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Rudolf Steiner e.Lib
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The Gospel of St. John
Rudolf Steiner e.Lib Document
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The Gospel of St. John
The Christians of St. John. The rebirth of the higher Ego in man and in humanity.
Schmidt Number: S-2029
On-line since: 10th September, 2002
Cassel, St. John's Day, 1909
The celebration of a particular festival on the present day of the
year was a custom to which a large portion of aspiring humanity
adhered, and it is a matter of importance for the friends of the
anthroposophical movement assembled with us in this city that the
present series of lectures should begin precisely on midsummer or St.
John's Day. As long ago as in ancient Persia a festival known as the
‘Baptism of Fire and Water’ was associated with a day which would
roughly correspond to a day in June at the present time. In ancient
Rome the festival of Vesta fell on a similar day in June, and that
again was a festival of ‘Baptism by Fire’. And if we look back upon
European civilization before the spread of Christianity, we again find
a June festival which coincided with the time of the year when the
days begin to shorten and the nights to lengthen when the sun
begins to lose a part of the strength he lavishes upon all growth and
increase on earth. To our European ancestors this June festival
appeared as a gradual withdrawal and disappearing of the God Baldur
Baldur who, in their minds, was associated with the Sun. In
Christian times this same festival gradually became that of St. John,
the forerunner of Christ Jesus. Thus it can also be our starting-point
for the considerations to which we will devote ourselves during the
next few days, bearing upon this most important event in the evolution
of humanity upon the Deed of Christ Jesus. Indeed, the subject
of the present course of lectures will be founded upon the whole
import of this Deed for the evolution of humanity, and upon its manner
of presentation, firstly in the most significant of human documents,
in the Gospel according to St. John, then, by comparison, in the other
Gospels.
The festival of St. John reminds us that the greatest Individuality
who participated in the evolution of humanity was preceded by a
‘Forerunner’, and we here touch upon an important point which must
precede our further considerations, also as a kind of ‘forerunner’. In
the course of the development of humanity there occur, ever and again,
events of surpassing importance shedding a stronger light than others.
We can observe these essential occurrences in epoch after epoch of
history, and ever and again we are told of men who, in a measure, know
of them in advance and can foretell their coming. These are no
arbitrary events; indeed, whoever has insight into the whole meaning
and spirit of human history is aware that such events must come, and
knows how he himself must work in preparation for them to take place.
During the next few days we shall often have occasion to speak of the
Forerunner of Christ. Today we shall consider him from the standpoint
that he was one of those who, by virtue of special spiritual gifts,
have a deeper insight into things and know that there are
super-eminent moments in the evolution of humanity. Hence he was
fitted to pave the way for Christ Jesus. But when we look upon Christ
Jesus Himself, we clearly realize that the division of chronology into
epochs before and after His appearance upon earth is not without good
reason. By adhering to this division, humanity to a large extent shows
that it is sensible of the incisive significance of the
Christ-Mystery. But whatever is real and true must ever and again be
proclaimed in new forms and new ways, for the requirements of humanity
alter from epoch to epoch. Our time needs, in a sense, a new
annunciation of this greatest of events in the history of man, and it
is the will of Anthroposophy to be this annunciation.
This anthroposophical annunciation is new only in respect of its form;
its content, the subject of these lectures, was for centuries taught
within our European civilization and spiritual life. The one
difference between the former and the present annunciation is that the
latter may be addressed to a wider circle. The smaller circles within
which this teaching has been heard for centuries recognized the same
sign which you here see before you the Rosy Cross. This may
therefore again stand as the symbol of the same annunciation, now that
the latter finds its way to a greater public. Let me now figuratively
describe the foundations upon which this Rosicrucian annunciation of
Christ Jesus rested.
The Rosicrucians (not the strange new group being founded in America
in California using the same name) are a community which has
cultivated, since the fourteenth century, a spiritual, a genuinely
spiritual Christianity within the sphere of European spiritual life.
