The Rudolf Steiner Archive

4. The Gospel of John as a Certificate of Initiation II

The Second Part of the Gospel of John

[ 1 ] The experiences of John described from chapter thirteen onward refer to the Devachan plane. John hints at this by the fact that he has been raised from the dead: Lazarus, who was raised, is John. Therefore, it makes sense that only from this point on is there mention of the disciple whom the Lord loved. This is the central mystery of the Gospel of John: that the writer is Lazarus, who was raised from the dead.

[ 2 ] In the spiritual world, John is now experiencing these events with Christ. The second part, in particular, is not merely a narrative of what took place on some plane of existence, but rather a description of what everyone can experience within themselves. The way one senses that one is at the stage John describes is as follows: From a certain point in one’s development onward, a person no longer feels separated from all things. He immerses himself in the things around him. This means expanding one’s own self to encompass the universe. John feels himself to be a part of the entire world surrounding him. This is expressed in the devachanic image of the washing of the feet. John experiences this in the spiritual world, even though the washing of the feet is also, at the same time, a historical event.

[ 3 ] A higher kingdom of nature always arises at the expense of a lower kingdom. If there were no mineral kingdom, the plant kingdom could not derive its nourishment from it. The plant kingdom is pushed down so that a higher kingdom—the animal kingdom—can develop, and so on. The human kingdom also needs the other kingdoms. The more highly developed needs the less highly developed. If a lower caste did not form, there could be no higher caste. Just as the plant kingdom presupposes the mineral kingdom, so Christ Jesus presupposes the apostles. No saint could develop if others were not pushed down. In chapter 13, verse 16, it says: “The servant is not greater than his master.” Christ grew out of the apostles; therefore, he can call them the masters from whose community he emerged. He washes their feet to indicate that he stands below them insofar as he owes his existence to them. Everyone must experience this feeling firsthand. Whoever has never experienced this feeling has not recognized the Christian-mystical path.

[ 4 ] Jesus goes on to say: “Whoever eats my bread tramples me underfoot.” He feels as if he is in communion with the whole earth. He feels as if all of humanity is weighing down on him, trampling him underfoot.

[ 5 ] After John has experienced all of this on the Devachan plane, he is able to understand what is now described in the parable of the vine and the branches. The unity of the entire Christian community is expressed in it.

[ 6 ] We are living in the fifth root race of our earthly existence. This fifth root race has seven sub-races: the Proto-Indian, the Proto-Persian, the Egyptian-Babylonian-Chaldean, the Greco-Roman-Semitic, the Germanic, the Slavic, and the seventh sub-race. The last three sub-races of the fourth root race—the Atlantean—are particularly important. The fifth root race emerged from the third-to-last sub-race, the Proto-Semitic sub-race. This fifth subrace was settled in the region that is now Ireland. From there, it migrated and was led into the Gobi or Shamo Desert. From this location, the ancestral race for the current root race—the fifth—emerged. There are now three subraces of the Atlanteans, seven subraces of the Aryan root race, and two of the sixth root race, which are related in a certain sense. Then, when humanity has passed through all these races, it will have reached the point where a large portion of humanity has attained what it is predisposed to achieve.

[ 7 ] The twelve apostles symbolize these twelve subraces. Jesus emerged from among the twelve apostles. In the washing of the feet, Jesus bends down toward the races to whom he is to bring salvation.

[ 8 ] In the parable of the vine, Christ sees himself as the one who is connected to all races; he provides them with what constitutes the spiritual lifeblood.

[ 9 ] Now a wide variety of images enter the higher world. We are shown the betrayal of Judas Iscariot. He represents one of the races—specifically, the race that brings everything down onto the material plane: our present fifth subrace, the materialistic one. The course of development, whereby human beings had previously lived in spiritual perception and now had to be led into the physical world, made it entirely natural that the representative of this fifth subrace should be the very one to become the betrayer. Judas Iscariot was the representative of the race that descends the farthest. Because the Gospel of John is to be understood symbolically, it is able to retain its value beyond the bounds of time and space. Judas’s act fits quite organically into Christ’s mission. Judas undergoes a kind of martyrdom. He is the betrayer and, in a certain sense, also a martyr. He brings about Christ’s sacrifice.

[ 10 ] Through this series of parables, the apostles are to be led into the inner nature of Christianity. With Christ’s sacrificial death, everything that had previously taken place within the mystery cult itself—where the initiate experienced it, just as Lazarus did here in the Gospel through his symbolic three-day death—was brought onto the world stage, onto the stage of history. In Christ, this was to emerge onto the grand stage of history. From now on, a person would also be redeemed simply by believing, even without having witnessed the mysteries himself. Everyone was to experience this when the Spirit of Truth came. He proclaims what is being introduced into world history as a force through the Christian events. “He will declare to you the things that are to come.”

