Christ Module 8 - Resurrection

From Free Man Creator

For many the Resurrection is central to Christianity. However, and remarkably, in the one, three, five main introductory lectures that Rudolf Steiner gave on the Mystery of Golgotha, that theme was not even touched on. Instead focus was on the unification of humanity (see also Christ Module 1 - Unification of humanity).

As will become clear through these study modules, the 'unification of humanity' can be seen as the 'what' essence of Christianity, the 'resurrection' is a key to the 'how'.

To understand the resurrection, not only as a 'one-off historical event' but as a 'cosmic event with consequences for the whole of humanity' requires an understanding of the true nature of the Human physical body. Today we mainly consider our mineral physical matter as our body, but in fact the true physical body it is a spiritual body that originates from the Old Saturn planetary stage. As such it is the oldest of Man's bodily principles, and was adapted in every planetary stage to accomodate the higher principles, resulting in the miraculously complex structures of our body today. We need to distinguish that spiritual structure from the mineral matter with which this form was filled. The spiritual structure is referred to by the (rather unfortunate) terms 'phantom' or 'resurrection body'.

A second key to understanding is to realize the impact of the Luciferic influence on Man that happened in the Lemurian epoch. That influence brought good things to Man, such as true freedom, as opposed to being dependent on the guidance of higher spiritual beings. However, it also caused an infection of the human astral body, but also - as these influences work their way downward - of the etheric body and physical body. This means that these bodies require cleansing or purification in order to re-acquire their purely spiritual characteristics (see the process of Initiation or Man's transformation and spiritualization.

In Christ-Jesus this happened for the first time, and not just a singular human level, but at a cosmic level because of the Christ. This is why Christ-Jesus could 're-appear' after his death at Golgotha in the resurrection body. The detailed interpretation of this event is one area of study.

The other aspect is the investigation what its implications are for mankind as a whole, and yourself in particular.

Aspects

Therefore the scope of this module encompasses:

Encounters after Christ-Jesus' death and resurrection

Submodule 8.1 - Human physical body and Cleansed phantom (or resurrection body)

  • Encounters after Christ-Jesus' death and resurrection:
    • Christ taught in a spiritual body or a 'resurrection body': the etheric body condensed to physical visibility, and so condensed it could be touched by Thomas (which cannot be the case with an ordinary etheric body). This was a different body from the physical one, hence Mary Magdalene and others did not recognize it at first. (1911-08-30-GA265A)
    • Mary Magdalena had known Christ-Jesus in the physical body (=the earlier Phantom permeated by earthly elements), she did not recognize clairvoyantly the same form in the Phantom, now freed from terrestrial gravity. (1911-10-12-GA131). She recognizes him when she 'hears' him speak, so to speak. (1912-01-09-GA130, hears here between quotes as clairvoyant cognition is meant)
    • Christ-Jesus was not visible to everyone like this. (1912-01-09-GA130)
    • the wounds on the body when Thomas touches do not mean this was the same body that had turned to dust: in places where there is a physical wound, the etheric body contracts in that area and forms a kind of scar. "And in the particularly contracted etheric body, from which the components for the new etheric body with which the Christ being clothed itself were taken, these wounds were made visible, were particularly dense places, so that even Thomas could feel that there was a reality there." (1912-01-09-GA130). See also stigmata.
    • overview appearances in the Gospels and Paul's Letters to Corinthians
      • near the tomb: Mary Magdalene (John 20:11–18; Mark 16:9), then Mary (mother of James) and Salome (Matthew 28:9–10)
      • Peter (Simon) (Luke 24:34; 1 Corinthians 15:5)
      • two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Cleopas and companion) (Luke 24:13–35)
      • ten apostles - without Thomas: Jesus appears in a locked room and shows them his wounds (John 20:19–23; Luke 24:36–43)
      • all apostles - including Thomas: one week later. Thomas sees and believes (John 20:26–29)
      • at the Sea of Galilee, after miraculous catch of fish (John 21:1–14)
      • apostles on a Mountain in Galilee (Matthew 28:16–20)
      • large group appearance, 500 brethren at once (1 Corinthians 15:6 - only Paul mentions this, not in the Gospels)
      • James (the Lord’s brother) (1 Corinthians 15:7)
      • all disciples at Ascension (Luke 24:50–53; Acts 1:3–9)

other

Inspirational quotes

1 Cor. 15:54

"Death has been swallowed up in victory. "

1914-07-16-GA155

.. the resurrection of the body is a reality ... [on Future Jupiter] .. we shall rise again in the body, in the earthly body that has condensed out of the separate incarnations

see extract on: Future Jupiter#1914-07-16-GA155

Lecture coverage and references

Paul - First Epistle to the Corinthians - 1 Cor. 15:54

50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed -

52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.

54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

55 “Where, O death, is your victory?

   Where, O death, is your sting?”

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

1912-01-09-GA130

... one might say that Thomas was challenged by the risen Christ, when He appeared to the disciples, to feel the scars with his hands ... then it must be supposed that the scars were still there — that Christ had come to the disciples with the same body which had been resolved to dust.

