Heal our inner sight, O God: The Journey from Spiritual Blindness to Spiritual Sight

Table of Contents

01. Asking the Wrong Question
02. Reframing the Question
03. The Neighbors: Stuck in Old Paradigm
04. Preserving The System at All Costs
05. Afraid of the Ramifications
06. A Tale of Two Journeys
07. The Healing Path
08. Practice

“Most people do not see things as they are, they see things as they are.”
–Richard Rohr

One of the miracles Jesus most commonly performed while he was here on this earth was the healing of blind people. The reason this particular miracle is so common may have to do with the fact that it is a metaphor for the spiritual journey itself—the movement from spiritual blindness to spiritual sight. In fact, the spiritual journey can be understood as the movement from seeing God nowhere or seeing God only where we expect to see him, to seeing God everywhere, especially where we least expect him.

It is, as Ignatius of Loyola pointed out, “the ability to find God in all things so that we might love and serve God in all.” This is the most significant healing journey any of us will ever take and it is never as easy as it sounds.

John 9 records the account of a group of very religious people who were unable to recognize the work of God in their midst and missed the opportunity to be a part of what God was doing. In fact, the religious leaders were the ones who were most guilty of thwarting and dismissing the work of God taking place right in their midst. In this particular story the bulk of the attention is given to the varying levels of spiritual blindness among those who witness the healing of the blind man.

Everyone in this story saw the same man healed (or saw evidence of it) but all of them had difficulty recognizing and naming it as the work of God. The disciples were asking the wrong question. The neighbors were stuck in an old paradigm. The Pharisees were concerned with protecting the religious system and their place in it. And the parents were afraid of the consequences of seeing and naming what they saw. What should have been a day of uproarious celebration deteriorated into a day of controversy, debate, fear and expulsion from the community. The spiritual blindness that afflicted this man’s family, friends and neighbors is not all that different from what prevents us from recognizing God’s work today. We all need to be healed.

01. Asking the Wrong Question

The story begins with really good news: Jesus saw the blind man, and being seen by Jesus opens up tremendous potential for healing. But unfortunately, the story goes rapidly downhill from there because those who should have been seeing spiritual reality most clearly were the most blind and undiscerning. Those who were most “spiritual” were the most out of touch with God’s heart for this situation.

The disciples who were with Jesus saw the blind man too, but they used this man’s misfortune as an opportunity for theological and philosophical discussion. “Who sinned? This man or his parents?” There was no love, no compassion for this man’s situation, no concern for his well-being. Instead they turned him into an object lesson, reducing him to a specimen in order to satiate their own intellectual curiosity. They distanced themselves from the raw humanity of the situation and from their own calling as Christ-followers to make a compassionate response. Instead of seeing this an occasion to care for another human being and wonder about the spiritual possibilities present in the situation, they added insult to injury by asking the blame question. “Whose fault is it that this happened?”

Even though the disciples had walked so closely with Jesus, they were caught in a kind of blindness that was more limiting and debilitating than physical blindness. It was a structural blindness embedded in the belief system they adhered to. Their question was shaped by their outdated religious beliefs and cultural superstitions—the commonly held assumption that human misfortune had to be someone’s fault. This framed the question so narrowly that it only allowed for two possible outcomes— neither of which was very positive: either the blind man sinned or his parents sinned. The only way they could have seen beyond these assumptions and their implications would have been to somehow stand outside the system and the limits of their shared way of thinking.

02. Reframing the Question

Jesus responded by reframing the question. He said (in effect), “You are asking the wrong question. Neither this man nor his parents sinned. That is an old way of seeing and interpreting reality and has nothing to do with what is unfolding right now. This man was born blind so that the works of God can be revealed in and through his life” (John 9:3). This possibility hadn’t even occurred to them because their systemic way of thinking had produced the wrong question in the first place.

The right question, according to Jesus, was “What is God doing in this situation and how can I get on board with it?” Now that is a much better question! In fact, it is the best possible question in the face of the brokenness and impossibility of the human situation.

