Paul, writing to probably-not-his-favorite-church, Corinth, writes “We have this treasure in jars of clay, to show the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” (2 Corinthians 4)
Corinth was a hard church to work with. Paul’s earliest letter was the first letter to the Corinthians, a letter which it seemed he felt he had to write because the Corinthian church was a mess. People getting drunk at communion, guys sleeping with their father’s wives, folks claiming that the physical resurrection of Jesus might not have happened – all of these things were issues that Paul addressed in that first letter. That’s a pretty significant list.
So it is sort of surprising that we even have a “Second Letter to the Corinthians”. I mean, that church did NOT look healthy, but nonetheless, God continued to work by His Holy Spirit there over the span of about a year, and now Paul was writing to them again.
A lot of those problems had been worked out, but now they were falling in with some guys who called themselves the “super-apostles”. These super apostle dudes were slick. If it had been today, they would have rolled up in Mercedes G-Wagons and walked in on Louis Vuitton shoes. They would have picked up the check at lunch like it was nothing. They were impressive to be around.
Paul and company? Not so much. They had been beaten up in half of the cities they had visited. Paul’s tent making business probably just made it possible for them to have a place to sleep and a little bread. They may have even been embarrassed to host Paul and company at the weekend services.
That is why Paul writes, “We have this treasure in jars of clay.” Paul recognizes that he and his crew aren’t much to look at. They are just the earthenware jugs. Now Paul is no dummy. He is actually referencing how Adam was made out of clay here. We are these clay vessels – but the real treasure is inside us, that is the gift of the life of Jesus at work in us.
Likewise, the Corinthian church isn’t much to brag about. They’re a pretty messy set of Christians. BUT, they have the life of Jesus at work in them through the power of the Spirit. They have treasure inside of them.
It’s the same for each of us. We are just earthenware bodies. We’re fragile and maybe not always all that attractive. But what we hold inside us is of immeasurable worth, because at work in us is the life of Jesus. For all of our chipped edges and cracked handles, we get to be what holds the life of Jesus.
So pick your head up today, because you are a clay jar carrying treasure of immeasurable worth.