Blindness V

Don: Unlike most of the diseases mentioned in the Bible, blindness is not life-threatening, not communicable, and does not condemn the sufferer to be shackled (as was the case with some of the mentally ill) or physically isolated from the community (as was the case with lepers). Blindness is a danger to no-one but the sufferer. But a person who is blind does require assistance from someone who is not, as Jesus indicated when he said:

Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” (Matthew 15:14)

The intended analogy is of course that those who are spiritually blind should not be led by others who also are spiritually blind. The irony is that, as Jesus taught it, those who claim the most vision are those who often have the least insight. Isaiah talked about the insight of those who have peace with God:

“I will lead the blind by a way they do not know,
In paths they do not know I will guide them.
I will make darkness into light before them
And rugged places into plains.
These are the things I will do,
And I will not leave them undone.”

They will be turned back and be utterly put to shame,
Who trust in idols,
Who say to molten images,
“You are our gods.”

Hear, you deaf!
And look, you blind, that you may see.

Who is blind but My servant,
Or so deaf as My messenger whom I send?
Who is so blind as he that is at peace with Me,
Or so blind as the servant of the Lord? (Isaiah 42:16-19)

The story of the blind man who was blind since birth is the longest story of a miracle in the Bible. It addresses many of the issues we have been discussing, such as “What should we be blind to? …Judgment? …Sin? And what should we not be blind to? …God’s goodness, glory, and grace.

In the story, all the participants see the same thing. They see the works of God by the person who is the light of the world. But each participant has a different insight into what they have seen. The participants are the disciples, the blind man’s parents, their  neighbors, the Pharisees and Jews, and the blind man himself. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the story is that every one of the participants who expresses a theological point of view is wrong. Everyone’s insight about God and the importance of God in the story, is faulty. It is worth reading in full:

As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.” When He had said this, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and applied the clay to his eyes, and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went away and washed, and came back seeing. Therefore the neighbors, and those who previously saw him as a beggar, were saying, “Is not this the one who used to sit and beg?” Others were saying, “This is he,” still others were saying, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the one.” So they were saying to him, “How then were your eyes opened?” He answered, “The man who is called Jesus made clay, and anointed my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash’; so I went away and washed, and I received sight.” They said to him, “Where is He?” He said, “I do not know.”

They brought to the Pharisees the man who was formerly blind. Now it was a Sabbath on the day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also were asking him again how he received his sight. And he said to them, “He applied clay to my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” Therefore some of the Pharisees were saying, “This man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.” But others were saying, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And there was a division among them. So they said to the blind man again, “What do you say about Him, since He opened your eyes?” And he said, “He is a prophet.”

The Jews then did not believe it of him, that he had been blind and had received sight, until they called the parents of the very one who had received his sight, and questioned them, saying, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? Then how does he now see?” His parents answered them and said, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but how he now sees, we do not know; or who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him; he is of age, he will speak for himself.” His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed Him to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue. For this reason his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”

So a second time they called the man who had been blind, and said to him, “Give glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner.” He then answered, “Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” So they said to him, “What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?” He answered them, “I told you already and you did not listen; why do you want to hear it again? You do not want to become His disciples too, do you?” They reviled him and said, “You are His disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where He is from.” The man answered and said to them, “Well, here is an amazing thing, that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes. We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him. Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.” They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us?” So they put him out.

Jesus heard that they had put him out, and finding him, He said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?” Jesus said to him, “You have both seen Him, and He is the one who is talking with you.” And he said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped Him. And Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.” Those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and said to Him, “We are not blind too, are we?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains. (John 9:1-41)

The disciples saw the suffering of the blind man and ascribed it to the result of sin. They shared the faulty theology that illness is directly related to sin. They were willing to accept that it might not be the blind man’s own sin that caused his illness, but someone must be to blame. They certainly did not see the blind man as an object of grace.

The parents confirmed that the man whose eyes had been opened was their son, but otherwise saw nothing. They embraced a faulty theology that Man can be excluded from the presence of God by another man, that churches of men control access to God (a theology still held by some today).

The neighbors were sceptical that this man was actually the one who was cured and wanted more evidence than had been presented to them.

The Pharisees also saw the miracle of God’s work from the hands of the person who is the light of the world but concluded that it was the work of a sinner—in essence, of the devil. Ascribing the work of God to the devil is in fact an aspect of the Unpardonable Sin:

Then a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus, and He healed him, so that the mute man spoke and saw. All the crowds were amazed, and were saying, “This man cannot be the Son of David, can he?” But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.”

