The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Ninth Lecture

[ 1 ] Yesterday, we concluded our remarks with the statement that we are now about to consider the most important aspect of the Christ impulse: death itself and its significance. But before we come to the account of Christ’s death—and thus to the climax of our series of lectures—it will be necessary today to say a few words about the true meaning and significance of various elements in the Gospel of John itself, and about the relationship of what is described there to the other Gospels.

[ 2 ] In recent days, we have attempted—drawing on entirely different sources, namely the clairvoyant study of the Akashic Records—to understand the Christ impulse and to present it as an actual event in the evolution of humanity. And, in a sense, we have referred only to what appears in the Gospels as a confirmation of what could initially be declared true through clairvoyant research. Today, however, for the sake of continuing our reflections, we want to cast a few glances at the Gospel of John itself and characterize this important document of humanity from one particular perspective. This Gospel of John—about which we said yesterday that contemporary theological research, insofar as it is tainted by materialism, cannot adopt a proper stance toward it, nor is it able to grasp its historical reality—will present itself to us, when we view it through the lens of spiritual science, as one of the most wondrous documents humanity possesses. It can be said that the Gospel of John ranks among the greatest not only among religious documents, but among all—to use a secular term—all literary and written documents. Let us now approach the content of this document from this perspective.

[ 3 ] In terms of its composition, the Gospel of John—if one understands it correctly and knows what the words actually mean—is, even in its very first chapters, one of the most elegant and well-rounded documents in the world. However, this is not apparent upon a superficial reading. At first glance, it appears that the author of the Gospel of John—we now know from the list of miracles leading up to the actual story of Lazarus that he enumerates exactly seven such miracles—lists these seven. The significance of the number seven will be discussed in more detail in the coming days. — What are these seven miracles or signs?

1. The sign given at the wedding in Cana of Galilee,
2. the sign given by the healing of the royal official’s son,
3. the sign given by the healing of the man who had been ill for thirty-eight years at the Pool of Bethesda,
4. the feeding of the five thousand,
5. the sign given by witnessing Christ walking on the sea, _
6. the sign given by the healing of the man born blind, and finally
7. the greatest sign, the initiation or consecration of Lazarus—the transformation of Lazarus into the scribe of the Gospel of John himself.

[ 4 ] These are seven of the signs. Now, however, we must ask ourselves: What is the truth of the matter regarding these signs, regarding this question of miracles?

[ 5 ] If you have listened carefully to what has been said to you in a wide variety of ways over the past few days, you will recall that it was stated that the state of human consciousness has changed throughout the course of our entire human evolution. We have looked back to time immemorial. We have seen that human beings did not begin their evolution from a purely animal standpoint, but from a stage in which they still possessed the gift of clairvoyance as a natural ability. Human beings were clairvoyant in the past, even though they possessed a consciousness that was not yet capable of saying, “I am.” Human beings had to gradually acquire the capacity for self-consciousness; in exchange, however, they had to relinquish their old clairvoyance. In the future, a time will come again when all human beings will be clairvoyant, even though they will have retained the “I am,” that is, self-consciousness. These are the three stages that humanity has partly gone through and partly still has to go through. In Atlantis, people still lived in a kind of dream-like consciousness, but one that was clairvoyant. Then it came to pass that they gradually acquired self-consciousness—that is, an awareness of external objects—for which, however, they had to give up the old, dull gift of clairvoyance. And finally, in the future, human beings will possess a clairvoyant consciousness that is united with this self-consciousness. Thus, human beings pass from an ancient, dull form of clairvoyance through a non-clairvoyant object consciousness and ascend once more to a self-conscious form of clairvoyance.

[ 6 ] But besides consciousness, everything else in humanity has changed as well. It is truly nothing more than human shortsightedness to believe that the way things are today is the way they have always been. Everything has evolved. It wasn’t always this way. Even the relationship between people wasn’t always the way it is today.