Jesus was not trying to sugarcoat the situation or to avoid dealing with the harsh realities of life. Yes, there is evil in the world. Yes, there is sin with all of its tragic consequences. Yes, there is a complex web of cause-and-effect relationships at work in the human experience. But what good does the blame question do, really? The real question is, “What is God going to do with it?” Jesus engaged the heartbreak and the complexity of the human situation by pointing out that such situations create the most amazing possibilities for God to be at work. Jesus is saying, “Let’s learn how to notice that and then get involved.” Which is exactly what he did.

The disciples blindness to the work of God in their midst is sobering because it demonstrates that even those who are closest to Jesus and on a serious spiritual journey can still miss things—especially if we are living and breathing the same cultural influences as others who are also blind.

03. The Neighbors: Stuck in Old Paradigm

The blind man’s neighbors were the next group of people given the opportunity to see and affirm the work of God in their midst. They had seen the blind man every day and were intimate with the situation. Perhaps some of them were even friends of the family who remembered the day when this man was born and shared his parents’ grief when they discovered he was blind. They had pretty strong paradigms in place about what the situation was, and they were stuck in those paradigms. A blind man who could now see—particularly this blind man whom they knew so well—just did not fit what they were accustomed to seeing and so they couldn’t “see” it.

The neighbors were afflicted, as we all are, with cognitive filters that helped them to categorize and make sense of reality. The problem of course is that these unconscious filters, developed over years of interacting with the situation in the same way, prevented them from seeing anything new or allowing any new data into their consciousness. In fact, they even found ways to try and talk themselves out of this new possibility by questioning whether or not it was even the same man. What follows is a very circuitous conversation in which they could not even agree on whether or not this was the same man even though the man himself was right there saying, “Hey, it’s me!” If the situation wasn’t so sad, it would be comical.

The neighbor’s predicament points out another difficulty we have with seeing: we see what are ready to see, expect to see, and even desire to see. How desperately we need practices, and experiences, and questions that help us get outside our paradigms so that we can see old realities in new ways!

04. Preserving The System at All Costs

By now the situation had gotten so confusing the neighbors didn’t even trust themselves; they brought the man to the Pharisees to seek help in making sense of it all. The Pharisees were the most committed followers of God in their day. Their job, which they took very seriously, was to uphold and restore a deeper piety and holiness to the Jewish people in the only way they knew how—through a meticulous observance of the law. The Pharisees were by-the-book people. They were determined to be right. But as I once heard Dallas Willard say, it is hard to be right and not hurt anyone with it.

On the day of the blind man’s healing they had only one concern: the preservation of the religious system (as represented by Sabbath keeping) and their place of power

within it. As long as the system remained clearly defined and everyone was functioning according to its rules and expectations, they remained safe and in control.

The religious system also afforded them an easy, straightforward way of evaluating themselves and others—by the externals of laws and rituals, religious beliefs, and loyalty to the powers that be. They were rigid, judgmental and uncaring in the way they wielded the power of their position; as this story indicates, they did not hesitate to use their power to intimidate, exploit and exclude those who didn’t toe the line wherever they chose to draw it. So on this amazing day, not one of them jumped up and gave the blind man a high five. Not one of them said, “How exciting for you! What’s it like to be able to see for the first time ever? After you washed in the pool of Siloam, did you see things gradually or did everything come clear all at once?” Instead they fought, and they fought hard, to preserve the system and to dismiss anything that threatened the system the way they understood it.

Getting caught up in preserving the system gave them a convenient way to avoid dealing with who Jesus was, the miracle he had performed, and the fresh wind of the Spirit of God that was moving among them. The Pharisees used the issue of Sabbath keeping as a smoke screen to keep them from having to deal with the fact that Jesus’ presence was messing with their system. Jesus clearly brought a different kind of authority than they had and he was responding to a different set of priorities. In a desperate attempt to regain control of the situation, they attacked Jesus’ character as a way of dismissing him; but no matter how hard they tried, they just could not get the healed man to back down from his story or parrot the party line.

