NOTES for Joh 9:1-38
How does spiritual life differ from religious life? Perhaps first of all in its attitude toward miracles. This is not surprising: a miracle is a revelation manifested by God, which is very difficult for a religious person to ignore. Religion finds itself in an ambivalent position with regard to miracles: a nonreligious person has no need of miracles at all; he can allow himself to ignore them in principle, simply assigning them to the realm of the (temporarily) unexplained, and rest there. The religious person is different: as a rule, religion needs miracles and relies on them to one degree or another; accordingly, religious consciousness cannot ignore a miracle in the way nonreligious consciousness does.
However, religion accepts not every miracle, but only one that does not contradict its own doctrine, and religious consciousness evaluates every miracle that comes into its field of vision accordingly. If what happened fits within the framework of the relevant religious doctrine, the miracle is judged genuine; if not, it is perceived as false or inauthentic, proceeding, for example, not from God but from dark powers. From the point of view of a person living a full spiritual life, however, a miracle in itself is sufficient testimony to God's intervention.
From the point of view of a person for whom religion is in first place, a miracle must be evaluated for conformity to doctrine - roughly (though not necessarily exactly) as the Pharisees do when considering the question of the healing of the man born blind. They are ready to acknowledge the miracle - but only if an explanation can be found that fits within the framework of their religious and theological concept; otherwise they are ready to thank God for what was done, but in no way ready to acknowledge the rightness of the One through whom He did what He did.
Thus the primacy of religion leads into a spiritual dead end the person who is ready to follow his own religious concepts unconditionally, despite all the testimony received from above.