The Response of Christ Jesus
to Being Tormented and Crucified

Adrian Anderson, Rudolf Steiner 2021, 1910

This is perhaps the most important lecture (fragment) ever recorded in the effort toward understanding what Christ accomplished in His sacrifice for humanity. ~Anthony

In the Steiner Archives is located a priceless document, identified as notes of a lecture given in 1910, in Stockholm, about the Reappearing of Jesus in the ethers. A full transcript was not made of this special talk, but the sacred core of it was noted down. [1] The lecture is about the gifts of Christ Jesus to human beings, which assist the spiritual renewal of humanity; that is the inner spiritual awakening that occurs as a result of the Reappearing of Jesus in the ethers; the so-called Second Coming. These acts of Grace are revealed as His response to being tormented and crucified, long ago on Golgotha hill. The implied spiritual dynamics which Rudolf Steiner refers to as the result of the Reappearing of Jesus, have not exerted their full impact. One reason for this is that the proclamation of these truths, which would have awakened people to this influence from the ethers, which Rudolf Steiner forecast would happen in the 1930's, did not happen. [2] There is, of course, the possibility that such spiritual influences from Christ could perhaps manifest in a later century. In any event, it is very helpful to include these deeply inspired words. These notes are brief and include some cryptic phrases; so some comments are added in brackets, for clarity. Also the terms 'Jesus Christ' and 'Christ Jesus' are used interchangeably.

Jesus Christ was wrongly judged and convicted by people. But with Christ there is no such thing as revenge, for He brings into the world the dissolving of the principle of revenge. Thus judging and convicting, from the viewpoint of Christ Jesus, means that He shall awaken the conscience of humanity upon His reappearing. He shall then have the possibility to undertake a step, which shall call forth in humanity the conscience, the first dawning light of the reappearing to humanity's awareness of Jesus Christ will be a radiance of elemental feelings of conscience. These feelings shall take hold of humanity's consciousness with elemental power. As a result, without people knowing from whence it comes, there shall arise in their souls feelings of shame. So, poetically one could say, the first signs of the dawn of the reappearing of Christ to humanity's consciousness shall be the reddish blue of shame.

In this way people shall experience with irresistible power their disappointment in the values which they regarded so highly, as the true and the beautiful. And thus they shall have to experience a reversal of all the values or priorities in their souls. The soul in the After-life, in Kamaloca, has to experience a reversal of all their values or priorities because they then are existing within the rays of the 'cosmic conscience'. In a similar way, so shall humanity now have to experience a reversal of all the values or priorities in life, because they shall experience the efficacy of the Christ in the spacial world. This influence of Christ shall become efficacious in space, in the horizontal dynamic. [3]

And if Christ Jesus was whipped in the past and crowned with thorns, then this signifies now that He shall not only awaken the conscience of humanity but also that He shall gently touch this conscience. Just as He then experienced whipping, so shall He now gently touch humanity; that is, those people who experience doubt about the deeper meaning of life.

He shall gently touch their souls, so that they may be imbued with solace and courage. This gentle touching of the soul, to let in courage for a new creative impulse is the result of the flogging {which He received}. As a result, there shall be people who say, "We are starting radiantly anew, for everything that was already created cannot withstand this light." It is as if the first deed of creation from within the human being should begin. People shall receive this courage not from out of themselves, but from the gentle touching which emanates forth from Christ.

And if He was crowned with thorns in the past, He shall consequently give tasks to individuals and groups of people as to how they are to serve His work. He shall crown humanity with love-imbued duties. There exists in the world the idea of duty. This sense of pure duty shall sometime bring humanity into catastrophe. For everything evil that is brought into the world, people do through this sense of duty {for duty's sake}. But from Christ Jesus shall 'love-duties' be distributed, to individuals and groups of people, when the etheric Reappearing occurs. Then a colossus shall fall, for instead of duty, love-deeds shall be the task that needs to be done.

And if in the past the Christ had to carry His Cross, upon which He was to be crucified, thus shall the Christ as He reappears in the ether, heal people from their afflictions so that destiny healings can proceed from Him, so that people who bear their cross, shall have the power to carry it through a soul-physical healing.

(The expression "destiny healings" ('Schicksalsheilungen') appears to refer to situations wherein people become healed because, with help from the Saviour, the past karmic causes, or current personal errors in attitudes and mind-set, responsible for their illness, have been realized, acknowledged and balanced out.)

And when in the past, Christ Jesus was crucified, whereby He proclaimed, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do", then in these words there is also contained what His Will actually is; namely in the space which is granted to Him, to exert an influence, so that, as a karmic result of the Crucifixion, people shall know what they are doing.