Apart from all exterior historical forms, this Rosicrucian Society
sought to reveal the deepest truths of Christianity to its followers,
whom it also called ‘Christians of St. John’. An understanding of this
expression, ‘Christians of St. John’, will enable us, if not to
explain with our intellect, at any rate to grasp with our presentiment
the whole spirit and tenor of the following lectures.
You all know the opening words of the Gospel of St. John: ‘In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a
God. The same was in the beginning with God.’ The Word or Logos was in
the beginning with God, and the Light, it is further said, shone in
the darkness but the darkness comprehended it not. This Light was in
the world and among men, but of those only a small number were capable
of comprehending it. Then there appeared the Word made Flesh as a Man
in a Man whose forerunner was the Baptist, John. And now we see
how they who had to some extent grasped the significance of this
appearance of Christ upon earth are at pains to explain the real
nature of Christ. The author of the Gospel of St. John definitely
indicates that the deepest Being enfolded in Jesus of Nazareth was
naught else than the Being out of which all beings proceeded; that it
was the living spirit, the living Word, the Logos Himself.
The other Evangelists were also at pains, each in his own way, to
describe what actually appeared in Jesus of Nazareth. The author of
the Gospel of St. Luke endeavours to show how something quite especial
appeared when, through the Baptism of Christ Jesus by John the
Baptist, the Spirit united itself with the body of Jesus of Nazareth.
The same writer goes on to show how this Jesus of Nazareth is a
descendant of a line of ancestors reaching far, far back into the
past. We are told that the genealogical tree of Jesus of Nazareth
reaches back to David, to Abraham, to Adam, and even to God Himself.
We find it clearly indicated that Jesus of Nazareth was the son of
Joseph; Joseph was the son of Heli; then: he was the son of David; and
further: he was the son of Adam, and Adam was the son of God. That is
to say, the writer of St. Luke's Gospel lays special stress on the
fact that from Jesus of Nazareth, on whom the Spirit descended at the
Baptism of St. John, a direct line of descent can be traced to Him
whom he calls the Father of Adam God. Such things must
absolutely be taken literally.
In the Gospel of St. Matthew the attempt is made to trace the lineage
of Jesus of Nazareth back to Abraham to whom God revealed Himself.
Thus, the Individuality who is the bearer of Christ, indeed, the whole
advent of Christ, is represented not only as one of the greatest but
as the very greatest of phenomena in the evolution of humanity. What
is here unmistakably expressed can be put in the following simple
words: If Christ Jesus was regarded by those who had an inkling of His
greatness as the most momentous figure in the evolution of humanity
upon earth, there must be some connection between this same Christ
Jesus and the holiest, most essential element in man himself. There
must be something within man which is in direct correspondence with
the Christ-event. If Christ Jesus, as is stated in the Gospels, really
represents the greatest event in the evolution of mankind, must there
not be in all things and in each human soul some bond of union with
Christ Jesus? Indeed, the most important and essential point, in the
eyes of the Christians of St. John and the Rosicrucians, was precisely
the fact that in each human soul something exists which directly bears
upon and is connected with the events which occurred in Palestine
through Christ Jesus. Moreover, if the Christ-event may be called the
supreme event for humanity, the element which corresponds to the
Christ-event in the human soul must be the supreme feature in man.
What can this be?
The Rosicrucian answer to this question was that every human soul is
open to an experience which is expressed by the word ‘awakening’, or
‘rebirth,’ or ‘initiation’. We shall see what is meant by these words.
When we behold, in the world around us, the various things which our
eyes perceive and our hands touch, we observe how they arise and
decay. We see how the flowers blossom and wither, and how the year's
whole vegetation comes to life and dies away, and though there are
things in the world such as mountains and rocks, apparently defying
the ages, the proverb ‘Constant dropping wears a stone’ points to a
premonition in the human soul that the very rocks and mountains, in
all their majesty, are subject to the laws of the temporal world. Man
knows that whatever is formed from the elements grows and decays; and
this applies not only to his bodily form but also to his temporal
self. They, however, who know how a spiritual world may be attained,
are aware that though a man's eyes, ears, and other senses do not
avail for this purpose, he may nevertheless enter the spiritual world
by way of awakening, or rebirth, or initiation. And what is reborn?
