The Essence of Christianity
GA 68a — 28 February 1909, Elberfeld
48. The Occult Meaning of the Gospel of John
Anyone who takes the time to study the four documents about the event in Palestine will soon discover the difference between the first three gospels and the fourth, the Gospel of John. In the first three gospels, the external events are brought closer to people in their minds; in the Gospel of John, more attention is paid to feelings. An infinite inwardness inspired the author, a compassion and empathy for what he felt towards Christ Jesus is expressed here. The personality of the author felt most intensely what took place in Palestine.
This feeling of the author was also complicit in the assertion that, from the critical point of view of a materialistic science, this gospel could be said to be the least truthfully rendered. It was therefore not understood as a historical fact, but as a powerful poem full of deep poetry, as a hymn to Christ Jesus, this powerful, towering personality. But also the spirit of the age in the sense of materialistic thinking contributed to making the first three synoptic Gospels appear closer and more natural to the human mind and feeling of today. The Gospel of John does not fit in well with this, since its Christ cannot be compared with any personality.
This is more readily possible with the first three, and how well our time has profited from the fact that the personality of Christ Jesus as a man among men could be presented as equal to others, like Socrates, Plato and other great men. The “simple man of Nazareth,” how our time likes this saying and how it uses it to try to lower the Christ personality to the human level! This judgment of taste is based on the suggestion of critical science.
In contrast to this is theosophy or spiritual science; it wants to be nothing more than the instrument for understanding these religious documents. Theosophy is completely without preconditions. Today, science does not take the same position as it did 300 years ago, when the teachings of Aristotle applied, and no one looked at nature! [Then] came the great Kepler, and humanity learned to see! On the one side were now the Aristotelians, on the other the unconditional naturalists, and indicative is the statement of the Aristotle student in an argument about the exits of the nerve cords, he believed more in Aristotle than in nature! At that time they had not yet developed the intuitive perception of what lies behind material things, which spiritual science is now trying to emphasize again, not with physical instruments but through spiritual faculties. Theosophy takes the path of first 'looking' and then studying the old records, and it always turns out that both give the same result: what has been seen is proved by the books!
This view will become more and more accepted, however much science may resist it. So we will also examine without prejudice what the matter is with the Gospel of John. It is something like Euclid's geometry; the student listens to the teaching, and through realization it finally becomes his spiritual property and complete fact. In this way, too, we will see how the Gospel of John agrees with what spiritual science has to say about it.
What is the theosophical view of man? We see how man possesses a fourfold nature: first, the physical body; then the etheric body with the principle of growth and reproduction, of fighting against decay. Further, the astral or desire body, the seat of sensations and feelings. When we see the person before us, we recognize that he consists of a sum of pleasure and suffering, of joy and pain. But if we go deeper, we realize that there is a name that is unique in the designation of man. This is the name “I”. Anyone can call an object by the same name, but the name “I” can only be spoken by each person when they mean their innermost being, their self, their individuality. In this sense, the “I” cannot reach our ears from the outside.
So how does the spiritual researcher view the world of matter? Everything physical has its origin in the spiritual. All matter is born of spirit, is condensed spirit, just as ice is condensed water. It is the same with the spiritual realm. It is in our midst. Everything is only the external expression of the spiritual. The physical human being is born out of the spirit. The ego is the divine spark that has flowed out of the spiritual ocean like a drop into man.
Thus we see how, starting from the physical body, the other forms become ever more refined and ethereal. We see how the spirit underlies everything. This spirit, which walks through the world as an infinite being, out of which the physical is born. This spirit, underlying all existence, is described by Christian science as the Logos or the Word, the divine creative Word. Just as certain figures appear on a pure, shiny brass plate when dust particles are stroked with a violin bow, so too can the Logos be described as the creator of everything in the world of phenomena. If we go back to primeval times, we will find the Logos working in all physical bodies, first in the etheric body, then in the astral body, and we see how human beings will emerge from this light. It is only through light that human beings are possible; without light there is no knowledge, no spiritual striving. Only the divine spirit brings about the world realm.
The youngest child of the divine spirit is the “I” in man. This “I” is at first unconscious of its origin, of its divine essence. In the beginning we do not recognize divine wisdom. Christian wisdom therefore refers to it as darkness. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. And the Word was the light of men, shining in the darkness, but the darkness comprehended it not.
This light, which underlies all bodies, is referred to as the life of the Logos. In the beginning, there was the Logos, from which everything came into being; the life of the Logos becomes light and the light shines in the unconscious human nature.
We have seen how the fourfold human nature arises from direct contemplation of the spiritual world. The author of the Gospel of John was an awakened person, a great initiate who is never referred to as anything other than “the disciple whom the Lord loved” (John 21:20). In him, the entire soul content of Christ continued to work; the entire depth of Christ's appearance was reflected in this disciple and allowed him to look deeply into the spiritual world. He recognized what was hidden behind the personality of Christ, that the highest being that had ever walked on earth was embodied in Jesus of Nazareth.
