It makes sense that Jesus should be mistaken about the apocalyptic end of the world, if he saw himself as the culmination of Evolution, although of course he knew nothing of science, and had no sense of history as we understand it. It makes sense if he mistakenly identified himself with an archetype in his psyche. It makes no sense if he was the perfection of Godhead in this world, who never made a mistake.
We all give effect to the archetypes within ourselves to some extent. When a young man falls in love, he inevitably projects onto his sweetheart the perfection craved by his anima, although she will probably disappoint him. And Jung agrees* that the constellation of archetypal images and fantasies is not in itself pathological; it depends how the individual reacts or interprets them. What is pathological, says Jung, is identification with the archetype; and this is revealed by a sort of inflation and possession which nothing can stop. At his trial before the High Priest, according to the Gospels of Mathew and Mark, Jesus declared they would see him seated at the right hand of God, and coming in clouds and glory. Well we have not seen this yet; and it looks very much like inflation. Then again, the vitriol that he uttered, that is recorded in Mathew chapter 23, looks very much like the utterance of one possessed, with no comprehension of the difficulties of running a secular society. Yet if the resurrection happened, as I believe it did, Jesus seems to have got enough right to win Divine approval.
The other big mistake Jesus may have made was not to have appreciated that the world of the unconscious was collective. Of course it is most unlikely that Jesus had any appreciation of the unconscious as we think of it today. As long as the symbols of religion hold meaning in the imagination of men and women, they can avoid being driven back in upon themselves, because there is no need for that kind of introspection. It is only as the stars fall from heaven, and the symbols of religion pale into meaninglessness, that it becomes necessary to understand something of the life of the unconscious, which was a secret life so long as the symbols held meaning. So it is most unlikely that Jesus had this knowledge. So when Jesus claimed that he would send the Holy Spirit to enter into the lives of such disciples as believed in him, was this true, or was he only releasing something already present in everyone’s psyche? Is my suggestion nearer the truth, which I made in my Reconciliation with Science and War: that Jesus freed man’s spirit, and with it his imagination, and so opened up the possibility of almost limitless development of the human spirit? What inspired the Prophets, if not the spirit of God? How did the Holy Spirit differ from this spirit? The word “Salvation” is used pretty freely in the psalms, for instance in psalm 27, and some of them were written 1000 years before Jesus was born.
• Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, second edition, page 351.