[ 7 ] We have already been able to gather from the hints of the past few days that in ancient times, right up until the era when the Christ impulse entered human evolution, there was a much greater influence from soul to soul. People were predisposed to this. A person did not merely hear what the other person standing before them said in outwardly audible words; rather, when the other person felt something vividly and deeply, or thought something with great intensity, the person standing before them could, in a certain way, feel and know it. In earlier times, when love was admittedly more closely bound to blood kinship, it was still something quite different from what it is today. Today it has taken on a more soulful character, but it has grown weaker. It will only regain its strength when the Christ impulse enters all human hearts. When love was at work in ancient times, it simultaneously possessed a kind of healing, balm-like power for the other soul. With the development of the intellect and wisdom—which, after all, also formed only gradually—these ancient influences faded away from soul to soul.

[ 8 ] To influence the soul of another, to let the power one possessed within one’s own soul flow over into the other—that was a gift that was quite characteristic of the peoples of ancient times. Therefore, you must also consider a much greater power that was capable of receiving from soul to soul in those days, and a much greater influence that could be exerted from soul to soul. Even if no external historical records mention this, even if the stones and monuments say nothing, clairvoyant observation in the Akashic Records nevertheless shows us that in those ancient times, for example, the healing of the sick could take place on a vast scale through psychic influence from one person to another. And the soul was capable of much more in those days. What sounds like a fairy tale to people today—that the human will, for example, had the power, if one strove for it and trained oneself specifically for it, to have a soothing effect on plant growth, to accelerate or delay the growth of plants—was a fact in those times. Today, only scant remnants of all this remain.

[ 9 ] So human life was quite different back then. In ancient times, no one would have been surprised that, in certain circumstances—when the right relationship existed between people—such a spiritual influence could pass from one personality to another. However, we must note that it always required two or more people for such a spiritual influence to be exerted. One could indeed imagine, even in our time, a person stepping among humanity with the power of Christ. But those who possessed the strength of faith in him would be very few and far between, and he could not accomplish what can be achieved through spiritual influence from one soul to another. For this, it is not only necessary that the influence be exerted, but also that someone be present who is ready to receive it. If, in ancient times, there were more people capable of receiving such influences, it should come as no surprise to us when it is said that, back then, the very means used for healing the sick were those that operated through psychic influence; and that other effects, which today can occur only by mechanical means, were also brought about through psychic influence.

[ 10 ] When, then, did the Christ event occur within the course of human evolution? It occurred at a very specific time—we must keep this in mind. Of such soul currents flowing from one person to another, only the very last remnants remained, so to speak, still lingering from the Atlantean era like a heirloom. Humanity was just about to plunge ever more deeply into the material world and have ever less opportunity to allow such soul currents to take effect. It was into this context that the Christ impulse had to come, an impulse that, precisely through its very nature, could have an immeasurable effect on those who were still receptive to it.

[ 11 ] Anyone who truly understands the evolution of humanity will therefore find it self-evident that, once the Christ-Essence had entered the body of Jesus of Nazareth—at about the thirtieth year of his life—it was able to work in a very special way within that body, within that vessel. For this vessel had matured over the course of ancient times. We mentioned yesterday that the individuality of Jesus of Nazareth had already been incarnated once before in ancient Persia, that it had then passed through incarnation after incarnation, rising higher and higher in its spiritual development with each incarnation. It was on this that it depended that the Christ could dwell in such a body, that this body could be offered to him as a sacrifice. The evangelists knew this very well. That is why they presented everything in a way that is entirely understandable to the spiritual researcher.

[ 12 ] We simply have to take everything in the Gospels literally—that is, we must first learn to read them. Why, for example, is it emphasized—especially in the first of the signs (as I said, we will come to understand the deeper meaning of the miracles later)—in both accounts of the wedding at Cana in Galilee that this took place “at Cana in Galilee”? There is—you can search wherever you like—no other Cana in ancient Palestine, within the area that could have been known at the time. But is a special addition necessary for places that are unique? Why, then, does the evangelist say—when he comes to this miracle—that it took place “at Cana in Galilee”? Because it is important to emphasize that something happened there that had to happen in Galilee. That is to say, Christ would not have found the people necessary for this in any region other than Galilee itself. As I have already said, an effect does not depend solely on the one who brings it about, but also on the others who are suitably prepared to receive it. Christ could not have made his first appearance within the Jewish community itself, but he could have done so in Galilee, in that very place where the most diverse tribes and ethnic groups were intermingled. Precisely because people from the most diverse parts of the world had gathered in one place, precisely for that reason, here in Galilee there was no longer the same blood kinship—and above all, no longer the same belief in that blood kinship—as there was in Judea, among the more closely knit Hebrew people. The people of Galilee were a mixed bag. But to what, by virtue of his inner impulse, did the Christ feel particularly called?