Until Christ came, man was unconscious of his divinity. Only Christ gave him the sense of “his fulness...” (John 1:16). Everything in the Gospel of John is written from the knowledge of the deepest secrets, for example, the eleventh chapter, the resurrection of Lazarus. Everyone senses that something profound underlies this process. After this act had happened, it was said: “This man does great signs.” (John 11:47) Something happened that made people tremble before the power of Jesus Christ's personality. This is an act of initiation, the first initiation that Christ performed, which is clear from the words: “The disease is not unto death, but that God may be made visible.” (John 11:4) He wanted to show that He is the life and the light, and this light should also illuminate Lazarus and lead him to awakening, since he was a friend of the Master. This was to be shown in the Lazarus process.
There have always been people in whom the great event arises, in whom the world of light becomes reality; the world of the spirit approaches them, their spiritual ear and eye is unlocked and opened to spiritual things. The method of initiation is shown in the ancient mysteries. They distinguish three degrees. The first degree is that of sense-free thinking. The senses must be eliminated and only objective observation of things may take place. Second degree: purification or cleansing. The astral experiences of feeling and sensation are transformed; with new organs one can look into the astral world: spiritual ears and eyes.
The third degree is that of enlightenment. When the initiate returns to the physical world after three and a half days, he always has the spiritual world before his eyes, he is born anew. During the three days, the etheric and astral bodies were driven out of the physical body and afterwards the etheric body felt this imprint of the higher worlds throughout the rest of its life.
The first initiation by Christ was the resurrection of Lazarus. Through Christ a new kind of initiation had been introduced by impressing the whole spiritual truth of Christ upon the one being initiated. From this it can be seen how this event of the resurrection of Lazarus has a much deeper meaning than the usual view. It is only in this sense that Goethe's words can be applied: “For as long as you do not have this dying and becoming, you are only a dull guest on the dark earth!”
Deep silence had to prevail about what happened in the sacred mysteries. The betrayal of the mysteries' processes resulted in death. This may also explain the death of Socrates. Aeschylus could only save himself from death by fleeing to the temple. This was done because at that time humanity was not considered ready for initiation. Christ publicly performed the initiation out of infinite compassion for humanity. Thus, what has become known as the theosophical view has also been taken out of the mysteries.
It is only a question of how these initiation abilities are acquired and what the path to them is. In the Christian method of initiation, man must pass through seven stages, as shown in the following consideration.
First: the plant takes root in the dead mineral, in the mineral kingdom; the plant could not be as it is today if the mineral kingdom had not provided the material for its construction. It will therefore bow down in gratitude to the mineral, without which it could not exist. In the same way, the animal will bow down to the plant from which it gets the nourishment for its own development. It is the same with humans. They must bow down humbly to the natural kingdoms below them, for they are the product of them. Those who have reached a higher level of development must always remember that they were once at every lower level. Thus they will be imbued with universal humility, and then one day the image will arise before them that John presented in the 13th chapter as Christ washing the disciples' feet: “The servant is not greater than the master” (John 13:16).
The second step is that of purification and cleansing. He grasps everything with the mind and distinguishes between reality and illusion. He learns to experience what constitutes a person's perception in reality; one learns to evaluate all facts of experience from the right point of view. Come what may, always stand upright in life. Image of the scourged Jesus.
In the third stage, the person being initiated also learns to control their feelings; they learn the ability to persevere even when what is most sacred and sublime to them is met with ridicule and scorn. Crowning of Thorns. Image of the Crowned Christ.
Fourth stage: the crucified Christ. One feels one's own body as something alien, something external. He becomes strong in spirit through this experience; he feels the crucified Christ as an actual experience. Here also the Simon Peter test approaches him, also the blood test.
The fifth stage is mystical death. Everything around him is absorbed, a lethargic state sets in, a complete calm. An equanimity of his mental state towards all external appearances.
The sixth stage is referred to as the entombment; he feels at one with the earth, he is reborn in spirit.
The seventh stage cannot be explained with physical senses, it is the union with the divine, a purely spiritual process, the ascension.
We see how the entire Christ event takes place within the initiate, how he inwardly passes through all the phases of this event in reality. The whole outer Christ event with all its historical details is taken up inwardly. We no longer need any outer proof, just as it happens to us in the Damascus event of Paul, who had taken up the spiritual Christ within himself.
The eyes are formed by the light for the light; without light there is no eye, and without the historical Christ there can be no inner experience of Christ. Thus the Christ event is experienced, but there are initiates of different degrees. Different images arise for the initiates, depending on their point of view. The apostles were also such initiates. The higher their spiritual level, the deeper they could penetrate into the mysteries of the Christ event.
Thus we see John, the apostle whom the Lord loved, as an initiate who had felt Christ most deeply. Goethe says: “If the eye were not sun-like, the sun could never behold it. If there were not in us the power of God himself, how could we be enraptured by the Divine!” One should not only read the Gospel of John, but really experience it, then this Christ event will also shine for us.