Rudolf Steiner - The Gospel of ST John and Its Relation To The Other Gospels
Rudolf Steiner - The Gospel of ST John and Its Relation To The Other Gospels
by Rudolf Steiner
My Dear Friends,
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.
LECTURE II