05. Afraid of the Ramifications

By now, the interest of the whole community is piqued. The religious leaders refused to believe that a blind man had actually received his sight, so they call in his parents for an “interview.” But the parents knew better. They knew this was really an interrogation and that those asking the questions were not really seeking the truth. The whole community was colluding now to protect the status quo and to avoid having to confront what was beyond the limits of their own knowledge and experience.

The healed man’s parents were common folk, the defenseless poor who were simply trying to survive in a religious system that was oppressive, punishing, and at times even exploitive. When the Jews called on them to testify about what had taken place, they were afraid, and rightly so. They knew that if they answered truthfully about what they had experienced, they risked expulsion from the spiritual community they needed in order to survive. To be cut off from the community during that time in Israelite history would have meant that they had no way to worship God, to make sacrifices and to receive forgiveness for their sins.

So when the Pharisees asked, “Is this your son who you say was born blind? How then does he see?” they said, “Yes, he is our son. Yes, he was born blind. But how is it that he now sees? We can’t answer that on grounds that might incriminate us. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself” (John 9:20–12, paraphrased).

The parents’ fear was not a figment of overactive imaginations; they answered in this way because the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue (v. 22). They knew that even though the Pharisees acted like they were asking a real question and seeking the truth, they were really just setting a trap. They had already decided who Jesus was—and who he wasn’t. They had already agreed on the limits of what they were willing to see; they had already agreed that anyone who challenged what they already thought they knew would be put out. They did not want to be bothered with the facts, which left the parents to tap dance around the truth as best they could. On what should have been one of the happiest days of their lives, they were afraid to name and celebrate the work of God in their family.

This is how paradigms, systems of thought, rigidly held categories and unquestioning loyalty to systems function. On the one hand, they do help make sense out of our lives so that we can function. But on the other hand, they have a powerful tendency to filter out any new information— including anything new God might be doing. They can filter out God himself!

06. A Tale of Two Journeys

Meanwhile, the healed man was having his own experience. The miracle of receiving his physical sight had happened in a moment, but the healing of his spiritual sight unfolded over time. While everyone around him was asking all the wrong questions, arguing, posturing, maneuvering, and trying to trip each other up, the healed man was on a journey of increasing spiritual insight into who Jesus really was. While everyone around him was descending deeper and deeper into spiritual darkness, the light of the world was dawning in the man’s heart:

Early in the story, he first calls Jesus a man (v. 11).
Then he calls him a prophet (v. 17).
Then a man who comes from God (v. 33).
Then, when Jesus calls himself the Son of Man (vv. 35–37), the healed man makes a full confession of faith: “He said, ‘Lord, I believe.’ And he worshiped him” (v. 38, NRSVUEAll Scripture quotations are taken from the New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition, copyright © 1989, 2021 The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.).

Now that’s a good journey! The only problem is that it gets him thrown out of the religious community because the religious leaders were on a tragic journey in the opposite direction. Afraid to face their own inner darkness, their spiritual powerlessness, and their lack of understanding, they remained firmly entrenched in the outer darkness of their religious system. They neither recognized nor were they ready to welcome the light of the world shining in their midst. Infuriated by a situation they could not understand or control, they drove the blind man out.

The healed man, however, stays quietly faithful to his own spiritual journey. He is learning that there is powerful difference between belonging to a group and belonging to God. It’s easier to try and fit in with a group’s beliefs than to know what you know. When we have encountered Christ’s healing presence in ways that do not fit existing paradigms, we might find ourselves on the outside for a while. That’s the bad news.

07. The Healing Path

But the good news is that while he lost his place in the group for a time, he found Jesus—or to be more accurate, Jesus found him—which is one of the most beautiful parts of the story. When Jesus heard that the Jews had driven him out of their community, he went to find him. This was a great kindness because even though this man had been given the gift of restored sight, his good fortune and his spiritual clarity now isolated him. He needed to understand where he stood in relation to the community that he had been a part of all his life. He needed some understanding of why, on this day of his healing, he found himself outside just for being honest about what happened to him.

