God is bigger than your [Cancer]
God is bigger than your cancer. He’s bigger than the cancer of the ones you love. The word that scares me right now is cancer. Maybe some other word is scaring you. Go ahead, take out the word [cancer] and put in whatever thing that’s scaring you right now: anxiety, depression, finances, relationships, future, school/job/work, time, government, whatever… God is bigger than those things too. He’s got to be. If God really created the world out of nothing, like our faith confesses, then of course He’s bigger than even our scariest problems.
So then, why is our scary list so long? Why does [cancer] keep happening, even to “the best of us?” There are easy answers, but they don’t satisfy. Answers like, “If it doesn’t kill you, it will make you stronger,” or, “All things work together for good,” or, “God is refining your character.” Hooey! All these might be true, but they go down like 100% cocoa. When you or someone you love has a serious case of suffering, these answers are too bitter.
And when we bring these questions to the Bible, we don’t necessarily get an answer. We get the psalm writers crying out, “How long O Lord…why do you let the wicked prosper?” We get the drama of Job, who lost everything, house and home, children and animals, health and friends. And even though he was the best of men, he couldn’t help asking God “Why?” He didn’t get an answer.
He got a question. For instance, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you possess understanding!’” God posed many such questions to Job, all of which remind Job that Job is not in charge.
God is. God’s bigger than Job’s tragedy. He’s bigger than your [cancer]. Even the best of us can’t help bringing our “Why?” to God. God knows our questions, and it’s okay to ask. Of course, we pray for healing. Jesus IS the ultimate healer, the “Great Physician.” There’s not a story in the Gospels where someone asked Jesus for mercy and healing and deliverance and didn’t get it. (Except, ironically, Jesus himself in the Garden of Gethsemane.) I myself need healing, right now, healing from cancer. Maybe you do too. But there’s a deeper healing that we all need, of which the [cancer] is a symbol. We need healing of body AND soul, society and this whole sphere.
We’re in a mess! And, it’s God’s prerogative to get us out of this mess the way He sees fit. And the way He sees fit is not to give us an easy answer, but a “bitter, innocent suffering and death” answer. A crucified answer. The prophet Isaiah (53:4–6, Tanakh translation) foretold:
“Yet it was our sickness that he was bearing, our suffering that he endured. We accounted him plagued, smitten and afflicted by God; but he was wounded because of our sins, crushed because of our iniquities. He bore the chastisement that made us whole, and by his bruises we were healed. We all went astray like sheep, each going his own way; and the Lord visited upon him the guilt of all of us.”
A suffering and crucified God is the most bizarre story anyone could imagine. But this is precisely how God is bigger than our [cancer]. “Yet it was our sickness that he was bearing, our suffering that he endured.” He bore it and endured it until it killed him. Then, Joseph and Nicodemus carried the heaviest thing in the world and placed it in a rich man’s tomb. And on the third day he rose again to begin healing again. In some way, your suffering is his suffering. He bore it and bears it and has come to bring healing in his own way and his own time. May God bless you as you bring your [cancer] to Him.
Originally published as a Clarence Bee Clergy Article – Submitted January 28th, 2021