No! Imagine that some one has a wound: then the etheric body contracts in a special way and forms a kind of scar.

And in the specially contracted ether body, from which were drawn the constituents of the new ether body with which the Christ clothed Himself, these wound-marks were made visible — were peculiarly thickened spots ... so that even Thomas could feel that he was dealing with a reality.

This is a remarkable passage in the occult sense. It does not in any way contradict the fact that we have to do with an etheric body, condensed to visibility by the Christ force; and that then also the Emmaus scene could occur. We find it described in the Gospel, not as an ordinary receiving of nourishment, but a dissolution of the food directly by the etheric body, through the Christ forces, without the cooperation of the physical body.

1915-06-15-GA159

Solovyov's quote of and the strength of the words of Saint-Paul is provided with commentary

If Christ had not risen the world would be senseless, therefore Christ has risen

Daskalos in MOS

SWCC, in the context of materialization

`When Jesus was resurrected, did He dematerialize Himself?'

Certainly. He dematerialized his body completely.

You may ask, had He not dematerialized Himself before? No. He put His body in a state of sleep somewhere and then carried out his OBE (exomatosis). He would then collect etheric matter and materialize a new body which became visible.

After the Resurrection it was something quite different. He dissolved every cell of his material body. He became spirit, absolute spirit, and could at any moment, as a complete self-conscious personality, recon­struct a body identical to the physical body he had before, even with the marks of the wounds from the Crucifixion.

This is different from OBE (exomatosis).

An advanced Master will be able to know this when he materializes himself while he is still in a physical body. When such a Master dies he may be able to materialize his body anywhere on the planet. There is a great difference.

Encounters after the resurrection

this follows after Cross at Golgotha#Earthquake and body of Jesus after burial, and so several excerpts below have a longer extract on that page with what preceeded

1911-08-30-GA265A

After his death, the Christ taught in a spiritual body that had been formed for that specific purpose. This was the same body that was seen by Paul and that was drawn together for this purpose.

We will be able to see this same body in the etheric world before the end of this century.

The physical body that was laid in the grave dematerialized to such an extent that it spread over the whole Earth, and therefore no body was found in the grave when it was sought there. The resurrection body was the etheric body, which could be so condensed by Christ that Thomas could touch it, which cannot be the case with an ordinary etheric body.

The fact that it was a different body from the physical one is indicated in the Gospel by the fact that Mary Magdalene and others did not recognize it at first.

1911-10-10-GA131

Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran, and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.’ Peter then came out with the other disciple, and they went towards the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first; and stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and he went into the tomb; he saw the linen cloths lying, and the napkins, which had been on his head, not lying with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not know the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes.

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ Saying this, she turned and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus.

  • Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?’
  • Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away.’
  • Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’
  • She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabboni!’ (which means Teacher).
  • Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’

Here is a situation described in such detail that if we wish to picture it in imagination there is hardly anything lacking—when, for example, it is said that the one disciple runs faster than the other, or that the napkin which had covered the head was laid aside in another place, and so on. In every detail something is described which would have no meaning if it did not refer to a fact. Attention was drawn on a former occasion to one detail, that Mary did not recognise Christ Jesus, and we asked how was it possible that after three days anyone could fail to recognise in the same form a person previously known. Hence we had to note that Christ appeared to Mary in a changed form, or these words would have no meaning.

Here, therefore, a distinction must be kept in mind.

  • First, we have to understand the Resurrection as a translation into historic fact of the awakening that took place in the holy Mysteries of all times, only with the difference that he who in the Mysteries raised up the individual pupil was the hierophant; while the Gospels indicate that He who raised up Christ is the Being whom we designate as the Father—that the Father Himself raised up the Christ. Here we are shown that what had formerly been carried out on a small scale in the depths of the Mysteries was now and once for all enacted for humanity by Divine Spirits, and that the Being who is designated as the Father acted as hierophant in the raising to life of Christ Jesus. Thus we have here, enhanced to the highest degree, something which formerly had taken place on a small scale in the Mysteries. That is the first point.
  • The other is that, interwoven with matters which carry us back to the Mysteries, there are descriptions so detailed that even today we can reconstruct from the Gospels the situations even to their minute particulars, as we have just seen in the passage read to you. But this passage includes one detail that calls for particular attention. There must be a meaning in the words, ‘For they did not as yet know the Scripture, that He must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes.’ Let us ask: Of what had the disciples been able so far to convince themselves? It is described as clearly as anything can be that the linen wrappings are there, but the body is not there, is no longer in the grave. The disciples had not been able to convince themselves of anything else, and they understood nothing else when they now went home. Otherwise the words have no meaning. The more deeply you enter into the text, the more you must say that the disciples who were standing by the grave were convinced that the linen wrappings were there, but that the body was no longer in the grave. They went home with the thought: ‘Where has the body gone? Who has taken it out of the grave?’

