Nothing But Jars of Clay (2 Corinthians 4:7-11)

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.” (2 Corinthians 4:7-11)

Why is it that we Christians are called the jars of clay? Is it not true that we are called blameless and holy in the sight of God? Why it is not used a glowingly glorious figure instead of an unadorned clay pot? It is true that we have an incomparably glorious ministry of the new covenant. It’s because the life of Jesus Christ might be manifested in our mortal body. What is the life of Jesus? It is the very life in which all things are made and exist. It is the eternal life that defeated the power of death, disarming the sting of death. It is the life that works when everything else fails and falls into nothing but hopelessness and despair.

The marvelous life of resurrection has occurred in the cold and darkened tomb where nothing could possibly ever happen naturally. That treasure is hidden in our mortal body. Paul says, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” No battery or pressure in the world can crush this life. No perplexity or bewilderment can make us despair for we always carry this life. No persecution or terror can alienate us from the love of God and no striking down can destroy us for the life of Jesus indwells within our earthen vessels.

 Some seven centuries before Christ was born into the world, Prophet Isaiah prophesied of His appearance, saying “He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.” (Isaiah 53:2-3)

That’s authentic Christianity. We are nothing but the jars of clay. That’s what we are. We are made for revealing His life in our fragile earthen body. The moment we think that we have something to boast of our body, we are puffed up in following the way of the world, not of Christ. What a glorious hope it is! What an incomparable riches of Christ’s life it is! We’re always carrying that life in our body, the hallmark of the death of Jesus Christ the Lord.