When a man looks within himself, he finally comes to the conclusion
that what he finds in his inner self is the being of which he speaks
as ‘I’. The ‘I’ is distinguished, by virtue of its very name, from all
things of the exterior world. To every exterior thing a name may be
applied from outside. We can all call the table ‘table’, and the clock
‘clock’. The word ‘I’, however, can never resound upon our ear if we
ourselves are meant, for this word (‘I’) must be uttered in our inner
self. To every other being we are ‘thou’. This fact in itself enables
man to find the distinction between this Ego-being and all else within
and around himself. But to this we must add something which the
spiritual investigators of all ages have emphasized ever again from
their own experience for the benefit of mankind namely, that
within this ‘I’ another, a higher Ego, is born, as the child is born
of the mother.
When we consider the human being as he confronts us in life, we see
him first as a child, clumsy in respect of his surroundings, and
merely beholding things; gradually and by degrees he learns to
understand the things; we see how his intelligence awakens, how his
will and intellect grow, and how he increases in strength and energy.
But there are individuals who advance also in another way; they attain
a higher development, beyond the ordinary; they reach the point, so to
speak, of finding a second Ego which, looking down upon the first Ego,
can say ‘thou’ to it, even as the ordinary Ego says ‘thou’ to the
exterior world and to its own body.
Thus a distant ideal of the human soul can become actuality for those
who, following the instructions of the spiritual investigator, say to
themselves: ‘The self of which I have known hitherto partakes of the
outer world and passes away with it. But a second self slumbers in me
a self of which men are not aware [but can become aware],
though it is equally
united with the eternal, as the first self with the transitory and the
temporal.’ Upon the consummation of rebirth, the higher Ego can behold
a spiritual world even as the lower Ego can perceive the sensible
world through the senses. This so-called awakening, rebirth, or
initiation is the greatest event the human soul can experience, a view
held also by those who called themselves followers of the Rosy Cross.
They knew that this birth of the higher self which can look down upon
the lower self as a man looks upon the outer world this event,
they knew, must stand in connection with the event of Christ Jesus.
That is to say: even as individual man can experience a new birth in
the course of his development, a new birth for the whole of humanity
took place through Christ Jesus. Man's individual experience of the
birth of his higher Ego as an inner, mystic and spiritual event
this was enacted for the whole of humanity as an historical fact in
the outer world through Christ Jesus in Palestine.
In what light did this event appear, for instance, to the writer of
St. Luke's Gospel? He could say to himself: the genealogy of Jesus of
Nazareth reaches back to Adam and even to God. Humanity once descended
from divine spiritual heights to dwell in a physical human body;
humanity was born of the spirit; it was with God. Adam was sent down
from spiritual heights into matter; in this sense he is the Son of
God. Thus there was once a divine spiritual kingdom which densified,
as it were, to the transitory earthly kingdom. Adam appeared, the
earthly image of the Son of God. From him descended the human race
which inhabits a physical body. In Jesus of Nazareth there lived, in a
special manner, something over and above what lives in one and every
man something which can be found in its true nature only if we
are conscious that the essential part in man has its origin in divine
being. In Jesus of Nazareth something is still evident of this divine
origin. Hence the writer of St. Luke's Gospel feels impelled to say:
Behold Him who was baptized by John. He bears special characteristics
of the divine source from which Adam descended. That divine source can
be reborn in Him. The divine being which descended into matter and, as
divinity, disappeared in the human race, behold, it now reappears.