[ 13 ] We have already said that one of his most important statements was: “Before Abraham was, I Am,” and the other: “I and the Father are one.” By this he meant to say: For those who cling to the old ways of life, the self finds security only within a blood relationship. But the one who was a true believer in the Old Testament felt something very special in the words, “I and Father Abraham are one”—something that is difficult for people today to comprehend. What a person calls their own self—that which is enclosed between birth and death—they see as passing away. But those who had a true commitment to the Old Testament—those who were moved by the teachings that flowed through humanity in those days—said, not merely as an allegorical statement but as a fact: “To myself, I am an individual, but I am a limb of a great organism, part of a vast web of life that extends all the way back to Father Abraham.” Just as the finger, as a living limb, can exist only as long as it is attached to my body, so too do I have meaning only as long as I feel that I am a limb of the great national organism that stretches back to Father Abraham. I am just as attached to this great national context as the finger is to my body. If the finger is severed, it is soon no longer a finger; it is safe only when it is attached to my hand, the hand to my arm, and the arm to my body—it has no purpose once it is separated from the hand. Likewise, I have meaning only when I feel myself to be a part of all the generations through which the blood of our father Abraham flows. That is when I feel secure! My individual self is temporary and fleeting, but this entire great national organism, stretching all the way back to our father Abraham, is not temporary. When I perceive myself entirely within it, when I feel myself entirely within it, then I overcome my temporary, fleeting self; then I find security in a great self, in the collective self of the people, which has flowed down through the blood of the generations from Father Abraham to me! So said the confessor of the Old Testament.

[ 14 ] Through the power of this inner experience, which is expressed in the words, “I and Father Abraham are one,” all the great events that still seem miraculous today within the Old Testament came to pass. But because the time came when people were no longer to be called to have such a state of consciousness, it was gradually lost. Christ therefore did not have to go to those who, on the one hand, had lost the ability to work through that magical power inherent in blood ties, and who, on the other hand, still had faith only in communion with Father Abraham. For among them he could not find the faith necessary to bring about what could flow from his soul into the souls of others; so he had to go to those who, through their intermingling of bloodlines, no longer possessed such faith—he had to go to the Galileans. This is where he had to begin his mission. Even though the old state of consciousness was generally on the wane, he found among them a mixture of peoples that was just at the beginning of racial mixing. Tribes were converging here from all sides, which, before this convergence, had still been subject to the forces of the old blood ties. They had just arrived to make the transition. They still harbored the vivid feeling within them: “Our fathers still possessed the old states of consciousness; they still possessed the magical powers that work from soul to soul.”—It was among them that he could carry out his new mission, which consisted of giving human beings a sense of self that is no longer bound by blood kinship—a sense of self that could say: Within myself I find the connection with the spiritual Father, with the Father who does not physically pass down his blood through the generations, but who sends his spiritual power into every single individual soul. The “I” that is within me and has a direct relationship with the spiritual Father existed before Abraham was. Therefore, I am called to infuse such a power into the “I,” a power that is strengthened by the awareness of the connection with the spiritual Father-power of the world. “I and the Father are one”—not “I and Father Abraham,” that is, a physical ancestor, are one.

