Many of us have heard nursing staff refer to cancer as being ‘merciful'. Having had the opportunity to stand by the sickbeds of many cancer sufferers of various ages, gender and types of cancer, I feel it necessary to write an article that is both objective and enlightening.
Let us begin by ensuring the reader that any person who has not either had cancer, or supported a cancer patient has no idea of what cancer is all about. Having supported congregation members with several cancers, varying from breast cancer, through cancer of the stomach, kidneys, lungs, throat and liver, never in one of these cases have we seen a patient enjoying having cancer.
We have been with more than one person in the moments that they received the news that they had cancer. In most cases, the diagnosis followed several tests that confirmed more than one indicator, which would have included x-rays, scans, blood tests, and a biopsy. In most cases, the doctor's words had an effect similar to a death penalty. "Sir, madam, I am sorry to have to confirm that the tests confirmed our suspicions that you do have cancer".
The day you hear the doctor speak these horrifying words to your wife, even the most extraverted husband is at loss for words. Everything said after that is a blur. The doctor, who had informed probably hundreds or perhaps thousands of patients of their condition, kept talking about the possible treatments that would be decided on after doing additional tests that are more specific. The time that had lapsed since the first symptoms, the existence of cancer in the family and many other facts were mentioned. However, the words that kept repeating were "You have cancer".
Most cancer patients go through the normal processes of denying, rejecting, anger, and other emotions that do not necessarily follow a specific pattern or time span. Questions such as "why me", and thoughts of ‘payment for all the wrongs that I have committed' are known to be part of the process. Some patients are able to deny the existence of cancer for a long time, and some have been known to pass away years afterwards without taking any prescription or treatment.
All cancers are however not the same, and some are aggressive to the point that it takes a life within weeks of first diagnosis. A friend of the author died within three days of being diagnosed. Some cancer patients unfortunately suffer for months on end without any relief. We have known patients that were allergic to painkillers, including morphine. Sharing a room with such an unfortunate soul is a nerve-wrecking experience that cannot be described in words. To hear that person repeatedly cry out for weeks on end "Please take my life". Yet, the next day the sun rises at its predestined time as if the patient's suffering had no influence on anything.
The author has heard many ‘wise' sideliners remark about such and such a person's small faith, or unbelief. Yet, if any of them had the experience of supporting a loved one in such dire circumstances, they would probably feel different. No person who has not had firsthand experience of such suffering can talk with authority on the subject, irrespective of wisdom or qualifications.
Where then is the ‘grace' of cancer, and how can anybody speak of any good coming from cancer? The first important fact to bear in mind is the fact that some cancer patients do experience healing, of which the most wonderful examples are those that were healed by the divine intervention of God. We have experienced situations where God had healed patients that were already positively diagnosed with cancer. Some of those healings were so complete that no trace of the cancer could be found for the rest of that person's life. What a miracle!
Some others are healed through medical interventions, and although most will repeatedly return for tests, and sometimes need smaller consequent interventions, many are completely healed. Again, how wonderful, and for the faithful there is never any doubt that even such healings through medical intervention is still a miracle received from God.
Some patients however, have to hear the terrible words that nothing can be done to change their situation. This is devastating. The author has seen grown-up cancer specialists with many years of experience leave the room of a patient with tears in their eyes, after having brought the dreadful news.
How then, people ask, can cancer be referred to as a ‘merciful' condition? Obviously, the grace cannot lie in the fact that you die a long dreadful suffering death. The grace can neither be attached to the psychological and spiritual suffering that the family of such a patient has to endure. How then can anybody be as unwise as referring to one of the most dreadful of all illnesses as ‘merciful'? What mercy could there be hidden in such suffering?
The only mercy that can be found in cancer also starts with a ‘c', but only a Capital ‘C', as in Christ. You might be wondering what the connection could be between Jesus Christ and a patient dying from cancer? Is Jesus involved in making a person sick? No, definitely NOT!
In fact the Bible emphatically teaches that God is a God that heals.
Exodus 15:26(b) WEB for I am Yahweh who heals you."
The Bible further declares that we are healed by the wounds of Jesus.
Isaiah 53:5 WEB But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was on him; and with his stripes we are healed.
Jesus was the acting person of the Godhead in the process of bringing healing to the sick. There is no way that God can be thought to be as inconsequent to heal people one day and make them sick the next. Most certainly, Jesus does not bring sickness to mankind, but healing.
Where then does Jesus Christ fit into the cancer, and how can it be reasoned that He can bring mercy into cancer? What about the ones that are not healed, but who die slow and painful deaths?
The author can testify from experience that there were numbers of people that he came across, who during their fight against cancer built such a strong relationship with the Lord Jesus, that in the end they could not wait to ‘go home'.
There was one specific woman, let us call her Tessa, who was probably the most strong-willed person that the author ever knew. Whatever she wanted, she would get, through whatever means she had to employ. She had no respect for ‘lazy' people, and although she was an active church member, she almost never took the time to read the Bible, as reading was a ‘waste of time' in which she could ‘do something productive'. Then cancer struck.
At first, she rebelled, not accepting her fate. As her own strength reduced with time, she no longer had the strength to do the things she used to do. Slowly but surely, she changed, accepting her fate, making time to talk to those people who so often wanted to talk to her when she was so busy.
In the last couple of weeks of her life, although her body was overtaken with cancer, and although she suffered the worst pain thinkable, that hard, strong-willed woman became the most beautiful, soft, gentle person that anybody could ever wish to know.
The difference came not from the cancer, suffering or pain, but from the grace of God that she received to accept her position, and from having time to spend in prayer, repenting for the first time in her life from all the ill deeds that she did. The difference came when she started forgiving every person who ever offended her, and spent time in praying for the forgiveness of everyone whom she had offended.
Does this make cancer more bearable? No, it does not. However, there have been many others like Tessa, who came to a standstill through cancer. People who, for the first time in their life due to cancer, sorted out their priorities and rightly used the time that they had left, to do what they should have been doing all the while. Remembering those, one can only admit that even cancer can be a tool in the hand of God.
Tessa did not receive healing. The joy and peace that she experienced during her last days was such however, that she asked everybody to stop praying for her healing, because she wanted to ‘go home'. May God grant every cancer sufferer to find Christ even in their suffering.