And knowing their thoughts Jesus said to them, “Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and any city or house divided against itself will not stand. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand? If I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? For this reason they will be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can anyone enter the strong man’s house and carry off his property, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house. He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters.

“Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.” (Matthew 12:22-32)

The Pharisees held the view that anyone who did not abide by their theology could not be from God. The Pharisees were so steeped in their own scripture and theology and spiritual insight that they failed to see the divine work of the light of the world as it took place before their very eyes, and they missed the testimony of Moses concerning Jesus in their own scripture:

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. I do not receive glory from men; but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” (John 5:39-47)

Finally, the blind man—who had been blind since birth—must have been overwhelmed by the sudden revelation of things he could previously only imagine. Without the context of a lifelong set of visual experiences, how could he distinguish between a man and a woman, a tree from a blade of grass, a cow from a horse? His theology too was erroneous when he said that “God does not hear sinners” (Jesus himself said he came to take care of sinners and those who are sick and in need of healing) but it did not prevent him from seeing something in Jesus as the light of the world. Despite this failure in his theology, the blind man received both sight and insight from Jesus, and confessed that Jesus was a prophet whom he believed and worshiped.

The story gives us a full spectrum of responses to God: From the man born (spiritually) blind, to ignorant parents, confused and sceptical neighbors, disciples who only grasped the truth in part, and at the opposite end, to the Pharisees who claimed to see God perfectly well. Jesus concluded the story with the conundrum that he came to give sight to the blind, who have no sin, and to blind those who claim to see, who are sinners. But what sight is given, and what is taken away? God does not reveal himself to us—at least, not in the way we expect him to, based on our judgment and our desire.

Donald: Can we be blind even if our eyes function?

Don: Yes. The part of the brain that processes signals from the eyes could be dysfunctional, after suffering (say) an occipital stroke.

Donald: The eyes see and the brain provides context for what is seen. Sight requires both. The less functional the eyes, the more we have to depend on faith.

David: The “blind” analogy continues to worry me. At the time of Jesus, blindness was a complete mystery, as was the working of the seed in producing a plant. Today, science can not only explain individual blindness within the visible spectrum as well as the nature of the “invisible” part of the electromagnetic spectrum (which is vastly bigger than the visible part), but also it can reverse cases of individual blindness and it can let us see with considerable depth and clarity (using technological aids) into the invisible spectrum.

To me, this is evidence that God is being further revealed to us. I don’t think he intends actively to hide anything from us. I believe he intends everything about him to be open to our sight. But our vision is nowhere near perfect yet.

Using physical blindness as a metaphor for spiritual blindness might have worked when physical blindness was a total mystery but (to me) it doesn’t work very well when it is a mystery no more—unless one is prepared (as I am) to accept that, while God remains unchanging and does not actively reveal himself, we are changing and are able to reveal more and more of him.

Jay: To me, darkness is the preferred place. The issue is linked to judgment and discernment, which light—sight—gives us the dangerous ability to practice. In the Garden of Eden, there was no sin before Adam and Eve received the ability to discern Good and Evil. Is it because people can’t or don’t do wrong, or is it because there is simply no such things as wrong? A God whose thoughts are not our thoughts and whose ways are not our ways might see right and wrong very differently from us. Conceivably, since his love and grace cover everything, he might not even countenance any such concept as “wrong” or “sin”. But when Man tries to get into the business of right and wrong, then guilt, pain, and suffering ensue, to the point of our spiritual, mental, and even physical breakdown. I think Jesus was saying that as long as we discern good and evil (as long as we “see”) we will always have sin and self-destruction in our life; but if we can become blind to the difference—as a child is, until we teach it otherwise—then we will be saved from sin and self-destruction.

Dion: Discernment is learned. Structure has a place in early spiritual leaning of a person—a new believer—towards Christ, but of course it does not define spiritual progress. As we grow in Christ, we should be able to discern what is best for us. The blindness occurs when we try to impose on others what is best for us individually.

Jay: The Good News Bible translates Jesus’ statement in the final verse (41) of John 9 as follows:

“If you were blind, then you would not be guilty; but since you claim that you can see, this means that you are still guilty.”

This links sin to guilt. If we are blind—if we lack discernment—we can have no guilt. Heaven on earth is a place without guilt. But this is counterintuitive to our idea of a world of right and wrong and punishment.