Humanity can be born again, in its inmost divine nature, in Jesus of
Nazareth. In short, the writer of St. Luke's Gospel wished to say:
When we trace the lineage of Jesus of Nazareth to its origin, we find
in him again the divine origin and the attributes of the Son of God,
in a renewed form and in greater measure than humanity hitherto
existing could show.
The writer of St. John's Gospel emphasized still more strongly that
there was something divine in man and that this divinity appeared in
its supreme form as the Logos Himself. The God who was as though
buried in matter is born again in Jesus of Nazareth. That was the
meaning of these writers who prefaced their Gospels in the above
manner. And they who wished to carry on the wisdom of the Gospels
the Christians of St. John what did they say? They
taught as follows: For every individual man there is a great, a mighty
event which may be called the birth of the higher self. As the child
is born of the mother, so too the divine Ego is born of the individual
human being. Initiation, awakening is possible, and when it is
consummated, things that were hitherto of importance are superseded. A
comparison will show what then becomes of primary importance.
Suppose we have before us a man who has reached his seventieth year
an ‘awakened’ man who has gained his higher Ego, and let us
suppose that he experienced the rebirth or awakening of his higher
self in his fortieth year. Anyone intending to write his life might
say: Here is a man in whom the higher self is born. Five years ago I
knew him in such a position, ten years ago in another. If the identity
of this man were to be shown with reference to the significance of his
birth, the forty years of his physical existence would be traced back
and described from the standpoint of spiritual science. In his
fortieth year, however, the higher self is born in this man and
thenceforward sheds its light over all the circumstances of his life.
He is now a new man. What precedes this event is now of less
importance to us; we are now chiefly concerned to know how the higher
self grows and develops from year to year. When this individual has
reached his seventieth year, we should enquire what had been the
career of his higher Ego from his fortieth to his seventieth year, and
the presence of his true spiritual Ego in his seventieth year would be
primarily important for us, if indeed we believed in what was born in
his soul at the age of forty. The writers of the Gospels proceeded in
this manner; so too the Christians of St. John and followers of the
Rosy Cross, when they considered that Being whom we call Christ Jesus.
The Evangelists had set themselves the task firstly to show that
Christ Jesus issues from the primal spirit of the world, indeed from
God Himself. The Divinity hitherto concealed in all mankind becomes
pre-eminently manifest in Christ Jesus. This is the same God of whom
it is said in St. John that He was there in the beginning. And it was
the aim of the Evangelists to show that that God and no other was in
Jesus of Nazareth. They, however, whose task it was to carry on the
wisdom of all ages, even into our time, were bent upon showing how the
higher Ego of mankind, the divine spirit of humanity, born in Jesus of
Nazareth through the events in Palestine, has remained one and the
same, having been truly preserved by those who rightly understood it.
And as in the case described above, of the man whose higher Ego is
born in his fortieth year, the Evangelists described the God in man up
to and including the events in Palestine. The successors of the
Evangelists, however, had to show that the events thus described
covered the birth of the higher Ego and that thenceforward we are
concerned with the spiritual aspect alone, which now outshines
everything else. The Christians of St. John, whose symbol was the Rosy
Cross, said: Precisely that which was reborn as the mystery of
humanity's higher self, this same has been preserved intact. It was
preserved by that exclusive community which took its rise in
Rosicrucianism. This continuity is indicated symbolically in the
legend of the sacred vessel called the ‘Holy Grail’, from which Christ
Jesus ate and drank and in which the blood which flowed from His
wounds was gathered by Joseph of Arimathea. This vessel, they say, was
