I am reflecting that we are all
earthen vessels... Often the Godless culture thinks that we humans are made of
steel, but in 2 Corinthians 4, Paul began
verse 7 by claiming, "we have this treasure in jars of clay." Instead of "jars of clay," some translations read "clay
pots" or "earthenware vessels." When I was growing up in India we used pottery
for common household use. Clay pottery was the most common material for
cookware, dishes, washbasins, and storage in the first century. Clay pots kept
liquid cool and slowed the evaporation process. Clay was easy to obtain and
work with. If a pot broke, you could make or buy another cheaply and easily.
Sometimes people stored their valuables in jars of clay, assuming that nobody
would think of looking in something so ordinary to find anything of value. If
you've ever stuck cash in a sock drawer, you get the idea.
In reality we Christians like jars
of clay. First of all, clay pots were very ordinary, in common usage
everywhere, especially in the homes of peasants and common people. Wealthy
people used more exotic materials, such as ivory, marble, glass, or fine wood,
but regular people used clay pots. I suppose it would be like saying today, "we
have this treasure in baggies." Second, jars of clay were fragile. Compared to
marble, ivory, or even wood, clay didn't last. Since it was so cheap, no one
really expected it to. People used a pot for a while, and when it got too
chipped or cracked to use, or when it fell and shattered, they simply got
another one.
Paul created a great juxtaposition
of ideas. God has taken this great treasure, the life of Christ, and placed it
in people like you and me, who are as common and fragile as clay
pots. God stores his treasure in fragile
containers—like us—to display his life-giving power. That way, it is clear that
whatever we accomplish is done only by God's power. Paul was often on the
receiving end of criticism, slander, rejection, and persecution, yet somehow the
gospel was spread through him so that the church was established throughout the
known world. The only explanation was that God must have been working through
him!
It is written "We are hard-pressed
on every side, but not crushed... We're perplexed, but not in despair." We are
reminded that the Lord never promised us
immunity from the hurts and hardships of life. If anything, following Christ
makes things more complicated and leaves us more vulnerable to hostility and
heartache. The most obvious evidence of the presence of God in our lives isn't
that we escape hardship, but that we overcome hardship. If we are feeling hard
pressed, perplexed, picked on, or knocked down, it doesn't necessarily mean that
we are doing something wrong. On the contrary, it probably means we are right
where we are supposed to be. God doesn't take pleasure in our hardship, nor
does he afflict us with pain simply to see how we will handle it. However, it
is true that every time we get knocked around without breaking, we show the
world we have something special inside us—the life of Christ. As long as that's
true, we're unbreakable.
In Christ,
Brown
