“Let everyone listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. I will give some of the hidden manna to everyone who overcomes. I will also give him a white stone. On the white stone is written a new name that no one knows except the person who receives it.”
Revelation 2:17
Jesus healed a blind man at Bethsaida in stages. It was a completely unique situation in which the miraculous change brought by the Lord’s power was gradual. Jesus healed him somewhat, asked him for a situation report and then rolled up His sleeves and healed Him some more until the job was done. There’s no one else in the Gospels that gets healed in this way. The really interesting thing is that when you dig in deep to the miraculous healings of Jesus, you find that He never healed anyone the same way twice. Jesus never repeated Himself. He always met a new situation with a new method. He handled every individual person’s need with an original, singular touch.
The blind man at Bethsaida was one of seven blind people who had their sight restored in the New Testament, (some lists say there were eight, but they are typically counting Bartimeus in Jericho twice) and every single time a blind person was healed by Jesus, it was done in a completely particular and specific way. One man got a sort-of mud mask treatment and was told to wash his face in the Pool of Siloam in Jerusalem. In one case Jesus laid hands on a man’s unseeing eyes. In Bethsaida, Jesus actually spat on the man’s face, while one man was simply told to go, and his sight was immediately restored. One person was even healed through the ministry of another believer laying hands on him. And these examples only cover the blind people. Jesus always did something unique with every person that He hadn’t quite done before.
This is not the case when it comes to the enemy. The Accuser (Satan) is a brilliant, cunning, tireless foe. We can’t outsmart him or out think him, but that doesn’t change the fact that his tactics, while effective, are pretty boring. What I mean is, he only has about five chess moves. He uses the same stale, overworked, cliche plays over and over again without ever introducing any innovation or creativity into his efforts to discourage and destroy human beings and stall the advancement of the Kingdom of God. He may be good at what he does, but he is utterly uninspiring from an inventive point of view. In 2 Corinthians 2, the Apostle Paul says about the devil that “we are not unaware of his schemes.” Why is that? Simply put, he always repeats himself with every person he attacks. He bombards the human heart with shame, pride, power, envy, lust, and despair. Over and over again, the enemy of our souls breaks our faith, splinters our commitment, fractures our hope, and shrinks our love by playing those same old songs to us time after time after time. The reason of course is that we aren’t individuals to him. We are just like cattle. We all look the same. He doesn’t care about us. He doesn’t even hate us. We are simply raw material he uses and throws away so that he can attempt to hurt the heart of Jesus with our systematic slaughter. We don’t matter to him, and since we fall for the same tricks all the time, why bother mixing it up?
That’s what makes Jesus so wonderful. He genuinely cares. And He not only cares about humans in general; He cares about every last one of us as if we were the only lovable thing in all the universe. The heart of Jesus for every single person is infinite in affection, compassion and attention. He isn’t in a hurry with any of us, He isn’t waiting for a more interesting person to come along, and He never falls back on rote formulas to save effort, energy, or time. Jesus approaches every situation and every human heart with limitless creative specificity. It’s as if Jesus is developing a unique and elaborate handshake for every friendship in His life. It makes me think of the Lord’s letter He wrote to the church at Pergamum in Revelation 2. In that letter, Jesus says He has a new name for every person. It turns out this name is a secret between you and Jesus. Individuals matter to Jesus, and that means you. For the Lord, there is no pattern or type when it comes to human hearts. There are only the unique sons and daughters He loves. You matter to Jesus.