Treasure in Clay Jars (part 2)

^{2 Corinthians 4:6} 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.

⁷ But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. ⁸ We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. ¹⁰ We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. ¹¹ 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. ¹² So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

Treasure trove inside a dusty cave

In 1947, a young Bedouin shepherd tossed a rock into a cave at Qumram near the Dead Sea. He heard a cracking sound and investigated. To his amazement, he found ceramic pots filled with papyrus and leather scrolls that were almost 20 centuries old! Tens of thousands of scroll fragments were discovered in nearby caves, treasures that had been preserved from as far back as the 3rd century BC in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. A Jewish Ascetic sect called the Essenes, who devoted their lives to copying and preserving sacred texts, probably preserved these scrolls in clay jars and hid them in caves before the Romans destroyed their settlement in 68AD. These scrolls were still of excellent quality and contained most of the Old Testament books, including two full copies of the book of Isaiah. The Dead Sea scrolls were a great treasure that prove the reliability and accuracy of the Old Testament manuscripts and the jars preserved them all those years. In ancient times, valuable treasures like sacred parchments, money and jewels were often placed inside clay jars and hidden to keep them safe. This is what Paul’s readers in Corinth understood when they read this metaphor in 2 Corinthians 4.

Paul takes this image and applies it to believers in Christ. If we are followers of Jesus, we are the jars of clay with treasure hidden inside us– the treasure of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Clay jars were common, cheap pots that cracked easily. Similarly, ordinary, broken human beings house the message of the Gospel and the “all- surpassing power” (verse 7) of the supernatural God! Doesn’t that just blow your mind?

We have the “light of the Gospel that displays the glory of Christ” entrusted to us, to preserve and pass on to those who don’t know and to future generations. (verse 4)

Paul’s metaphor is a treasure worth mining. 

Here are some ways that Christians are clay jars safeguarding the Gospel: 

• Our ministry and service is not about us at all but about displaying God’s glory. It doesn’t make sense to praise the ordinary clay jar over the valuable treasure inside. We are just the “packaging”. The message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the treasure. 
• God seems to intentionally choose weak, ordinary human beings, not highly talented superheroes to guard his treasure on earth. Like Paul, we will experience batterings of many kinds during our lifetimes.  “Hard pressed”; “perplexed”; “persecuted”; “struck down.” This is the reality of any true messenger of the Gospel who carries “around in our body the death of Jesus” and shares in his sufferings on earth. It is in the battering and breaking of the clay jar that we see the light of the treasure within us. 
• “But not crushed”;  “but not in despair”;  “but not abandoned”;  “but not destroyed.”  I love those four “buts” because no matter what we face, we have the only antidote to despair– HOPE. God is our deliverer and the source of our hope. He may send a solution, or a particular verse from Scripture, a supernatural sign or a person with an apt word of encouragement when we’re on the verge of giving up. Even if we don’t feel God’s presence, we can be assured that He will never leave us or forsake us. When the clay pot is battered, when all natural means of self-help are gone, God’s all-surpassing power blasts through supernaturally.  It is his power, not our own, that displays “the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”    
• Clay jars are refined by fire. Trials are not the enemy but the means God uses to build character and perseverance in us, so that we may become mature bearers of the Gospel. Frailty reminds us of how badly we need a Saviour and makes us kinder to weaknesses in others. It helps us not to rely on our own abilities but to rest in Christ and know He’s all we need. Our frailty forces us to depend on the strength of God’s all surpassing power and not our own.

Grounded by Grace

I suppose you may be wondering about the ending to my own health saga. In September 2017, I finally found the help I needed from a Functional medicine doctor and since then I’ve been on a steady path to recovery, even if it’s entailed being deprived of almost every comfort and pleasure I used to know in the form of food and drink! It sometimes feels like I’m climbing a sand dune– two steps forward and one back, with plenty of sand in my shoes and mouth! (I empathise with Lawrence of Arabia.) But I wouldn’t exchange the experience of the last few months for anything.