And now, from the conviction that the body is not there, the Gospels lead us slowly to the events through which the disciples were finally convinced of the Resurrection. How were they convinced? Through the fact that, as the Gospels relate, Christ appeared to them by degrees, so that they could say, ‘He is there!’, and this went so far that Thomas, called the Doubter, could lay his finger in the prints of the wounds. In short, we can see from the Gospels that the disciples became convinced of the Resurrection through Christ having come to them after it as the Risen One. The proof for the disciples was that He was there. And if these disciples, who had gradually come to the conviction that Christ was alive, although He had died, had been asked what they actually believed, they would have said: ‘We have proofs that Christ lives.’ But they certainly would not have spoken as Paul spoke later, after he had gone through his experience on the road to Damascus.

Anyone who allows the Gospels and the Pauline Epistles to work upon him will notice the deep underlying difference between the fundamental tone of the Gospels as regards the understanding of the Resurrection, and the Pauline conception of it.

Paul, indeed, draws a parallel between his conviction of the Resurrection and that of the Gospels, for in saying ‘Christ is risen’, he indicates that Christ, after He had been crucified, appeared as a living Being to

  • Cephas,
  • to the Twelve,
  • then to five hundred brethren at one time;
  • and last of all to himself, Paul, as to one born out of due time, Christ had appeared from out of the fiery glory of the Spiritual.

Christ had appeared to the disciples also; Paul refers to that, and the events lived through with the Risen One were the same for Paul as they had been for the disciples. But what Paul immediately joins to these, as the outcome for him of the event of Damascus, is his wonderful and easily comprehensible theory of the Being of Christ.

What, from the event of Damascus onwards, was the Being of Christ for Paul? The Being of Christ was for him the ‘Second Adam’; and he immediately differentiates between the first Adam and the second Adam, the Christ.

1911-10-12-GA131

see also: Cross at Golgotha#1911-10-12-GA131

and also: Cleansed phantom#1911-10-12-GA131

Hence the disciples who looked into the grave found the linen cloths in which the body had been wrapped, but the Phantom, on which the evolution of the I depends, had risen from the grave.

It is not surprising that Mary of Magdala,

.... who had known only the earlier Phantom when it was permeated by earthly elements,

... did not recognise the same form in the Phantom, now freed from terrestrial gravity, when she saw it clairvoyantly. It seemed to her different.

1912-01-09-GA130

see also: Cross at Golgotha#1912-01-09-GA130

So, the risen Christ was enveloped in an etheric body condensed to physical visibility; and thus, He went about and appeared to those to whom He could appear.

He was not visible to everyone, because it was actually only a condensed etheric body which the Christ bore after the resurrection; but that which had been placed in the grave disintegrated and became dust."

The point here is that this was not the typical etheric body that dissolves at death back into the cosmos. It was "not visible to everyone"!

and

I have often pointed out that Mary Magdalene did not recognize Christ when he met her. Who would dare to recognize someone they had seen only a few days before, especially if that person was as important as Christ Jesus? When it is said that Mary Magdalene did not recognize him, he must have appeared to her in a different form. She only recognizes him when she hears him speak, so to speak. Then she becomes attentive.

and furthermore (machine translation of DE extract)

... all the details in the Gospels are perfectly understandable to us in occult terms. But someone might say: Thomas was asked by the risen Lord, who appeared to the disciples, to put his hands into the wounds. That would presuppose that these were still there, that Christ came to the disciples with the same body that had turned to dust.

No!

Imagine that someone has a wound: the etheric body contracts particularly in that area and forms a kind of scar. And in the particularly contracted etheric body, from which the components for the new etheric body with which the Christ being clothed itself were taken, these wounds were made visible, were particularly dense places, so that even Thomas could feel that there was a reality there. This spot is a really amazing place in an occult sense. This doesn't contradict that we're dealing with an etheric body that's been condensed to the point of visibility by the power of Christ, and that the Emmaus scene can then happen. We find it described in the Gospel in such a way that it is not an ordinary intake of food, but a dissolution of what has been eaten directly through the etheric body, through the forces of Christ, without the participation of the physical body.

Discussion

Music

Gustav Mahler

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) wrote his second symphony, unofficially called 'Resurrection', in the period 1889-1895. The dynamic of destruction and redemption is developed from the first movement (with memories of life of the deceased), to the resolution of the finale. Halfway through the final movement, the choir comes in with the words: ‘Rise again! Yes, rise again will you, my dust, after a short rest!’ Mahler borrowed the first eight lines of Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock’s poem 'Die Aufersterhung' (The Resurrection) poem and wrote the rest of the text himself.

See also:

Related pages

References and further reading

  • Maximilian Rebholz: essays on resurrection and phantom body
  • Max Hoffmeister: The Resurrection Corporeality: A Contribution to Understanding Christ Jesus (unpublished translation by FMC project), original: Die Auferstehungsleiblichkeit Ein Beitrag zum Verständnis des Christus Jesus (1992)
  • Frank Linde: Auferstehung: Band 1 und 2: Die Auferstehung im Werk Rudolf Steiners (2015)
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