Treasure in Clay Jars

Picture a plain clay pot. Chipped at the rim. A crack down one side. The kind of thing you'd find in any kitchen and throw away without a second thought. Now picture someone lifting the lid, and the room filling with light.

Paul's second letter to the Corinthians is the most personal letter he ever wrote. Some visitors had come to Corinth, impressive speakers with letters of recommendation, and they made Paul look small. He's not much to look at, people said. His letters are strong, but in person he's weak. He suffers too much. Surely a real messenger of God would be more successful, more powerful, more impressive? Paul had just come through a time of trouble in Asia so heavy that he thought he would die. Now he answers his critics. And he doesn't argue that he is strong. He says something far more surprising.

Because God in his mercy has given us this work, Paul says, we do not lose heart. We don't use tricks. We don't twist God's word. We just tell the truth openly, and let people's consciences judge. If the good news seems hidden to some, it's because the god of this age has blinded their minds, so they cannot see the light of the glory of Christ. “For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.” This isn't about us, Paul says. And then he reaches all the way back to the first page of the Bible. The God who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone into our hearts, to show us the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” Earthen vessels: clay jars. Ordinary, fragile, cheap. That's what Paul says he is. And that is the point. When a cracked clay pot carries a treasure, nobody praises the pot. Then Paul describes his life, line by line. “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.” Squeezed, but not crushed. Confused, but not giving up. Hunted, but never abandoned by God. Knocked down, but not knocked out. Paul says he carries the dying of Jesus in his body, so that the life of Jesus can be seen there too.

So why keep going? Because, Paul says, we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us too, and bring us with you into his presence. Everything is for your sake, so that grace reaches more and more people, and more and more thanks rise up to God. “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” On the outside, I'm wearing out. On the inside, God is making me new every single day. These troubles are light and brief, he says, compared to the weight of glory that is coming. “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

Clay jars were the throwaway containers of the Roman world. Olive oil, wine and fish sauce were shipped across the Mediterranean in clay amphorae by the millions. In Rome there is still a hill, Monte Testaccio, made almost entirely of broken oil jars, dumped there in ancient times once they had been emptied. Nobody treasured the jar. Everyone treasured what was inside.

Treasure in clay jars. You'll find it in Second Corinthians chapter four. A battered messenger who didn't pretend to be strong, because he knew the power was God's and the treasure was Jesus. So here is a question to carry with you. When you feel weak or cracked, how might God want to show his light through you?