While finding oneself on the outside can be a little traumatic at first, the healed man discovered that this too can be a place of encounter. Away from the soul-numbing clamor of the religious community and all the ways they wanted to interpret and manipulate his experience, the healed man was finally able to reflect on all that had happened to him. He was able to touch the ground of his being, name the truth of his own encounter with Jesus, and clarify what it meant to him. And Jesus, who knew what an unsettling day it had been, was there to help him piece it all together and take him the rest of the way on his journey toward full faith. In fact, Jesus seemed to think that those who had been expelled in this way actually had a head start in understanding his message because usually they had been expelled from what was unreal anyway.Richard Rohr, Everything Belongs (New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 1999), 17.

“Do you believe in the Son of Man?” Jesus gently asked.
“And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.”
“You have seen him [such good news!], and the one speaking with you is he” (vv. 35–37).

After such a long and wearying day and after waiting so long for a place to rest his soul, the healed man simply and finally gave himself over to his deepest knowing. “‘Lord, I believe.’ And he worshiped him” (v. 38).

Then Jesus gave him one more gift—the gift of helping him to further interpret the events of this day. He said, “I have come into this world . . . so that those who do not see may see and those who see may become blind” (v. 39). It was pretty clear that the healed man was in the first category; but the Pharisees were more than a little concerned about where Jesus’ comment put them in the whole scheme of things. “Surely we are not blind are we?” To which Jesus replied, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.” (vv. 40–41).

This is the point of the whole story: Only those who admit their blindness will be healed. Those who are convinced that they see and stubbornly refuse to admit their need for healing will not be able to see anything new nor will they progress on the spiritual journey. So, the healing of our spiritual sight has very humble beginnings. It starts with the admission that we are really not all that good at seeing and that we are as blind as bats sometimes. True seeing begins when we acknowledge the fact that without divine intervention, the best we can do is stumble around in the dark. Our healing begins when we acknowledge our blindness and are willing to cry out from that place.

Heal our inner sight, O God,
that we may know the difference between good and evil.
Open our eyes
that we may see what is true and what is false.
Restore us to wisdom
that we may be well in our souls,
Restore us to wisdom
that we and our world may be well.J. Philip Newell, Celtic Treasure (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2005), 114.

08. Practice

John 9 is a profoundly disturbing passage for those of who have been in and around institutionalized religion for a long time. If we are honest, we can probably all find ourselves depicted somewhere in this story. Ask God to help you to reflect honestly and find yourself in the John 9 story. If you identify with the disciples and suspect that you might be asking the wrong questions and getting caught up in theological debate, cultivate spiritual seeing by asking a different set of questions—questions that have to do with healing rather than blame, loving real people in space and time rather than getting drawn in to theological arguments, noticing what God is up to and getting on board with that rather than being so intent on pushing our own agendas.

If you identify with the neighbors, so stuck in your own paradigms that you can’t see anything outside of them, ask God to show you your paradigms for what they are—not necessarily bad, just limited. Ask God the brave question: Where are you bigger, and more, and outside of my way of thinking and constructing the world?

If you identify with the Pharisees—so caught up in preserving the system and your place in it that that has become more important to you than what God is doing, get honest about it. All of us—especially if we have been in and around the church for a long time—can probably find ourselves in this part of the story at least to some extent. If so, gently ask, What am I trying to protect? What do I stand to lose if I were to see—really see—what God is up to and sought to join him in it? Is this the place where God might be calling me to lose my life in order to gain “that which is life indeed”?

We might even see a little bit of ourselves in the parents— those who knew what they had seen but were afraid to say so because it would put them outside the community they needed so desperately to be a part of. And yet sometimes spiritual seeing requires us to be willing to know what we know and work from there, regardless of the risk. Yes, there may be losses involved in challenging prevailing assumptions —like the perks that go along with being an accepted member of whatever group we have been a part of. But how much better it is to live in the truth of what Jesus is actually doing and work from there!

Footnotes

Ruth Haley Barton (Doctor of Divinity, Northern Seminary) is founder of the Transforming Center, a ministry dedicated to strengthening the souls of pastors, Christian leaders and the congregations and organizations they serve. [www.transformingcenter.org] A sought-after teacher, retreat leader and trained spiritual director, Ruth is the author of numerous books and articles on the spiritual life including Pursuing God’s Will.

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