[ 15 ] And Christ went to those who had just reached the point of understanding this—who needed not to find strength in the blood ties they were breaking through their intermingling, but rather to find within the individual soul the powerful force that can in turn lead human beings to gradually express the spiritual within the physical. Do not say: Why do we not see such things happening today as they did back then? Apart from the fact that anyone who wishes to see can see it, one must bear in mind that humanity has indeed moved beyond that state of consciousness, that it has descended into the material world, and that those times were precisely the turning point, when Christ demonstrated to the last representatives of evolving humanity what the spirit is capable of achieving through the physical. The signs that occurred at that time—when the old state of consciousness still existed but was already fading away—were established as a model and symbol, as a symbol of faith.

[ 16 ] Now let’s take a look at this wedding at Cana in Galilee itself. If I were to present to you here, word for word, all the details of the Gospel of John—that is, the actual content of the Gospel—then fourteen lectures would certainly not be enough; rather, it would take a few years. But all this verbatim exposition would merely serve to confirm what I can hint at to you in brief discussions.

[ 17 ] First, this first sign tells us: There was a wedding in Cana of Galilee. Now we must be aware that there is not a single word in the Gospel of John that does not have a special meaning. So why a “wedding”? Because a wedding brings about what the mission of Christ brings about in such a remarkable way: through a wedding, people are brought together. And a wedding “in Galilee”? It was in Galilee that the old blood ties were severed, that foreign blood mingled with foreign blood. But what Christ was to do was precisely connected with this mingling of blood. So we are dealing with a union among people—for the purpose of having offspring—of people who are no longer related by blood. Now, however, what I am about to tell you will seem quite wondrous to you. How would people in very ancient times have felt in a case such as the one described here, in times when what one might call, in the spiritual-scientific sense, “close marriage” still existed? For this is certainly part of human development: that an original “close marriage” has transformed into a “distant marriage.” And what “close marriage” is has already been expressed in what I have said so far. Among all peoples in ancient times, you will find that it would have been against a law of the people to marry outside the tribe, outside the blood kinship. Those who were blood relatives, who belonged to the same tribe, married one another; and this marriage within the same tribe, within the same bloodline, had the wondrous effect—which can be confirmed at any time through spiritual scientific research—that great magical power could be exerted. Through these kinship marriages, the descendants within a blood-related tribe possessed magical powers that worked from soul to soul. If we had been invited to a wedding in ancient times, what would have happened there? Let us suppose, for my sake, that the drink needed at that time—that is, the wine—had run out. What would have happened then? All that would have been needed was for the proper balance to exist within this blood-related wedding family through the bonds of kinship, and one could have experienced, through the magical power of blood kinship, that—for example—the water served later in the wedding celebration in place of wine would have been perceived by the others as wine due to the spiritual influence of these personalities. The others would have drunk wine if the right magical relationship between one personality and the others had existed. Don’t say: “But that wine would have been water anyway!” A reasonable person must answer this by saying: For human beings, things are what they communicate to the human organism—what they become to the person—not what they appear to be. I believe that even today, some wine lovers would be quite happy to be served water, if only some influence could cause the water to taste like wine and have the effect of wine on their bodies. After all, all that is necessary is for water to be wine to the person. So what was necessary in ancient times for such a miracle to occur—that there was water in the jars, yet it became wine when drunk? It was the magical power brought about by kinship that was necessary. But the power in people’s souls to perceive such a thing was present among the guests at the wedding in Cana in Galilee. All that was needed was to create a transition.

[ 18 ] The Gospel of John (2:1 ff.) continues: “And the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.” And when the wine ran out, Jesus’ mother brought this to his attention and said to him, “They have no wine.”

