Jesus was a Palliative Care Guy


Yesterday morning I did devotions for the Palliative Care Training, so it made sense to me that the devotions focused on Palliative Care.  Using four bible stories about Jesus, I described Jesus as  a  “palliative care guy.   Here it is:

Jesus was a palliative care guy because he met people where they were at.  Take the Samaritan women at the well for example.    Jesus always put love  above the law which was true when he talked with the Samaritan woman at the well.  The law said that Jesus should not be talking to a woman in public, especially a Samaritan woman.  There was not love between Samaritans and Jewish people.

The woman was at the well at the hottest part of the day when Jesus approached her for a drink.  It begs the  question why was she there in the heat of the day?  She was a woman that all the other women loved to talk about.  One can imagine how the conversation might have gone.  “Did you hear she has had 5 husbands and now she is living in sin with the 6th man?   “I heard every husband divorced her.  There has got to be something wrong with her!”

Jesus met here where she was at-in the place of her pain,  in the place of her  rejection, in the place of her shame.  Jesus met her in her low self-esteem and Jesus showed her respect, treated her with dignity and loved her unconditionally.

That is what you do in palliative care.  You are doing the work of Jesus as you meet people where they are at without judgement.

Jesus is a palliative care guy because he saw people.  Once again in the story of the woman who was bent over for 18 years Jesus put love before the law as he healed her on the sabbath.  Imagine it, for 18 years she could not look others in the eyes because she was so bent over and no one looked her in the eye, either.

Jesus saw that people passed her by, pretending not to see her.   Jesus saw her need to be healed.  Jesus saw her loneliness and isolation.   Jesus saw her and took action.  He made her well the Greek word is sozo which means he healed her, he made her whole, he saved her.

That is what you do in palliative care.  You see people’s physical, emotional and spiritual pain and you take action.  You are doing the work of Jesus.

Jesus  is a palliative guy because he heard people.  

Bartimaus was a blind beggar.  He sat by the roadside listening to people pass him by day after day,  When he heard that Jesus was coming down the street he yelled as loud as he could, `Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.”   The crowds  told him to be quiet, which made Bartimaus scream even louder, “Jesus, have mercy on me.”

Jesus was on this way to Jerusalem, on his way to save the world, but when he heard Bartimaus  he stopped in his tracks for one blind beggar.  Jesus’ love is big enough to encompass the whole world and a blind Berger.  Jesus heard Bartimaus, stopped and gave him a new life.  

That is what you do in palliative care, you stop to listen to your patients, be present to them and tend to their needs.  You are doing the work of Jesus.

Jesus was a palliative guy, because he brought comfort to those who needed it.

Take for example the woman who had a hemorrhage for 12 years.   She had been bleeding for 12 years which made her spiritually unclean, emotionally untouchable, and physically drained of all her energy.

She just thought if I merely touch is garment I will be healed.   Touching Jesus was a huge risk because if she was discovered she could be stoned to death for making him unclean.

What did Jesus do?  He healed her physically, but he also tended to her emotional and spiritual distress.  He did not shame her, shun her or berate her.  He comforted her.

That is what you do in palliative care.  You bring comfort to those in need.  You are doing the work of Jesus.

Jesus was a palliative guy.  He met people where they were at,  he saw people, he heard people and he brought comfort to people.

You are called to follow in the footsteps of Jesus-

To meet people wherever they are at, to see people and love them as they are, to hear people and take action to alleviate their pain and to bring physical, emotional and spiritual comfort to God’s people. 

May God’s love surround you as you follow Jesus in giving palliative care to your patients.




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