Christ treated everyone he met as an individual

Christ interacted with everyone he met individually according to their unique needs and circumstances.

I mean it. 

He healed some by degrees, others immediately, and yet others were healed by the word of another. 

Some were corrected with absolute compassion. Some were condemned forcefully. Others were chased away from their sin by him with a scourge of nine tails.

Some he told to proclaim his deeds. Others he told to keep that in their hearts.

It was individual.

There was no single silver bullet other than going to him. But even that act has a variety of roads and outcomes.

We need to keep that in mind. In our interactions and our expectations of those around us.

Some of us will go through life with privilege and blessings that others will not have. Others will struggle financially or physically throughout their lives. 

Some will suffer traumatic injury or diseases that will be healed in a manner that will only be considered miraculous. Others will never be healed.

Some will suffer with addiction. Some will overcome. Some will not, they’ll relapse again and again and again.

How do we address this variety of need? Is it with simplification? Platitudes? 

No. It’s by knowing people.

See Christ got to know people. Love them as an individual. And then, only then, did he know how to help them.

That’s our call. If we’re to bear one another’s burdens, if we’re to love as he did. That’s a clarion call to do more. To reach out and love others around us.

We need to leverage our own experience. We need to listen. We need to actually care. Authentically. Purely. Truly.

That’s how we can be there for others. There’s no single direct response for everything someone is going through. Christ knew that. He called people to him. To address them each individually and directly.

That’s the best thing we can do. To be like him. And to help others. Love others. 

As he did.