Cancer Blog #21
By Brian Zimmerman
Begun on July 31, 2021
Email: dyingman1@yahoo.com
My Dying Words
Entry #21
January 19, 2022
[Luke 17:15-19] 15 Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, 16 and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine where are they? 18 “Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?” 19 And He said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has made you well.”
I thought that we ought to talk a little about those cases in which a person with a terminal diagnosis doesn’t die in a short amount of time (like me, for instance. I was given a terminal diagnosis in May 2021 and here it’s January 2022 as I write this entry. As I told someone, I need to start one of these entries this way: “This is embarrassing – I’m still alive!” Or, change the blog name from dyingman.org to dyingslowlylikeeveryoneelse.org, as a friend suggested). How should we respond when we expect or prepare to die but don’t? (my diagnosis hasn’t changed. It’s still just “treatable, not curable”, so my life has been extended, but I’m not “cured”)
All Were Healed
Well, I think the passage above gives us some guidance. Here’s an account of 10 lepers who came to Jesus for healing. Leprosy was known to be a communicable disease, even thousands of years ago. They didn’t know about the leprosy bacterium as we do, but they weren’t stupid, just ignorant. God had required permanent quarantine for lepers to prevent its spread. And, it was a terrible disease. But, these lepers are given a reprieve by Jesus. He sends them to the priest as the Law commanded to be officially granted the seal of healing so they could re-enter society. They all were healed but only one returns to Jesus to express his thanks.
Gratitude to God First
But, notice that gratitude is, of course, first to God (vs 15), so it seems this Samaritan was a Jewish convert. And, of course, similarly, if we were healed of a terminal illness (I don’t believe leprosy was normally terminal), who, if he were a Christian, wouldn’t fall on his face and thank God? But, the leper returns to the human (I’m not sure the leper knew Jesus was the God/man, but probably at least was a prophet) who was the instrument of God’s healing. The leper’s obedience to Jehovah not only resulted in thanking God for His healing in answer to the leper’s request, but also in an act of thanksgiving to the man God had used to heal him.
But Don’t Stop There
I think some of us would be tempted to stop at the step of thanking God. God answered our prayer for deliverance and we certainly should glorify Him, maybe with a loud voice! But, I believe I see a broader principle at work here. Gratitude should be first and foremost to God, but should in no way excuse a failure to express that gratitude also to anyone that God has used to help answer our prayers for deliverance from death.
Who to Include?
Who might that include? Well, it should certainly include those who have joined their prayers to ours in seeking our healing and release from the sentence of death (or its delay). Who knows if God was moved only by our individual prayers? Maybe He was moved by the pleas of many to grant us His help. When the Israelites were in Egypt, and they suffered under the slavery imposed by the Egyptians, God was moved to deliver them by their groanings (prayers) as a people (Genesis 2:23-24). God had promised their release from bondage in Egypt, but it was the prayers of His people that moved Him to send Moses to effect their deliverance.
But, that’s not all, of course. There were likely those in the medical community who were God’s human instruments of healing. Certainly in my case I know that’s true. I bought all of my wife’s Mother’s Day presents in April because I didn’t think I would live to May 9 (Mother’s Day in 2021). The treatments my oncologist and his NP administered were used by God to extend my life till now. I think God expects I should thank them for that service. And, what of my wife, and my brothers and sisters in Christ, who supported and cared for and encouraged me in this time? I think God again looks for me to express my gratitude to them. So, I have indeed expressed thanksgiving to the medical community, but I also wrote a note of appreciation to the people of my church for their prayers and support, and I take every opportunity I get to say thank you to any who have cared for us in our time of need. And, I cannot thank my wife enough for her care and love.
The Bottom line
So then, don’t neglect the opportunities you have to show gratitude. Don’t let Jesus say to you: “Were there not 10 cleansed? But the nine – where are they? Was no one found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” Giving glory to God appears here to involve more than just praying with thanksgiving. It involves also showing gratitude to any human instrument He decides to use to answer our prayers.
Next entry: Some thoughts about how to understand a screening lab test in the bigger picture. Hold onto your hats for that one