[ 19 ] A transition, I said, had to be created for something like this to happen. The spiritual power had to be supported by something. By what could it be supported? This brings us to the word that, as it is usually translated, is actually blasphemy. For I do not believe that a person of delicate sensibility could fail to find it unpleasant when he says, “You have no wine!” and is answered, “Woman, what have I to do with you? My hour has not yet come!” It is simply impossible for such language to be accepted in a text of this kind. Just imagine: the ideal of love, as depicted to us in the Gospels—Jesus of Nazareth—is supposed to have used the expression “Woman, what do I have to do with you?” in his relationship with his mother. There is no need to say more about it, for the rest must be felt. But those words are not there! Look at this passage in the Gospel of John. You need only open the Greek text; there you will find nothing more than the words spoken there, as Jesus of Nazareth alludes to something: “O woman, this is passing from me to you!” He is pointing precisely to this subtle, intimate power from soul to soul—what is passing from him to his mother. But he needs this at this very moment. He cannot yet perform a greater miracle at this moment; his time must first come to fruition. That is why he says: “My time, when I will act solely through a spiritual force, has not yet come!”—For now, the magnetic spiritual bond that passes from the soul of Jesus of Nazareth to his mother is still necessary. “O woman, this is passing from me to you!” How else could the mother, after hearing these words—“Woman, what have I to do with you?”—have come to say to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you”? It is necessary that she be endowed with the ancient powers of which people today have no inkling, and she knows that he is pointing to this blood bond between Son and Mother, pointing to the bond that is to lead over to the others. There she knows that something is now at work like an invisible spiritual force that can bring about something here. And now I ask you to actually read the Gospel. I would like to know how those who believe that something—yes, I don’t know what exactly—is supposed to have happened; who believe that six ordinary jars were standing there, as they say, “for Jewish purification,” and how, according to this entirely ordinary view—without anything else—which is precisely what has just been discussed—how the water was supposed to turn into wine, how that was supposed to have happened merely on the outside?!

[ 20 ] What is it? And likewise: What is the belief that the person speaking before you here holds regarding this miracle—the belief that anyone could possibly hold regarding a miracle, namely that one substance has been transformed into another for the sake of humanity? But a conventional interpretation does not suffice here.

[ 21 ] One must imagine that the jugs standing there were probably not filled with water. It is by no means certain that they had been emptied. That’s not stated there. But if they had been emptied and refilled—it says there that they were filled—then one would actually have to believe that this is what must have happened if the water had truly been turned into wine, so to speak, as if by a magician’s trick: that the water that had previously been inside would also have been turned into wine. So that doesn’t add up. The whole thing doesn’t add up. But one must be clear that these jars were obviously empty, and that they were empty for the reason that their being filled signified something special.

[ 22 ] “Do whatever he tells you,” the mother had said to the servants. Why did Christ need water? He needed water that had just come from the springs of nature. Therefore, it must be specifically noted that the water had just been drawn. Only that water—which had not yet lost the inner forces that any element possesses as long as it remains connected to nature—was suitable for his purpose. — As I said, not a single word in the Gospel of John is without deep meaning. — Water that had just been freshly drawn had to be used, for Christ is the Being who has just drawn near to the earth, who has just become united with the forces at work within the earth itself. As the living forces of the water interact in turn with what flows “from me to you,” what is described to us in the Gospel can take place: that the steward is summoned, and that he is under the impression that something special has happened here—but he does not know what has happened; it is explicitly stated: he did not see what happened; the servants saw it, not he—and that, under the impression of what had happened, he now perceives the water as wine. This is stated quite clearly and distinctly, so that the spiritual force has truly worked its way here into an external element—that is, into the physical body of the human being. What must have been present in the mother of Jesus of Nazareth herself for her faith to be strong enough at that moment to bring about such an effect? She must have possessed something that was indeed present within her, namely, the realization that the one who was called her son had become the Spirit of the Earth. Then, in turn, her strong power of faith, in conjunction with his strong power—which acts from him to her—could work so powerfully that what is described actually took place.

[ 23 ] Thus, in the first sign, through the entire constellation of circumstances, we have shown how, out of the harmony of souls—out of what is still bound up with blood ties—an influence is exerted upon the physical world. It was the first sign that occurred, in which the power of Christ is revealed to the very least degree. It still required reinforcement through its connection with the mother’s soul forces, and it required reinforcement through the forces still united with nature in the water—forces that remain within it when the water has just been drawn. Here, the active power of the Christ-being is revealed to us to the greatest extent. But particular emphasis is placed on the fact that the Christ-power works over into the other soul and, from this other soul—which is suited to it—brings about effects. This is the essential point: that the Christ-power has precisely the power to make the other soul suitable, so that the effects occur. It had made the wedding guests receptive so that they, too, perceived the water as wine. But any force that is truly a force strengthens itself through its own effect. Since Christ must exercise this power a second time, it is already stronger. Just as the simplest force is strengthened through practice, so too is a spiritual force strengthened, especially once it has been successfully applied.

