2 Corinthians 4 Jars of Clay

There are many people in the Bible with many moral and faith issues whom God uses to accomplish his plans in order to save his people. These are ordinary people who struggle with sin, depression, doubt, fear, lack of faith and more and yet because of who they are, God used them to bring his son Jesus into the world so that Jesus could take our sin and punishment to the cross because we’re unable to make ourselves acceptable to God, no matter how hard we try. Jesus loves us and offers us forgiveness and eternal life with himself and calls us to follow him and trust in him alone, to obey his call on our lives. The amazing thing is that Jesus knows that we will mess up again and again, and still he chooses us to build the kingdom of heaven here on earth.

Paul’s writing to the church in Corinth, an economic and political center in Jesus’ time. Just before this passage, Paul calls them “a letter from Jesus written by the Holy Spirit in their lives for the people of Corinth,” just like we’re letters from Jesus written to the people here. Who they are, who we are, is important because it’s through who we are as ordinary people that Jesus shines light and hope into the world. The thing that always blows my mind is that Jesus uses plain ordinary people like us to carry out his plans and build his kingdom here. Paul now moves to a different image to describe who we are, the image of people as clay jars where God is the potter who creates and shapes us.

Paul talks about not losing heart. Jesus is the treasure, the glory of God’s glory that lives us through his Spirit. Yet this doesn’t mean that life’s always easy. Allowing Jesus to shape our lives, to be his light to the world often comes at a cost. Paul is up-front about the cost of following Jesus, “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”

Paul uses the image of jars of clay to describe us. Jars of clay are common, ordinary and yet extremely useful for storing almost anything, including treasure, though there are some which are beautiful pieces of art. Just like life, when you’re working with pottery, things don’t always turn out as expected, but even these can be used to create beauty when they’re broken up and then used in creating mosaic tiles or art pieces. Even the pieces that are left over and seem useless can be broken up and placed in the bottom of planting pots to help with drainage or placed on pathways to create variety.

Clay jars, while they are durable, are also vulnerable to cracking and being broken. That means many of us/most of us are likely to be cracked pots in one way or another. There are many things in life that can crack us. Paul acknowledges that we can feel hard pressed, perplexed, persecuted and even struck down at times, creating cracks, sometimes painful cracks in our lives. Paul wants us to understand that Jesus gives us strength in life and that whatever we accomplish comes from him and not ourselves. When the times come when we wonder how we can go on because of loss, hurt, struggle, betrayal, and sin, we can be assured that because of Jesus, we’re not crushed, not consumed or in complete despair because he never abandons us nor allows us to be destroyed.

The picture of God shaping his people as a potter shapes clay is common in the Bible. One of the clearest image comes from Jeremiah 18, “This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. Then the word of the Lord came to me. He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.” God is the creator, an artist and he takes pots that are mishapen and reworks them into new jars to be used to store his treasure of grace, the treasure of Jesus’ Spirit and the glory of the kingdom of heaven. Paul reminds us of this in Ephesians 2:10, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

The events of our lives shape us, and when they create too much brokenness in us, Jesus comes offering healing and hope; the potter reforming the clay again, echoing Isaiah 64:8 “Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.” One of the big cracks in my jar is anger and depression. my wife Joyce can tell you that she has seldom seen me express really deep anger because God has led people into my life who offered hope, who helped my see the importance of controlling my anger by focusing on Jesus and how he is able to give me the ability to change my perspective on things so that my anger is more manageable. They taught me to recognize and focus on the blessings all around me and to live out of a spirit of gratitude. My cracks have been filled in, though they are still there, just not as prominent anymore thanks to Jesus and the people he has placed in my life.

The struggles in life shape us so that not one of us is like the person next to you because our life experiences are different. Because each of us is different, just like each clay jar is unique, Jesus is able to use these differences to be a blessing to different people around us. Our cracks can actually be how Jesus uses us to reach others to provide hope and guide them into a relationship with Jesus. As Paul writes at the beginning of his letter, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.”

My sister died in a car accident at 18, after the funeral one of the women in the church came up to mom and simply hugged her. She was the mother of a classmate of mine who had died in a car accident with a train when we were 18 years old. She understood the suffering my mom was going through and could comfort her in a way that no one else could. As Paul says, our nicks and cracks help us comfort others with similar cracks because we’ve experienced Jesus’ comfort during our suffering and can now offer Jesus’ comfort to others. It’s like someone who has gone through a divorce can walk alongside someone going through a divorce in a way that I could not. But I can walk alongside someone whose child has cut or attempted suicide because Joyce and I walked that pain with a couple of our children and we understand the fear, guilt, and horror of getting the call from the police to get to the hospital as quickly as possible.

We’re all cracked pots in one way or another and Jesus uses our cracks to bless others by allowing him to shine through us, to bring healing by using us as his hands, voice and arms if we allow him to do so. You can be how God reshapes someone else’s soul and heart if you open your life to allowing Jesus to use you. You can change another person’s life, you can change a community; you have that power because of Jesus. We all carry the life of Jesus in us because of the resurrection, this is the hope we offer, of new life, of a changed reality because of Jesus’ love. “Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”