Lord of Karma, Page 3

Just preceding these remarks, Steiner indicated that, just as Christ had descended into hell (see “Descent Into Hell”) during his entombment to lift the veil of shades (“Sheol”) from “those who have fallen asleep,” so also will this event in the twentieth century be perceived by those between incarnations who are prepared to do so. (On this, see 1 Pet 4,5-6 below.)

How is it that Christ is Lord of Karma? This is closely tied in with the concept of “Forgiven Sins.” If one will merely think, it can become quite clear. From whence comes the power of Christ to forgive sins? The scribes and Pharisees could not understand this (see Lk 5,17-26; Mk 2,1-12; Mt 9,1-8), claiming that only God had this power. Consider, for a moment, who alone has the power to cancel a debt. No one but the creditor has the power, for only he or she provides the consideration therefor in the form of a loan or sale of goods or services on credit, or suffers the damage leading to money judgment. The “objective karma” (see “Forgiven Sins”) that results from every sin is a debt to all humanity (indeed to all creation) which the sinner alone is unable to pay or erase. When Christ voluntarily descended from the heights of heaven and shed his blood on Calvary, he paid that debt once and for all (see Heb) for all who accept his offer by taking him into themselves. By virtue of this event, Christ is subrogated to the claim humanity, i.e., creation, has against the sinner. Christ is now the owner of that claim, and he alone thereby has the power to forgive it. The Father has given it into his hands because he is the only being in all of the spiritual Hierarchies above humanity that has experienced death. In Steiner’s words (CHS, Lect. 4), “Christ is the only forgiver of sins because he is the bearer of sins.” This objective karma is reflected by thatwonderful passage in Mt 25,40,45, “As you did it [or not] to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.” For there is no one else in or above all creation who can erase such objective karma save Christ by virtue of his blood and the Mystery of Golgotha.

But while Christ takes upon his own shoulders all of one’s objective karma who has accepted him, it is most obvious that he has not “paid for” all the consequences of the same sins. Some other human being may still suffer scars received as a result of those same sins. The only one who can absolve that “subjective” debt is the human individuality who is injured. That absolution, i.e., release of debt, can be given by the injured individuality either through its personality in the present life or that incarnated in a later one. The most sublime manner of payment is for the injured individuality to forgive the sinner, as Christ commands. But if that is not done, then evil will be repaid on Earth by commensurate circumstances between the two in a later incarnation. Christ, as Lord of Karma, is the judge who presents us, when we have passed through the gate of death, with our karmic record and serves as counsellor in order for us to complete our salvation (“Perfection,” Mt 5,48) by arranging the necessary karmic circumstances in future incarnations, the “wheel of birth” (Jas 3,6), to give us, as a matter of “grace,” the opportunity to make restitution.

The power of objective karma is also what underlies Christ’s unique power of healing. We elsewhere see that all “disposition to” illness and health is due to past karma (e.g., see Karmic Relationships [KR-1], Lect. 5) resulting from the sin of the Individuality or of humanity. We also know that Christ’s healings were inevitably associated with a statement, expressed or implied, that one’s sins (or those of one’s ancestors, for instance) are forgiven. The “faith” asserted as the basis for such healing is a faith in Christ as the one who has the power to forgive sins. That this is so is shown by the fact that in each event the directive to “go and sin no more” is expressed or implied.

Upon seeing these things clearly, one can see that what Steiner found upon clairvoyant spiritual research, namely, the return of Christ as Lord of Karma, not only is vindicated by the language of scripture itself but also explains and harmonizes many aspects of it that have hitherto generated such confusion and diversity of opinion. His revelation that this is an event of the twentieth century is more fully understandable in light of what is said about timing in “Karma and Reincarnation,” as well as in “Second Coming,” herein.

Let us then reflect upon how scripture vindicates Steiner’s revelation of Christ becoming Lord of Karma. Moreover, one can observe that the concomitant of such vindication is the illumination of passages not heretofore comprehended by (at least the exoteric) theology of all persuasions. May we also bear in mind that the hallmark of truth is that, when grasped, its light reveals meaning otherwise hidden in its locale, thus witnessing to its verity.

The key to the whereabouts of this “locale” is found in the passage quoted above, “In the course of our time... this office passes over to Christ Jesus, and man will ever more and more meet Christ Jesus as his Judge, his karmic Judge.... So in our time the office of karmic Judge passes over to Christ Jesus in the higher world next to our own.” By this, Steiner identifies the “locale” as that of “judgment.”