[ 24 ] The second of the signs, as you know from the Gospel of John, is the healing of the son of a royal centurion. By what means is the son of the royal centurion healed? Here, too, you will only recognize the truth if you read the Gospel of John with due care, focusing on the words that are most important in the chapter in question. In verse 50 of chapter 4, after the centurion has told Jesus of Nazareth about his suffering, it says:

“Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your son is alive.’ The man believed the words Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.”

[ 25 ] Once again, there were two souls in harmony: the soul of Christ and the soul of the Father of the Son. And how does the word of Christ—“Go; your son lives”—work? It works by kindling in the other soul the power to believe what was spoken as such a word. These two powers worked together. The word of Christ had the power to kindle the other soul in such a way that the centurion believed. If the man had not believed, the son would not have been healed. This is how one power acts upon the other. It takes two. Here, however, we already have a higher degree of Christ’s power. At the wedding in Cana, it still needed to be reinforced by the Mother’s power in order to be effective at all. Now the time has come when Christ’s power can pour the igniting word into the centurion’s soul. There is an increase in Christ’s power.

[ 26 ] Let us now turn to the third of the signs: the healing of the man who had been ill for thirty-eight years at the Pool of Bethesda. Here again, we must read the most important word, which sheds light on the whole matter. This is the passage that reads:

“Jesus said to him, ‘Get up, take your mat, and walk!’” (5:8)

[ 27 ] The patient had said earlier, when speaking of his need to stay in bed, that he could not move:

“Sir, I have no one to let me into the pool when the water stirs; and when I try to get in, someone else goes down before me.” (5:7)

[ 28 ] But Christ says to him—and this, in turn, is important: it is on the Sabbath, when there is a festive atmosphere everywhere, a time of the highest expression of love for humanity—and he expresses what he wants to say with the words: “Get up, take your mat, and walk!” (5:8). And we must consider this statement together with the other thing he says to him, which is just as important:

“See that you are well; sin no more, lest something worse happen to you.” (5:14)

[ 29 ] What does that mean? It means that the illness of the man who had been sick for thirty-eight years was connected to his sin. Whether this sin was committed in this life or in a previous one is not something we wish to discuss now. For us, the point is this: Christ poured into his soul the power to do something that reaches into the moral and spiritual nature of the other person. Here we see, once again, an intensification of the Christ-force. Previously, it was merely a matter of something intended to have an effect that brought about a physical result. But now there is an illness of which the Christ Himself says that it is connected to the sick person’s sin. At this moment, the Christ knows how to intervene in the sick person’s own soul. Before, the Father was still needed; now the Christ-force acts within the sick person’s soul, which takes on a special significance because it happens on the Sabbath. People today no longer have a true sense for such things. For a believer in the Old Testament, however, the fact that it happened on the Sabbath carried special significance. It was something quite extraordinary. That is why the Jews were particularly agitated about the sick man, because he carried his mat on the Sabbath. This is an extraordinarily important detail. People should learn to think when they read the Gospels! They should not take it for granted that the sick man could be healed, that the one who had been unable to walk for thirty-eight years is now walking; they should reflect on a passage such as this:

“Then the Jews said to the man who had been healed, ‘Today is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.’” (5:10)

[ 30 ] What struck them was not that he had been healed, but that he was carrying his mat on the Sabbath! Thus, the healing of this sick man involved the entire situation—performing the miracle precisely on the holy day. Christ Himself holds this thought: If the Sabbath is truly to be holy to God, then souls must possess a special strength on this day through the power of God. Through this strength, He works upon the one standing before Him—that is, it is transferred to the sick man’s own soul. And whereas the sick man had previously found no strength within his soul capable of overcoming the consequences of sin, he now possesses this strength through the working of Christ’s power. Yet another increase in Christ’s power.

