“The treatment goal is palliative, not curative.” My eyes locked onto these words on the screen of my laptop. A lump formed in my throat. I could feel the tears begin to well in my eyes. I hadn’t been expecting this. I had followed a link in my email encouraging me to set up access to my patient portal. Once I gained access, I began clicking around to see what was in my portal. I stumbled upon the notes from my recent consultation with an oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. I had been casually reading through the doctor’s notes when these words at the conclusion of the third paragraph stopped me in my tracks. “The treatment goal is palliative, not curative.”

Five weeks earlier I had been hospitalized with severe pain and swelling in my right leg caused by a DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis, or a blood clot). I actually had a DVT in both legs, both running the entire length of my leg, but only the right leg was swollen and causing me pain at the time. During my late night visit to the ER at our local community hospital, the Physician Assistant on duty ordered a CT scan of my abdomen which revealed a mass in my pancreas and several in my liver. A couple weeks later a biopsy confirmed what we already knew: pancreatic cancer. Since it had already spread to my liver, my cancer was classified as stage 4 or metastatic pancreatic cancer.

The information in the oncologist’s notes was not new to me. The day after my CT scan in the ER, the oncologist who consults and oversees the treatment of cancer patients at my local hospital happened to be on-site and stopped by my room to meet me. He was gentle but honest about the prognosis. Stage 4 cancer is treatable but not curable. The goal is to slow and delay the effects and end result of the cancer. But for some reason, the succinct summary statement of the Dana-Farber specialist in gastrointestinal oncology, printed in black and white on my laptop screen, made the reality hit home in a way that I had not experienced before. If this specialist at a world-renowned cancer research institute had no more hope for a cure or a better treatment plan than my local oncologist, it really was as bad as we feared.

The numbers don’t lie. More than half of the people diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer die within a year of their diagnosis. Only ten percent survive three years. Only three percent survive 5 or more years. The numbers are slightly better for me because I fall into the category of “younger people,” which in this case means people ages 50-65. But only slightly.

After the shock set in, I decided to look up the word palliative as it was used in this context. I had an idea of what it meant, but I wanted to be sure. A palliative treatment goal is one that seeks to relieve the symptoms of a disease without dealing with the underlying cause. More or less what I thought. We were treating symptoms, but the goal was not a cure for my disease.

As I considered these facts and their significance to my condition, it occurred to me that my condition really is not much different from the human condition. We are all born with a disease. It is a disease that humanly speaking is incurable. But we have all kinds of palliative treatments for it. Some palliative treatments are altruistic. We treat our disease with efforts to be a good person or through attempts at kindness. We try to make good choices and support good causes. We care about the environment and recycle everything, right down to our gum wrappers. Other palliatives are more overtly religious in nature. We seek to obey a set of rules or standards prescribed by a deity. We observe holy days and perform rituals meant to make us acceptable before our god.

Others choose a more carnal path to palliative treatment. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Good times, good friends, good beer, and good sex dull the pain and make us forget the disease for a time. Also falling into this category is the pursuit of wealth and material goods. A bigger home, a better car, a newer phone, a faster boat. Some believe they can fight the disease through health and fitness. Two hours a day in the gym or training year-round for marathons and 10Ks. Pilates, yoga, weight training and meditation. But these too are just palliative, not curative.

The disease we have all inherited from birth is our sinful nature which is born out in our rebellion against the God who created all things and gave us our life. Paul was describing our condition when he wrote, “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” (Romans 1:19-21, ESV)

Our darkened hearts cause us to pursue palliative treatment for our condition. And we know deep in our hearts that these are just palliative, not curative. Not even our sincere attempts to be righteous and please God can cure us of the disease. Our treatment goal is palliative, not curative. But unlike the specialist who could offer me no more hope for my cancer than a palliative treatment, God sent us a specialist who does offer us a cure for our condition. He sent his own son Jesus to be born into our human condition, but without a sinful nature. He faced every temptation, but lived a perfect, sinless life. Yet he was sentenced to die on a Roman cross according to the plan and foreknowledge of God (Acts 2:23). But God raised him from the dead, letting us know that our disease had been conquered; a cure was now available.

And the best part about this cure is that there is nothing that we need to do or can do to get it. We can’t earn it or buy it. We can only receive it by acknowledging our condition and humbly asking God for the cure – the forgiveness of our sins and the removal of our disease through faith in Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection on our behalf.

All of this came to me as the words continued to stare back at me from the screen: “The treatment goal is palliative, not curative.” The tears of fear and grief and self-pity that had been welling up in my eyes were replaced by tears of joy, gratitude and hope. To paraphrase the words of Jesus in Matthew 10:28, we need not fear the disease that can kill the body but not the soul. Rather we need to fear the disease that can destroy both body and soul in hell. Praise be to God that by his grace he offers us the cure for this disease so that we may be delivered from hell and enjoy peace, forgiveness and the hope of eternal life with him. God’s treatment goal for your disease and mine is curative, not palliative.

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