brought to Europe by angels. A temple was built for it and the
Rosicrucians became the guardians of its content, that is, of that
which constituted the very essence of the reborn God. The mystery of
the reborn God prevailed among men the mystery of the Holy
Grail. It is presented to us as a new Gospel, and we are told the
writer of the Gospel of St. John, whom we venerate, could say in his
wisdom: ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was a God.’ The same that was in the beginning with God has
been born again in Him whom we saw suffer and die upon Golgotha and
who is risen again. The continuity of the divine principle through all
ages and the resurrection of the same is described by the writer of
the Gospel of St. John. But the narrators of such things knew that
that which was from the beginning has been preserved unchanged. IN THE
BEGINNING WAS THE MYSTERY OF THE HIGHER HUMAN EGO; THE SAME WAS
PRESERVED IN THE GRAIL AND REMAINED UNITED THEREWITH. IN THE GRAIL
LIVES THE EGO WHICH IS UNITED WITH THE ETERNAL AND THE IMMORTAL, EVEN
AS THE LOWER EGO IS UNITED WITH THE TRANSITORY AND THE MORTAL. Whoever
knows the mystery of the Holy Grail knows that from the wood of the
Cross springs living, budding life, the immortal self symbolized by
the roses on the dark wood of the Cross. Thus the mystery of the Rosy
Cross may be regarded as a continuation of the Gospel of St. John and,
in this respect, we may truly speak the following words: ‘In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a
God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by
Him and without Him was no thing made. In Him was the Life and the
Life was the Light of men. And the Light shone in the darkness and the
darkness comprehended it not. Only a few, in whom something lived that
was not born of the flesh, comprehended the Light that shone in the
Darkness. Then the Light became flesh and dwelt among men in the
likeness of Jesus of Nazareth.’ Now we might continue: ‘And in Christ
who dwelt in Jesus of Nazareth we see none but the higher, divine self
of all mankind, the God who came down to earth in Adam and was born
again. This reborn human self was continued as a sacred mystery; it
was preserved under the symbol of the Rosy Cross and is annunciated
today as the mystery of the Holy Grail and the Rosy Cross.’
The higher Ego which may be born in every human soul points to the
rebirth of the divine Ego in the evolution of humanity through the
event in Palestine. Even as the higher self is born in every human
being, the higher self of the totality of mankind was born in
Palestine. The same is preserved and further developed behind the
external symbol of the Rosy Cross. But when we consider human
evolution, this one great event, the rebirth of the higher ego, does
not stand alone; beside it there are a number of lesser events.
Before the soul can rise to this all-embracing, all-pervading
experience (the birth of the immortal within the mortal self), certain
preliminary stages, of comprehensive nature, must be traversed. A man
must prepare himself in many and manifold ways. And after this great
experience which enables him to say: ‘I now feel something within me,
I am aware of something in me that looks down upon my ordinary self,
even as my ordinary self looks down upon the objects of sense; I am a
second self within the first; I have now risen to the regions in which
I am united with divine beings’ even after this experience
there are other different, and still higher stages which must be
traversed.
Thus we have the birth of the higher self in every individual man, and
a similar birth for humanity as a whole the rebirth of the
divine Ego. Then there are preparatory stages and others which succeed
this event. From the Christ-event we look back upon the preparatory
stages. We behold other great beings and events in human evolution. We
see how the Gospel of Christ gradually drew near. As St. Luke said: In
the beginning was a God; a spiritual Being in sublime spiritual
regions. He descended into the material world and became Man,
investing Himself with humanity. Man's divine origin could well be
perceived, but God Himself could not be perceived when human evolution
was regarded with mere physical eyes. God, so to speak, was behind the
earthly, physical world. They alone perceived him who knew where He
was and could perceive His kingdoms.