(The expression, "karmic result of the Crucifixion" refers to the new situation that the Saviour, as an act of Grace, seeks to so transform the dynamics of karma that, instead of Himself seeking to be compensated for the wrongs He suffered, He shall exert an influence in people's souls that enhances their consciousness, so that people today become aware of the consequences of what they are doing — especially in regard to important spiritual obligations and opportunities. This deed of the Saviour stands there, as the example of how to transform the 'eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth' dynamic of karma, into one of good-will for one's enemies. Rudolf Steiner elsewhere revealed that, as of the mid-twentieth century, Christ Jesus has become the 'Lord of Karma'. That is, He is now taking up the task of helping human beings to realize what their karmic dynamics are, and how to best work with these, for the benefit of humanity.)

The karmic result of the fact that Christ Jesus was {bound and} crucified shall be that, humanity is not just {having to exist as if} bound up, and as if crucified (in earthly life) — but that their eyes shall be opened, so that a new clairvoyance shall be aroused through Christ Jesus, so that humanity shall know and see what they do. A karmic clairvoyance shall arise; a seeing of karma {of karmic consequences of what we do}. When people of today do something they do not know what shall be its karmic consequence. But people of the near future shall know this; they shall know what they do. Karmic clairvoyance is the answer of the Christ to His being crucified, which happened because people did not know what they did.

Thus does the Christ transform the negative into the positive. In the etheric reappearing of the Christ, there shall be responses of these kinds, to the type of treatment which He experienced when He lived as a man amongst humanity.

Notes

  1. ◬ Some small fragments of texts from Steiner, often privately shared by members, were at times thought to originate from one of his students. The text was published in a book by V. Tomberg, but I conclude that it comes from Rudolf Steiner, and was given in, or privately after, the lecture in Stockholm on 12 January, 1910. Officially recorded (in the H. Schmidt Register) as a Members-only lecture, "The Appearance of Christ in the Etheric". The lecture report does not include this fragment, but some lecture notes are incomplete; also more esoteric sections of lectures were at times withheld from publication.

  2. ◬ It appears that this was due to the tragically premature death of Rudolf Steiner, who forecast that the Reappearing of Jesus in the ethers would be proclaimed extensively in the 1930's; but his premature death prevented this.

  3. ◬ The very brief expression, "the horizontal dynamic" ("Wirkung des Christus im Raume, in der Horizontal..."), is at first quite puzzling, but it becomes understandable through a section of Rudolf Steiner's Foundation Stone Meditation,

    ...For efficacious is the Christ-will from horizon to horizon, bestowing Grace on the soul in the rhythms fo the cosmos...

    In the lecture Rudolf Steiner gave when he introduced this meditation he explained,

    The Christ-power which is efficacious throughout the periphery of the horizon, which weaves in and through the streams of air, circling around the Earth, and which actively has an influence within our breathing system.

    As I wrote in The Foundation Stone Meditation — a New Commentary:

    We noted earlier that the three sections invoke a kind of world-cross. Forces from the Father-God arise up from inside the Earth, and forces from the Holy Spirit descend. Here in this middle section {of the large verse}, forces are efficacious on us horizontally. So, then one has to extend this idea of the over-arching firmament or periphery of the globe into the human existential sphere. From the viewpoint of a person living on the surface of the Earth, this periphery is the current horizon merging into a succession of changing horizons that curve downwards ahead of you, and ot the left and right as well, as one imagines a movement across the surface of the Earth.

    The expression, 'from horizon unto horizon' accurately translates the primary meaning of the word here. As Rudolf Steiner explained in lectures on art, "the human being experiences the circumference-periphery (Umkresis) of the Earth with the middle section {of one's corporeal being}; the {heart} area, with the feelings." (GA 291, 2 June 1923). This middle section of the great verse appeals to the refining of our feelings. The ambiguous word 'feelings' has both meanings here. The emotions or desires, and also sensing with the body's sense organs of either the physical or etheric worlds.

    So, this expression, "the horizontal dynamic" here, is saying that humanity, if people so will, shall be experiencing inner guidance and help from Christ Jesus, but in addition to this, on a deeper level, subtle influences from the cosmic Christ, who dwells within the planet's aura. These influences shall have an effect in the emotions, as emotional uplift and insights, or as a subtle feeling-sensing, which creates a delicate 'atmosphere', like a half-remembered dream. The new festival cycle which Rudolf Steiner laid the foundation for, in his lectures on the spiritual influences active in the seasons, are intended to help people to develop a sensitivity to the Christ-influence. The experience of Jesus Christ in the ether can also be more powerful, more directly cognized; it depends on the person and the situation.

Source: Rudolf Steiner's Esoteric Christianity in the Grail Painting by Anna May, pg. 94+ by Adrian Anderson, PhD

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