[ 31 ] And now let’s move on. As I said, we’ll discuss the true nature of miracles later.

[ 32 ] The fourth of the signs is the feeding of the five thousand. Here, too, we must focus on the most important word. And what is that? — In such matters, one must always bear in mind that one must not view such an event through the lens of modern consciousness. If those who wrote about Christ at the time the Gospel of John was written had believed what our materialistic age believes today, they would indeed have written differently; for then they would have noticed things other than what they actually noticed. - But the most important word—the others do not particularly stand out to them, nor does the fact that five thousand can be fed with the little that is there—the word that is particularly emphasized is this:

“But Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and gave them to the disciples; and the disciples gave them to those who were seated. He did the same with the fish, giving them as much as they wanted.” (6:11)

[ 33 ] What, then, is Christ Jesus doing here? To accomplish what was to happen, he makes use of the souls of his disciples—those who were with him, who had gradually matured to match his greatness. They are part of this. They are gathered around him; within them he can now awaken a spiritual power of healing. His power flows out into the souls of the disciples. We will speak later about how what happened here could have come to pass. But here, too, we again observe an intensification of his power. Previously, he had allowed his power to flow into the soul of the man who had been ill for thirty-eight years. Now, however, his power is working its way into the souls of the disciples. Here we see that tension of forces radiating outward, flowing from the soul of the Lord to the souls of the disciples. The power has expanded from the soul of one to the souls of the others. The power has grown stronger. Thus, what lives in the soul of Christ is already alive in the souls of the disciples as well.

[ 34 ] If people were to ask, “What happens as a result of such an influence?”—then they should simply turn to experience. They should try to observe what happened when the powerful force that was in Christ did not act alone, but rather ignited that force in the souls of other people, so that it continued to work through them. There are no people today who believe so vividly—perhaps they believe theoretically, but not with sufficient strength. Only then, however, could they observe what happens there. Spiritual science knows very well what happens there.

[ 35 ] Thus we have a gradual intensification of the Christ-force from stage to stage.

[ 36 ] And further: the fifth of the signs, which is recounted in the same chapter and begins:

“That evening, the disciples went down to the sea, got into the boat, and set out across the sea toward Capernaum. It was already dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them.

And the sea was rough because of a strong wind.

After they had rowed about twenty-five or thirty stadia, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat; and they were afraid.” (6:16–19)

[ 37 ] Those who have the Gospels printed today, for example, give them a highly superfluous title such as: “Jesus Walks on the Sea,” as if that were written anywhere in this chapter. Where does it say, “Jesus Walks on the Sea”? It says: “The disciples saw Jesus walking on the sea. ” That is all. We must take the Gospels literally. The Christ-power has just grown stronger once again! It had become so strong through the natural strengthening gained during the practice of the previous deeds that now not only could the Christ-power work from one soul to another—not only could the Christ-soul impart its powers to other souls—but Christ Himself could live in His own form before the soul of another who was suited for it. So the event is this: Someone is in one place, and his power is so strong that it affects people who are far away. But the Christ-power now acts with such strength that it does not merely trigger a power in the disciples, as it did in those who had camped with him on the mountain; there, the power had merely passed on to the disciples to perform the miracle. Now they have the power—even though they cannot see with their physical eyes where Christ is—to see Christ and behold his very form. Christ could become visible from a distance to those with whom his soul had already formed a bond. Now his very form has reached a point where it can be seen spiritually. The moment the disciples’ ability to see physically fades, their ability to see spiritually emerges all the more, and they see the Christ. Yet seeing from a distance is such that one has the image of the object as if it were in immediate proximity. Once again, an increase in the power of the Christ. The next sign is the healing of the man born blind.

[ 38 ] This healing of the man born blind, as it appears in the Gospel of John, is now, in turn, being particularly distorted. You may have read this story in the Gospel many times:

“As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’

Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” (9:1–3)

[ 39 ] And then he heals him. One need only ask: Is it really a Christian way of thinking to interpret it this way: Here is a man born blind. It was not his parents who sinned so that he was born blind, nor did he himself sin, but he was made blind by God so that Christ might come and perform a miracle for the glory of God. So, in order for an effect to be attributed to God, the person in question first had to be made blind by God! But this is simply a misreading. It does not say at all that “the works of God were to be revealed in this blind man.”