Let us go back to the first period of civilization following upon a
great disruption to the primeval Indian civilization. There we
find seven great, holy teachers knows as the Holy Rishis. They pointed
upwards to a higher Being of whom they said: ‘With all our wisdom we
can but dimly sense we cannot behold this sublime Being.’ The
seven Holy Rishis saw far and deep, yet this high Being, whom they
called Vishva Karman, was beyond their sphere. This Being did indeed
fill the spiritual world, but He was beyond the range of clairvoyant
vision at that time. Then came the period of civilization named after
its great inaugurator, Zarathustra. To those whom it was his mission
to lead, Zarathustra said: ‘When the clairvoyant eye beholds the
things of the world, the minerals, plants, the animals and man, it
sees manifold spiritual beings behind all things. But the spiritual
Being to whom man owes his very existence and who, in time to come,
must live in man's innermost self this Being cannot yet be
seen, when the things of the world are beheld, whether with physical
or with clairvoyant eyes.’ But when Zarathustra's spiritual gaze was
raised toward the Sun, he beheld more than the Sun. As a man's aura
can be seen enveloping him, he said, so too, the great Sun-Aura, Ahura
Mazdao, can be seen beside the Sun. And the great Sun-Aura it was
which produced man in a way to be described later. Man is the image of
the Sun-Spirit, Ahura Mazdao, but Ahura Mazdao did not yet dwell upon
earth. Then came the time when man, in clairvoyant vision, began to
see Ahura Mazdao in his earthly environment. The great moment was at
hand when that could be accomplished which was not yet possible in
Zarathustra's time. In earthly thunder and lightning Zarathustra's
clairvoyant eye did not behold Ahura Mazdao, the great Sun-Spirit, the
archetype of humanity; but when he turned to the Sun, there he saw
Ahura Mazdao. Moses, Zarathustra's successor, could see, with
clairvoyant eye, in the burning bush and in the fire on Mount Sinai,
that Spirit who proclaimed Himself as the ‘Ejeh asher ejeh’, ‘I am he
that was, and is, and will be,’ Jahve or Jehovah.
Since the prehistoric time of Zarathustra and before Moses appeared
among men, the Spirit who had hitherto dwelt in the Sun had descended
upon earth. His light shone in the burning bush and in the fire on
Mount Sinai; He was in the earthly elements. Yet a while and
the Spirit whom the great Rishis divined but could not clairvoyantly
behold, the Spirit whom Zarathustra sought in the Sun, who proclaimed
himself to Moses in thunder and lightning the same appeared in
human form in Jesus of Nazareth. That was the course of evolution: out
of cosmic space He descended, first to the physical elements, then
into a human body. The divine Ego from which man issued, and to which
the writer of St. Luke's Gospel traces the lineage of Jesus of
Nazareth, was born again. Herewith was consummated the sublime event
of the rebirth of God in man.
From here let us look back upon the preparatory stages which humanity,
too, traversed. The former leaders who had shared in the general
progress of humanity were also subjected to preliminary stages until
one of them had advanced far enough to become the bearer of the
Christ. This shows us how the evolution of humanity presents itself
when regarded from a spiritual standpoint.
The Being revered by the Holy Rishis as Vishva Karman, by Zarathustra
as Ahura Mazdao of the Sun, by Moses as ‘Ejeh asher ejeh’ this
Being appeared in one distinct man, Jesus of Nazareth, in limited
earthly humanity. But before the point was reached when this sublime
Being could dwell in a man such as Jesus of Nazareth, manifold
preparations were necessary. To this end Jesus of Nazareth must
himself have risen to a high stage of evolution. Not any man could be
the bearer of a Being who had descended to earth in the manner
described. Now we who have approached spiritual science know the truth
of reincarnation. Hence we must say that Jesus of Nazareth (not the
Christ) had passed through many incarnations and stood the test of
many a trial in earlier times before he could become Jesus of
Nazareth. In other words, Jesus of Nazareth had to become a high
initiate before he could be the bearer of the Christ. Now when a high
initiate is born, how is his birth and life distinguished from the
birth and life of an ordinary man? In general it may be assumed that
at his birth a man is formed approximately in accordance with the
results of his preceding life. With the initiate, however, this is not
the case. The initiate could not be a leader of mankind if his inner
life no more than conformed with outer circumstances. A man must build
up his exterior according to the circumstances of his environment. But
when an initiate is born, a great soul, one which has experienced
great things in the world in past lives, must enter his body. Hence it
is said of all such, that their birth takes place under other than
ordinary circumstances.