[ 11 ] It is in this spirit of truth that John prophesies. The historical betrayal of Christ will take place in the future among the people who correspond to Judas.

[ 12 ] Now come the events that serve as a model for the Christian mystic’s own inner experience. Christ receives the slap on the cheek. This is the second important event after the washing of the feet. Everyone who wishes to live the life of Christ in their soul must accept this. One must endure with complete peace of mind the fact that one does not find recognition from those before whom one presents one’s best self. Second comes the scourging. Morally and spiritually, this means that we endure the pains that come to us from the world with serenity. Together with the slap on the cheek, this is the second stage that the Christian mystic must go through.

[ 13 ] This is indeed what students of Christian mysticism have been experiencing ever since. The fact that one is able to endure the pain in this state of tranquility is manifested in the student’s own body. He actually feels as if he were being pricked with needles.

[ 14 ] The next step, the third stage, is bearing the crown of thorns. This means calmly accepting humiliation. What is being suppressed is precisely the human ego. The forebrain, which developed during the final period of Atlantis, is the part that experiences the crown of thorns. Truly painful manifestations of this mystical, spiritual state arise, which one must overcome.

[ 15 ] Then comes the crucifixion as the fourth stage. This is the mystical experience that signifies that one’s own body has become as foreign to oneself as something external. The person then bears the burden of the cross. His soul has now become independent. It is then bound to the body only in the same way that the body of Christ was nailed to the cross. This is an inner process that the mystic experiences. The person now truly knows that he lives in a spiritual body. The accompanying phenomenon of this process is the trial by blood. Then the stigmata of Christ truly appear on the hands and feet once the Christian mystic has gone through this. For everything that is spiritual, there is a physical counterpart.

[ 16 ] When a person is ready, death on the cross occurs. This is a spiritual experience. It is expressed in Goethe’s saying:

[ 17 ] And as long as you do not have that,
This: Die and Be Reborn!
You are but a gloomy guest
On this dark earth.

[ 18 ] And Jakob Böhme says: “Whoever does not die before he dies will perish when he dies.” The Christian mystic must pass through death completely. Otherwise, he cannot enter into a higher life.

[ 19 ] The sixth event is the burial. This is the mystical realization of communion with the Earth organism. The student then unites with the Earth planet; he becomes a planetary spirit. Everything around him then becomes his body.

[ 20 ] The seventh stage is the higher life, the resurrection, which is bestowed upon humankind.

[ 21 ] These are the seven stages of Christian mystical development: the washing of the feet, the slap in the face and the scourging, the crowning with thorns, the crucifixion, death, the burial, and the resurrection. It is an inner journey marked by outward symbols.

[ 22 ] John presents all of this in such a way that he has, in effect, provided a mystical handbook. As they are read, these passages must be used as material for meditation. Then a person will have the meditation necessary to go through these events. The Gospel of John is a book of miracles in that it works miracles in the soul. It is written for all people, and everyone can experience the Gospel of John within themselves.

[ 23 ] From this perspective, let us consider the second chapter once more. The person before the washing of the feet is the one who is to give birth to the new person. That person has then passed through the seven stages. He now becomes the new person. The new human being relates to the old human being as a child relates to its mother. The old human being conceived him; the old human being carried him. This is how we are to understand the image of the mother of Jesus. Every old human being is predisposed to become a new human being.

[ 24 ] There are different types of the old man. When the new man is born within them, all will give birth to the same Christ from within themselves. The old man, the mother, can be present in various ways. As Christ hangs on the cross, he looks back at his mother—specifically, at the three women as his mother, as representatives of three different human forms from which the mystic can emerge. One cannot name the mother of Jesus with a proper name. Nevertheless, she is called Mary. Mary is the same word as Maja, the shell from which the new man has emerged.

[ 25 ] When Christ was taken down from the cross, none of his legs were to be broken. This is connected to the entire development of our culture. In Atlantis, human beings still possessed the ability to influence the etheric formative forces. Thus, they were able to use the germinative power of grains to set airships in motion. The task of the twelve subraces, beginning with the fifth Atlantean subrace, is to develop the powers and abilities related to the mineral kingdom—the combinatorial abilities. The twelve races are to bring the Earth to a point where the mineral kingdom is essentially conquered. The era in which Christianity takes center stage is the era in which humanity transforms the mineral kingdom. Humanity will harness the Earth’s magnetism once it begins to influence the Earth through its moral forces. As for everything else, humanity remains more or less unconscious.

[ 26 ] The Gospel of John is one of the writings that embody the infinite as if it were a spring within them.