Of Blind Men And Data Cables

When I was first married, I worked for a company which manufactured data cables. Most of the cables we built were for medical devices.  If you ended up in the hospital in the late 80’s and found yourself attached to a heart monitor there is a chance you might have been wired to it using a cable we created.  We filled a niche market by being able to produce one-off cables and small runs.  Because no one else was doing it, it also meant this small upstart company was growing like a weed, and we could charge a premium.

We handled this growth by systematizing everything, and through a little bit of sleight of hand.  We talked about being able to produce unique, one off cables, but the truth is we used a limited amount of parts and tooling.  We could make a cable which would get the job done, but it would be with the same materials we used for nearly every cable.  It was a great system for making data cables.

I was hired as the accounts payable and receivable clerk, but within a very short span of time I was also working alongside the owner running the production line.  He had designed it using Total Quality Management principles which allowed us to produce 1 or 1,000 cables with quality and speed.  We were unique because you could order just one cable and we would not only produce it, often the same day, but we would also injection mold the connector.  This may not mean much to you, but for the guys designing the cables it was cool.

We called the production line the “Carrio C” after the owner and the shape of the configuration.  We prided ourselves on the fact we would only touch a part once during production and because we used standardized parts, we could build several different cables at the same time on the same line.  It was a rush to help balance the line in order to move cables through each stage of the process at a pace where as one cable was being stared, another was being completed.

Why all of this was on my mind this morning I do not know, but I woke up thinking of this manufacturing environment and also thinking of Jesus.  It is the contrast between the two which held my attention.  Honestly, I do not know if Jesus would have done well working in our shop. Jesus did not seem to systematize His ministry in the same way we ran our production line.

What gave us the ability to do what we did in our shop was the capacity to reduce the process to the least common denominator and then repeat the practice over and over again.  This is not how Jesus worked.  People and ministry were not reduced in this way.  He seemingly makes a point to do just the opposite.  For example, when Jesus healed people He did it in a different way every time.

When Jesus heals Bartimaeus, without any other action but speaking the words, “Receive your sight; your faith has made you well,” He heals the man.  When He encounters the blind man of Bethsaida, Jesus first spits in the man’s eyes, He then asks him what he sees.  When the man reports his sight has improved, but is not clear, Jesus then lays His hands on his eyes and the man is fully healed.  Another time, Jesus passed by a blind man.  He stopped to heal him.  This time He spits on the ground, and make clay of the spittle and dirt, and applied the clay to the man's eyes.  Jesus then told him to go wash in the pool of Siloam.  The man did and came back seeing.

Imagine how hard this must have been on the disciples who were taking notes.  Under the heading “Healing of the Blind,” after the first encounter they might have written: Say these words and sight will be restored, “Receive your sight; your faith has made you well.”  Then after the second encounter they scratched that off and wrote something about applying spit to the eyes to heal.  Maybe they even noted exactly how it was applied.  This too was eventually crossed out and the mud plaster method was noted.  I bet their notebook was a mess.

It seems to me it is impossible to take notes on Jesus’ "system" of ministry.  There are definite principles we can learn and employ.  For example, I would feel very confident in asserting everything we do must be rooted and grounded in love, but to trying to come up with the kind of system which we relied upon when we were manufacturing data cables seems impossible from Jesus’ modeling of ministry.  The fact is, He very rarely did things exactly the same way.

I believe this was intentional on His part.  It prevents us from reducing faith and ministry to a formula, and it forces us to recognize we are not dealing with a product, but with people. 

Part of the reason each one of Jesus’ interactions were different was because it was not simply about healing a physical aliment, it was about healing the person.  I do not know why it may have been more powerful for one man to simply have words spoken over him, or why for another a mud plaster was more appropriate.  I have a hunch, however, if we were able to sit down with Jesus and ask Him, his answer would have a lot more to do with the heart of the person than with method of application. 

He did not force people into his manufacturing system; instead he applied the characteristics of the kingdom to each individual’s story.  All encountered love, acceptance, forgiveness, and healing, but it looked slightly different because of who was being healed.  It was never about the method, it was about the relationship between the healer and the one who needed healing.

On the surface, approaching people and ministry in this way may seem more difficult than setting up and sending people through an assembly line.  Relationship does takes more time than systems, but it is also the only way to bring about the complete healing we all really need.

While we hear these stories of healing and see men who were once blind and who now can see, they are more than accounts of the restoration of a physical capacity. I think there is a more significant healing which also took place, one which touched the deep wounding of the heart.  It is the place where our need for healing often goes unnoticed.  It is the place where we experience the crippling of loneliness and isolation.  These can only be healed as we are seen, known, accepted, and loved.  This is the deeper healing Jesus gives as He approaches each person in a way which speaks to their uniqueness.  It is a healing which is difficult, if not all together impossible, to attain in a assembly line approach to people. People, after all, are not data cables.

If I ever find myself in a position to once again manufacture parts, I will draw heavily from the systems and methods we employed while manufacturing data cables.  If I ever find myself in a position to be able to be used by God to bring healing to the lives of people, I will draw from the example I see in Jesus.

I think it is very important not to get the two mixed up.