Don: We socialize our children in that way. It is the way we operate society. Guilt and the threat of punishment are used to try to motivate people to be what we consider to be good. But what Jesus taught is counterintuitive to our way of doing things.

Dion: But love and grace also foster guilt, in a sense. If I hurt someone I love, I feel guilty. Love is a bigger motivator than fear or guilt, but in a way, they are two sides of the same coin.

Chris: We were commanded to love our neighbor as ourselves. To do so, we must be blind to our neighbor’s faults. If we are consumed with our own faults, how can we show love to our neighbor? We must simply be blind to (what may or may not be) faults, period.

Dion: Without criteria by which to judge good from bad, we can be more spiritually adaptive.

Jay: One might argue that would put one on a slippery slope to anarchy, but that would be just another judgment call! Our human criteria for judging right from wrong might be imperfect, and are certainly not to be equated with God’s. When we accept that, then guilt is less of a burden to bear. It accepts that God is right, though we can’t know how, and it relieves us of the need to worry about being right.

Anonymous: We all have sight, but we do not all have insight. Our eyes can see everything but God. The only way to see God is through insight. Physical vision is not of concern to Jesus; what he came to do was to fix and restore insight which, by definition, cannot come from outside us. It cannot be taught or learned. Its only source is God.

Donald: We often distrust our eyes. But aren’t eyes the conduit to insight? By that I mean that it is the way we look at things that provides insight. That is true for the photographer and his or her art. Our eyes are drawn to sudden changes in light and dark, to sudden changes in focus.

Dion: Teachers are told to become “reflective practitioners” in order to be better teachers. We do this by seeing how well each class goes and making adjustments for the next class. But next year, the students change and the whole process has to start over. Insight plays a big role in this. My problem is, how do I connect that to how my spiritual life is going? According to verse 41, if I perceive that I see, then I have a problem; if I don’t perceive that I see, then I don’t have a problem! So can I ever be a better teacher, or not?

Anonymous: Teachers teach by sight, by what others have seen before them. They direct the minds of their students to those sights. No wonder Jesus said teachers are judged to a higher standard. I don’t trust myself to teach any spiritual lesson. It’s a great responsibility to tell someone “This is the way!” when I might be destroying them. It might be a case of the blind leading the blind. The Bible says that to know God is to have life eternal. How can I know God? Only through insight, which can only be provided by God himself. It cannot be taught. When I see God through insight, then I have what I need to know and do not need any lessons from third parties—from teachers.

Donald: But teachers profess to have insights and to pass on their insights by teaching them to others. I recognize that this is a huge risk in the spiritual realm, but it seems necessary for the worldly realm.

Dion: Teachers often ask questions without providing answers, thereby encouraging students to learn to figure things out on their own. We try to teach the skills of critical thinking. America is moving towards citizen science, and critical thinking skills are needed for that. I am working with a Connecticut teacher who is using data from rivers that flow into Lake Erie to give his students an idea about what needs to be conserved and protected, but they have to collect additional data on their own and reach their conclusions and recommendations.

In trying to show students the way, all we can do as teachers is ask them questions that will tend to lead them to think in certain directions and trigger them to start to teach themselves. They are not given a preconceived method and told to follow it.

Anonymous: In spiritual matters, it may take a lifetime to find the way.

Donald: There is still a need to teach foundational knowledge before the student is ready for critical thinking.

Dion: Children acquire some foundational knowledge from their parents, from life experience, and so on; though this is informal rather than formal learning.

Jay: The major educational theory of differentiation posits that every student comes with different kinds of prior knowledge, different learning abilities, different strengths and weaknesses, and other differentiating factors; and that the job of the teacher is to differentiate the instruction accordingly, so that a different path is mapped out for every student to be successful. It is a difficult theory to put into practice. Similarly, in the search for successful spiritual outcomes, perhaps the way is different for everyone. Such a theory leaves no room for discernment, since God is the controller of the insights for each and every spiritual learner.

David: Spiritual and secular teaching are different. In secular teaching, teachers always have some preconceived idea of the answers to their questions. But as I read it, scripture tells us that that cannot happen with spiritual teaching because no teacher (except God) can have any conception of the answers. We are blind to the answers, which is why the best spiritual teachers are, like Don and the Daoists, people who ask questions without any claim to knowing the answers. What is the sound of one hand clapping? If there is an answer, it is to be found inside oneself, in that insightful relationship with God, but it cannot be expressed in words.

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