 1933 is to be the time when certain clairvoyant powers will, so to speak, arise of their own accord from the depths of the soul in a large number of people. But to prevent consternation and confusion from spreading too widely during this time, it is necessary that there be leaders who can tell people what to do with these new powers of theirs. For only those who are spiritually prepared know what they are to seek. Only they know and acknowledge that a spiritual world exists.

[ 17 ] Through occult training, a person can indeed already now develop spiritual eyes and can then perceive the spiritual essence of Christ in the astral atmosphere of the Earth, for these words are true: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” But at a certain point, a great many people will be able to look into the spiritual world in a natural way. And if they are not instructed by spiritually prepared people, they can easily be driven to madness by fear and terror, because they do not know or understand what they are seeing. [If one tells them, if they come to know that a spiritual world exists, they will be able to recognize it and find harmony. What will appear to the spiritual eyes of a number of people in the astral sphere of the Earth is the spiritual manifestation of Christ. This is what is called the Second Coming of Christ.]

[ 18 ] Just as Christ once walked the earth in a physical body and was seen there by a number of people with their physical eyes, so will he be visible to all people in the astral world during the coming period. This era will last approximately five hundred years, from 1899 to 2500. During this time, people will begin to ascend to the spiritual world where He is, and all eyes will be opened, so that humanity as a whole will understand and recognize who the Christ is.

[ 19 ] But we must begin even now to prepare people for this great moment; just as John the Baptist was to prepare people in his time for the coming of Christ to earth, so Theosophy must help people in our day to face the times that lie ahead. For the time is near when people are to receive the strength to realize the Kingdom of Christ here on Earth. If we embrace our mission in this spirit, Theosophy will spread more and more peace and tolerance throughout the world. And when the ability to see the Christ becomes more widespread, other abilities will also develop. Then the great helpers of the Christ will gradually emerge again. First and foremost, the great Buddha, who was the first to spread the teaching of compassion and love. After him come the messengers of the Great Lodge, the twelve leaders of Earth’s evolution, who see in the Christ the Thirteenth and Most Exalted One, around whom they gather. Other teachers have preceded them to prepare humanity, and after them others will come to clearly explain the great mission of the Christ.

[ 20 ] Those who have revered the Buddha in one incarnation will understand in the next that the Buddha was pointing to the Christ. What the Buddha himself said six hundred years before Christ is not the same as what he has to say in our time. Each of these teachings is meant to speak of the great Christ impulse. All religions have their roots, but all religions also have their development. And all have had the same message for humanity. So it was with Zarathustra, so with the Old Testament, so with the Chaldean-Egyptian documents, and so with theosophy in our own time. We are to receive all these messengers from Heaven so that the great teaching of wisdom may develop in the most manifold ways. The great Initiates were all in agreement, for they knew that each had a contribution to make and that all these contributions were to converge. Thus, each Rishi had his own special mission, but what the seven Rishis proclaimed individually merged into a single great message to humanity.

[ 21 ] But what was meant to resonate harmoniously, humans have turned into disharmony. The sons of the gods had brought to humanity what each of them had to offer. But among them were some who allied themselves with human selfishness to disrupt the harmony. And so the disharmony grew ever greater. This happened when the sons of the gods took a liking to the daughters of men. In other words: when divine wisdom descended to Earth and joined forces with human selfishness. We must draw closer to the truth and develop ourselves through love.

[ 22 ] Not only souls, but also worldviews must love one another. Christ provided the impetus for the great brotherhood that is to unite all people and all religions. When human wisdom has been sacrificed for divine wisdom, we will rediscover the daughters of the gods, spiritual wisdom. Then the sons of men will rise to become the daughters of the gods. And with that, the other half of Earth’s evolution begins. The Christ impulse is the great unifying and harmonizing force that we must allow to work upon our inner lives. We must allow this impulse to act not only on our intellect but also on our feelings, and then we will feel the infinite warmth flowing toward us; then we will sense how even the dead letter possesses the power to convey to us the impulse that has poured out from Golgotha over the entire world to lead humanity ever higher and higher.

[ 23 ] Through theosophy and spiritual science, people are to gain an ever-deeper understanding of the Gospels. And the deeper we delve into them, the more warmth will flow to us from within them. It is not theory, but feeling that is essential. But it is futile to preach love if people do not gain wisdom through spiritual science, for without wisdom no one can attain love. Just as in the beginning of time the Sons of God descended and united with the daughters of the earth, so in the consummation of time the sons of man shall find the Sons of God again and ascend to them.

[ 24 ] [The Ascension will then appear as the second half of the Earth mission. The Gospel of John has the power to convey the impulse of Christ directly to us. The more we read the Gospel of John, the more we will be purified by that fire in the Spirit of which Christ spoke.]