Title: Jars of Treasure
Text: II Corinthians 4:7-12
Thesis: We are “Jars of Clay” in whom God lives and through whom God is seen.
A steward is someone entrusted with the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care. (Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition)
One of the things entrusted to every follower of Christ, is the knowledge of the good news that is in Jesus Christ, the presence of God, and the opportunity to be used of God. These things are placed within us in order that others may see the glorious power of God.
Our lives are “containers” or “vessels” or “jars of clay” in whom God lives and through whom God works.
Introduction
In my little essay in the January Newsletter I wrote about Bonnie’s “good china.” It was handed down to her from her great grandmother. Her parents stored it for twenty years before giving it to her on the Christmas after our engagement. We keep the good china in an antique, curved-glass china hutch… Bonnie’s good china has intrinsic value in that it is rare and irreplaceable. Additionally, we have assigned considerable extrinsic value to the dishes… beyond the actual worth of the china, is the sentimental value we have attached to it. The good china is mostly for looking and is only used on very special occasions.
Our everyday dishes are considerably less valuable and are replaceable. There is little intrinsic or extrinsic value assigned to our everyday dishes. If one gets broken, there no great sense of grief of loss. We can either replace the piece or the whole set without breaking either the heart or the bank.
That is not to say that we have no regard for our everyday dishes… we don’t use them for throwing at each other in fits of rage or toss them in the air as targets for skeet shooting. We handle them carefully and take care of them and most importantly, we use them and we use them and we use them. They may be chipped, discolored, or show some hairline fracturing, but we use them every day. They are in a constant cycle of being dirtied, dish-washed, and restacked in the cupboard.
We may be living under the illusion that we, are fine-china people, but in fact, we are more like everyday dish people.
1. God lives in and through ordinary people.
• But this precious treasure – this light and power that now shines within us is held in earthen vessels, that is, in our weak bodies. So everyone can see that our glorious power is from God and is not our own. II Corinthians 4:7
The text begins by putting before us contrasting images: One image is of a precious treasure and the other of an earthen vessel or clay jar. The precious treasure is of great and perhaps even inestimable value… the jar of clay is not so valuable.
We are told that the precious treasure is the glory of God as revealed in Christ. And, we are told that we are jars of clay. In other words, God has placed himself in very ordinary, everyday people.
This is contrary to what we generally do with things of great value. We generally secure them in places safer than a sock drawer or under the mattress. If we want to display something of great value, we frame it in a fitting frame or place it in a display cabinet under a light or hang it on a museum wall.
We may assign a great deal of extrinsic value to our bodies and spend thousands and thousands of dollars on our bodies, but unless a person has a mouthful of gold teeth, his intrinsic value is actually quite insignificant. A trivia website notes that the elements in and the skin that covers the human body is worth about $4.50… based on the cost of cow hide, which is about 25 cents per square foot, our skin is worth $3.50 of the $4.50 estimated value. (http://www.coolquiz.com/trivia/explain/docs/worth.asp)
The idea is that a clay container is unworthy to hold a thing such as the the glory of God. The earthen vessel or jar of clay, like the human body is frail, fragile, and easily returned to dust or clay. (Albert Barnes, Barnes Notes, II Corinthians - Galatians, P. 83)
The former Pakastani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, died in an assassination attempt on December 27, 2007. The (London) Times ran an online article citing the family feud now raging as to who will be assume the leadership of the Pakistan Peoples’ Party. Her uncle, Muntaz Bhutto, leader of the 700,000 strong Bhutto tribe disputes the appointment of her son, Bilawal Bhutto and her widower husband Asif Ali Zardari as co-chairmen of the PPP. (Jeremy Page, TimesOnline, January 2, 2008)
It is not uncommon for us to think of people as people of power and influence. Benazir Bhutto was such a person. But, in reality, she, like every other human being, was human. She was mortal. She was a clay jar, who happened to hold a powerful title, was admired by many if not most Pakistanis, wielded influence, and held within her the hope of the Pakistani people. She held within her earthly life, a treasure. The treasure remains but the container was weak and mortal.
The purpose or the reason God chooses and uses jars of clay is not to disparage or denigrate human kind, but rather to demonstrate his presence and power through us. The constant danger of any jar of clay or any human conduit of God’s presence and power, is to forget that one is indistinguishable from the treasure he carries.