[ 40 ] If we want to understand this sign, we must go back to the linguistic usage of the word “God.” You will find this most easily by turning to another chapter where Christ is directly accused of claiming that he is one with God. How does he respond?

“Jesus answered them, ‘Is it not written in your Law, “I have said, ‘You are gods’?”’ (10:34)

[ 41 ] In other words, Christ answers: In the innermost depths of the human soul lies the potential for divinity. It is something divine. How often have we stated that the fourth element of human being is the potential for the divine within the human being. “You are gods!”—that is to say: something divine dwells within you! This divine element is something other than the human being, other than the person as he lives here between birth and death; it is also something other than what a person has inherited from his parents. Where does this divine element, this individuality of the human being, come from? It passes from one incarnation to the next, through repeated earthly lives. This individuality comes from a previous earthly life, from a previous incarnation. So: it was not his parents who sinned, nor was it his personality, which we usually call the “I.” But in a previous life, this person laid the cause for being born blind in this life. He has become blind because the workings of the God within him, carried over from a previous life, manifest themselves in his blindness. Karma, the law of cause and effect, is clearly and unambiguously indicated here by Christ Jesus. So what must be addressed now if this illness is to be healed? The effort must be directed not toward the transitory “I” that lives between birth and death, but the forces must penetrate deeper—into the “I” that passes from life to life. The Christ-force has once again intensified. Until now, we have seen that it has acted only upon that which stands opposed to it. Now it acts upon that which survives human life between birth and death, that which passes from life to life. Christ perceives himself as the representative of the “I Am.” By pouring his power into the “I Am”—thus allowing the high God of Christ to communicate with the God within the human being—the human being receives the power to heal themselves from within. Now the Christ has penetrated into the innermost essence of the soul. His power has worked into the eternal individuality of the sick person and has strengthened it by the fact that the Christ’s own power manifests within the sick person’s individuality and thereby also works its way into the consequences of past incarnations.

[ 42 ] What further intensification is there now for the Christ-force? The only increase is that Christ draws near to a person and awakens within them that which in turn awakens his own impulse in the other person, so that the other person receives the Christ-force in such a way that his entire being is permeated by it, and he becomes a different person—a person permeated by Christ. This is what happens in the raising of Lazarus! Here we see yet another intensification of the Christ-force. The Christ-force intensifies from stage to stage.

[ 43 ] Where in the world can you find a lyrical work so magnificently composed! No other writers have produced such compositions. Who could fail to bow in awe when the events are described here in such a way that they build from one level to the next in such a marvelous manner! If we consider the Gospel of John solely from the perspective of its artistic composition, we must bow before it in awe. Here, everything rises from one level to the next and builds in intensity.

[ 44 ] There is one more thing left for us to show. We must ask ourselves: We have singled out individual examples that illustrate the increasing intensity of the signs and wonders. There are also many other events in between. How do they fit into the bigger picture?

[ 45 ] Tomorrow, our task will be to show that the Gospel of John not only contains an admirable build-up in its accounts of miracles, but that all the other intervening passages are woven into the narrative with a specific purpose, so that one can clearly see that it could not have been composed any better than the writer of the Gospel of John did.

[ 46 ] Today we have examined the Gospel of John from an artistic perspective with regard to its composition, and we see that it is truly hard to imagine a work of art that is more artistically perfect in its composition and more beautifully presented than the Gospel of John up to its account of the raising of Lazarus.

[ 47 ] But only those who can read and know what is essential can sense the great, profound meaning of the Gospel of John. Theosophy today is called upon to bring this great meaning before our souls. But there is even more to be found in this Gospel of John. Our remarks will be followed by explanations of the Gospel of John, and these, in turn, will contain a higher wisdom than our own. But their wisdom will, in turn, serve to uncover new truths, just as our wisdom has served us for thirty years to uncover that which cannot be discovered without theosophy.