Now we have already touched upon the reason of this difference. It is
because an all-embracing Ego, one that has experienced remarkable
things, unites itself with the body. The body, however, cannot at
first fully contain the spiritual nature which seeks to incarnate in
it. Hence, when a high initiate descends into a mortal body, the
reincarnating Ego necessarily overshadows the physical form to a
greater extent than with an ordinary man. Whereas the physical form of
an ordinary human being soon after birth resembles and corresponds to
the spiritual form (the human aura), the initiate's aura is radiant.
This is the spiritual part, which proclaims that there is more here
than meets the eye in the ordinary sense. Indeed it bears witness
that, apart from the birth of the child in the physical world, an
event has taken place in the spiritual world. That is the meaning of
the legends which gather round the birth of all initiates. Not only is
a child born, in the physical body, but in spiritual regions something
is born which cannot be contained in the body below. But who can
recognize this? Only one whose eyes are clairvoyant and open to the
spiritual world. Hence it is related that at the birth of the Buddha
an initiate recognized that an event more remarkable than the birth of
an ordinary child was taking place. In the same way it is related of
Jesus of Nazareth that His coming was announced by John the Baptist.
The advent and birth of an initiate are known to all possessing
insight into the spiritual world, for an event in the spiritual world
is here enacted. The same was known to the three Kings from the East
who brought offerings at the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, and the same
is expressed in the words of the Priest-Initiate in the Temple: ‘Now I
will gladly die, for mine eyes have seen Him who is to be the
salvation of mankind.’
Thus a sharp distinction is here necessary. We have a high initiate
reborn as Jesus of Nazareth and, beyond this birth, something of
significance in the spiritual world something spiritual which
will gradually develop the body until it be ripe for the spirit. When
this point is reached, the event thus prepared is enacted. The Baptist
approaches Jesus of Nazareth and a higher spirit descends upon him and
unites with him; Christ enters the body of Jesus of Nazareth. John the
Baptist, as the forerunner of Jesus of Nazareth, might well say: ‘I
came into the world and prepared the way for a [person] Mightier than I. I have
preached before men that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand and that men
must change their heart. I came among men and declared to them that a
new impulse will enter mankind. As in spring the sun mounts higher in
the heavens to proclaim the renewal of life, so do I come to proclaim
the new life which is the reborn self of humanity.’
When the human principle in Jesus of Nazareth had reached its highest
development, and his body had become an expression of the spirit
within him, he was ripe to receive the Christ in the Baptism by John.
His body had unfolded its full power, as the radiant sun on midsummer
or St. John's day. This had been prophesied. The spirit was to be born
out of the darkness, as the Sun which increases in power and waxes
strong till St. John's day and then begins to wane. It was the
Baptist's mission to proclaim this and to tell how the Sun mounts on
high with increasing splendour until the moment when he, the Baptist,
could say: ‘He who was announced by the prophets of old, the Son of
the spiritual realms, born of the spirit, behold, He hath appeared.’
Up to this point John the Baptist was active. But when the days begin
to shorten and the darkness again prevails, then, the way having been
prepared, the inner spirit-light must shine forth ever more brightly,
even as the Christ shines forth in Jesus of Nazareth.
Thus did John behold the approach of Jesus of Nazareth, whose
development he felt as his own increase, as the increase of the Sun.
‘I must henceforth decrease,’ he said, ‘as the Sun decreases after
midsummer day. But He, the spiritual Sun, will increase and his Light
will shine forth from out of the darkness.’ Thus did John the Baptist
speak of himself and his mission. In this manner was the universal Ego
of humanity reborn, and the condition fulfilled for the rebirth of the
individual higher self in every human being.
We have herewith described the most momentous event in the evolution
of individual man: the rebirth of the immortal being which can issue
from the ordinary Ego. This is inseparable from the greatest of all
events, the Christ-event, to which we shall devote the following
lectures.
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Last Modified: 02-Nov-2024
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