FollowBy Larry Short
But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. (2 Corinthians 4:7)
I write for a website called Quora. People visiting this website submit questions about faith, science, and almost every other topic you can imagine. Anyone can respond to these questions, and the more your responses get upvoted as helpful by those reading them, the more you will be asked to provide answers to similar questions.
I get lots of questions, primarily about faith, but also about mushrooms! (Who knew?)
This week someone asked, “What does Paul mean by ‘jars of clay’ in 2 Corinthians 4:7?”
I thought that was a great question, so I began digging into it. I wanted to share with you what I learned, because I think it relates very closely to the challenges we are currently experiencing.
Actually, if you look carefully at that verse, “jars of clay” isn’t the only interesting metaphor there. Perhaps even more important is the phrase this treasure. What is the significance of these two metaphors? And what do they have to do with us here on earth, battling COVID and isolation and social injustice and upheaval and political quandaries and economic problems and everything else that we have been struggling through?
It’s All About the Treasure
As I looked at verse 7 and its context, I realized that Paul first defines this treasure in the verses that precede verse 7. Verse 4 refers to the treasure as being the “light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” And verse 5 adds, “For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.” Verse 6 says that the God who declared that the light He created would “shine out of darkness” also has “shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
“This treasure” is the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news that He loves us and gave Himself for us so that we could live forever with Him! And like any light that God has created, it has to shine out of darkness. Unless impeded (thinking here about Jesus’s words in Matthew 5:15, “Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house”), light can do naught but shine.
Our job, therefore, is to not impede the light that otherwise wants to shine out, overcoming darkness! The problem is, there are distinct similarities between our jars of clay and the basket Jesus refers to. Both can impede light and keep it from shining.
So What Exactly Is a Jar of Clay?
I think the verses that follow verse 7 help us understand what Paul means by the phrase jars of clay. These verses focus on who we are as Christ followers. We are afflicted but not crushed, perplexed but not overcome by despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed. Death is at work in us, so that God’s life can be at work in others.
In other words, we are (and forgive the pun) a basket case! But we are God’s basket case.
One thing about jars of clay is that they are fragile. They are made of dirt and are easily cracked and broken.
Another thing about cracked and broken jars of clay is that the light can shine out of the cracks!
Brokenness may not be something we say we aspire to. It hurts to be broken. And in these days of pandemic, social chaos, financial difficulties, and political conflict, I think we are all feeling pretty broken.
But—if we allow it—brokenness is exactly something God can use to shine His gospel light brightly out of the cracks in our lives! As songwriter/worship leader Jeremy Riddle sings:
At the cross, You beckon me
You draw me gently to my knees
And I am lost for words, so lost in love
I’m sweetly broken, wholly surrendered
Let’s not just be cracked and broken. Let’s be sweetly broken, wholly surrendered!
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