This is not a new concept. In his first letter to the Corinthians Paul wrote:
• God deliberately chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And, he chose the powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important, so that no one can ever boast in the presence of God. I Corinthians 1:27-29
We must stand in stark contrast to the treasure within us, otherwise we will be mistaken for the treasure. That is what God was saying through the prophet Zachariah when he said, “This is what the Lord says: It is not by force or by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty… then you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me.” Zechariah 4:6-9
Jesus reiterated the concept saying, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5
There is a reason God places his treasure in ordinary people…
2. God lives and is seen through people who may get knocked around, but never stop being available for his use.
There are many who preach that God wants to demonstrate his glory through the position or title you hold, the square-footage of your home, the model of your car, the measure of your health, and the money in your bank account… but it isn’t so. The glory of God is most evident to others through people who get knocked around, but stay in the game. They keep trusting God for strength and especially so, when they are weak. They keep serving God with all they have… they are for richer or for poorer people. They are in sickness and in health people. They are for better or worse people. They are ‘til death do us part people. Nothing in all of life diminishes their willingness to serve and readiness to be used by God in any and every circumstance.
The visual imagery in of verses 8-10 is of gladiatorial or military combat. In a series of statements Paul describes jars of clay people as people who never give up:
• They may be pressed on every side by troubles, but they are not crushed.
• They may be at their wits end, but we are never at hopes end
• They may be persecuted, but God never abandons them.
• They may get knocked down, but they get up and keep going.
II Corinthians 4:8-10
When we go through the knocks of life we are reminded that the only thing that distinguishes us from all the other people who are being knocked around, is the way we respond to it. We are never alone… others are going through the same kinds of things we go through and we may find strength in solidarity with them.
Russian author Dostoevski, best known for his Notes from the Underground, was imprisoned and exiled to Siberia in 1849. He tells how when he was kept in solitary confinement for his political opinions, the little shutter in his cell door was opened every evening, and a mysterious voice whispered, “Courage, brother, we also suffer.”
We also find strength in the knowledge that God doesn’t abandon us when our ship is sinking. Paul wrote of his own suffering in II Timothy 4:17, “the Lord stood by me.” (The Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. 10, P. 319)
“The supreme characteristic of the Christian is not that he does not fall, but that every time he falls, he rises again. It is not that he is never beaten, but he is never ultimately defeated.” (William Barclay, The Daily Study Bible, II Corinthians 4:9, P. 223)
No matter how beat up we may be… good jars of clay stand ready to hold and serve up the glory of God. We may be ordinary, everyday, knocked around jars of clay, but we see our present usefulness as transcending our own existence.
3. God lives and is seen through people who look and live beyond their own usefulness.
• Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be obvious in our dying bodies. So we live in the face of death, but it has resulted in eternal life for you.” II Corinthians 4:11-12
We live our lives so that others may see the presence of God and receive the person of Christ into their lives.
I read John Grisham’s latest book Playing for Pizza this week. It’s one of those easy read romps that make you wonder why you are reading it. It’s about a washed out, third string, NFL quarterback who ends his career by playing for the Parma Panthers in Parma, Italy. His fullback’s name is Franco and Franco is an avid fan of Franco Harris, who played for the Pittsburg Steelers during the Terry Bradshaw era. He broke Jim Browns record by rushing for more than 1,000 yards in 8 seasons. And, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1990.
Franco Harris’ father was African-American and his mother was Italian… Franco loved Franco Harris because he was a great Italian football player and he modeled his own semi-pro career after his idol, Franco Harris. In his own mind, he too was a hard running, difficult to tackle fire-plug of a fullback.
Many do but most of us do not have Franco Harris’ living on in and through us. The people that live on through me were pretty much, everyday dishes people. They faithfully lived out the life and work of God through their lives…. and I, another jar of clay continue their legacy. Whether they knew it or not, the living out of their lives resulted in eternal life for me.
They may all be gone by now… there was Mildred Cain, David Kaiser, Lester Johnson, Marie Craven, and many others. Now there are me and others whom they saw the light of Christ in them. Hopefully, after me will be others who saw the light of Christ in me…
Conclusion:
The Hoover Dam was built in the 1930s. It is something of an engineering marvel… originally engineers focused on functionality rather than aesthetics, but under the influence of British architect Gordon Kaufmann, the dam took the look of both a thing of function and streamlined beauty.
A Norwegian immigrant sculptor, Oskar Hansen was responsible for the 30 foot bronzed statues that represented “that eternal vigilance which is the price of liberty.” He also created a bronze plaque memorializing the 96 workers who died during the construction of the dam. The inscription reads, “They died to make the desert bloom.” (Bureau of Reclamation: Lower Colorado Region: The Grand Dam; www.usbr.gov/lchooverdam/History/articles/rhinehart1.htm1)
The image of lives being lived and even lost in the building of a great dam that would provide irrigation for the southwest is not lost on us. We understand and hope that others will be blessed by the living out of our lives.
As stewards of a precious treasure, we live as jars of clay so that the life of Christ may be seen in our bodies and result in eternal life for others.