Lessons I have learned by being grounded

God literally grounded me on purpose. It was against my will but definitely for my good. His grounding was a gift of grace to me. It may sound harsh, but Jesus is the Great Shepherd of our souls and sometimes He makes His busy little sheep lie down in green pastures and He leads us beside still waters to restore our restless little souls! (See Psalm 23:1-3). That’s what He has done with me over the past few months. I have been forced to stay at home, rest, read, enjoy simple tasks and cling to Jesus in my weakness. I have learned to gratefully accept help from my friends and family. I have been struck by the truth that I am “fearfully and wonderfully made” and am in awe of the body God has given me. I will never again be discontent with the way I look or take my health for granted, as I now see every good gift I enjoy as a privilege, not a right. I am in awe of my family and friends and their amazing love for me. My marriage is more intimate than ever before, because of the tender way in which my husband has protected and taken care of me. He has practised the kind of sacrificial love that Jesus showed the Church when He laid down His life for her and it has been humbling to receive such love. Relationships have sustained me and I am determined to never allow my to-do list take priority over people. It has dawned on me that busyness is not an indication of fruitfulness. In stillness, my purpose has come into sharp focus and I have seen more clearly than ever what God has put me on earth to do, day by day, slowly but faithfully. I am learning not to waste a moment wallowing in worry or self pity, but to run to my Saviour and cast my cares on Him over and over again, believing that He cares for me. The Lord has graciously led me to accept my temperament and to work with it to sustain healthy rhythms in my life and manage stress better. I have come to see that while we have no control over what happens to us, we can choose to feed hope or despair; faith or fear; trust or anxiety. The choice is always ours, no matter what our emotions may tell us. We may be crushed by life, but we are never abandoned by God. After being crushed by depression every afternoon for many months, God showed me that this was a spiritual battle I needed to fight and win. I actively used Scripture as the Sword of the Spirit, declaring the truth and defying my feelings. Friends also prayed with me, and in less than a week, those feelings of despondency left me and have not returned even though my physical health remained the same.

I have known all these things in my head but God’s gracious grounding translated them into my heart language. Now I truly know the truth of Peter’s declaration: “And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered for a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To Him be the power forever and ever. Amen. ” (1 Peter 5:10.) I’m grateful that the Lord Jesus put His treasure in me, a cracked jar of clay.

 

 

Treasure in Clay Jars (part 1)

A glimpse of mortality

In March this year I hit a bump in the road. I had a sneak preview of my mortality. Since then I’ve barely had the energy to survive the day, let alone write a blog.

From being a healthy, optimistic, capable person, I was reduced to a wreck! It started with abdominal pains and severe indigestion, which didn’t respond to any medication. To give you an abridged version of a very long story, over the next few months every system in my body seemed to collapse like a pack of cards, resulting in non stop headaches, muscle pains, nausea, exhaustion, insomnia, a fuzzy mind, racing heart, swollen gums and a plethora of other strange symptoms. Everything I ate made me feel sick until I could only stomach the tiniest portions of the plainest foods. I gave up caffeine, alcohol, sugar, gluten, dairy, all the usual culprits, but there was no improvement. Worst of all were the emotional and psychological effects of my “illness” which neither the army of specialists nor the dozens of blood tests, scans, scopes or x-rays could explain. I was in a perpetually alert state–wired but tired, despite taking no stimulants. Every afternoon I would be enveloped by the darkest cloud of melancholy and weepiness I’ve ever experienced. I would sleep for hours and still wake up feeling like my body was a lump of lead, incapable of doing normal tasks like stocking the fridge and cooking a meal for my family. Even planning a meal or driving my kids to school seemed insurmountable and my daily ‘to do’ list was limited to the bare basics of looking after my husband and children and surviving until dinner, at which point I could go back to bed and a fitful sleep. I felt like my life blood was being sucked out of me by some toxic, invisible force–an anonymous, cowardly enemy. It would have been easier to know its name. When I walked into doctors’ rooms, I felt like a fraud, a hypochondriac, a crazy woman with strange symptoms that didn’t tally with the test results and examinations. I reacted badly to every medication and it was embarrassing to tell people there was no positive diagnosis although I could hardly function. Without the tenderness, patience and encouragement of my husband, Pete, and the understanding of our four precious children and extended family, I may have easily teetered over the precipice of mental stability.

I was close enough to the edge to realise how easy it is to become unhinged, hopeless and desperate.

It was a profoundly humbling experience to feel so helpless, weak and out of control. But during all this time, I was able to continue to teach the Bible to women with whom I have fellowshipped for many years. They supported and prayed with me constantly. Even though I could do little else, God Himself empowered my ministry. I taught through the whole of Luke’s Gospel and 1 and 2 Peter during my weakest time and each day that I wrestled through the written word of God,  Jesus the Living Word, gave me exactly what I needed to grasp onto for my own sustenance and pass on to the women I love.  I finally understood first hand what Paul meant when he spoke of us as “jars of clay”– containers that hold a precious treasure –“to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” When we are most fragile and broken, His power is most powerfully displayed through us. Every believer is a clay jar made to display God’s glory. That is our purpose. Whatever trials we face, in sickness and in health, in wealth or poverty, we were made to shine the light of Christ in the darkness. This text is often read to comfort people who are grieving, but let each verse wash over you afresh:

Treasure in Clay jars

^{2 Corinthians 4:6} 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.

⁷ But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. ⁸ We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. ¹⁰ We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. ¹¹ 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. ¹² So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

It doesn’t take much to get a glimpse of our mortality. Read part 2 of “Treasures in Jars of Clay” to see how this vision can be a gift.