[Picture by Adita Josh on Unsplash.]
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. [2 Corinthians 4:7 NIV]
What does Paul mean when he talks about 'a treasure in clay jars?' In the first century AD there were no secure vaults for rich people to store their jewellery and other valuable possessions. Do you remember the Hatton Garden robbery? In April 2015, four elderly criminals broke into the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Company in London and stole expensive jewellery worth almost £200 million. People were shocked at the audacity of the robbers but also the amount of really expensive items stored in an underground vault. Of course, there was no such elaborate electronic security in first century Corinth and it was a wealthy city. So people had to find clever ways of hiding their prize possessions. One common trick was to find an item that looked so grotty that no-one would ever suspect that valuables were being stored there. Clay jars, for example, were not the place where you would think people would be hiding a piece of jewellery worth a great deal of money.
This is the metaphor Paul is using in this verse. The clay jars would not be glazed or painted. They would look distinctly unattractive and unremarkable. Nobody would expect that a diamond ring was hiding in such an ordinary down-to-earth receptacle. My mother had a strange habit of hiding money in custard packets. One day she forgot that she had hidden fifty pounds and, without thinking, she threw the empty custard packet into the open fire!
The ordinary looking unattractive clay jars are human beings who have become children of God through divine grace. They are nothing special but they are hiding a wonderful treasure far greater than was ever stored in my mother's custard packet or even Hatton Garden vaults. And these human beings are flawed and failing - they are only sinners saved by grace. Paul described himself as the chief of sinners. (1 Timothy 1:15)
What treasure is Paul speaking about? He is talking about the light of God's glory displayed in the face of Jesus Christ.
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. [2 Corinthians 4:6 NIV]
Paul is making the point that people might well ignore us or treat us like 'scum ' or 'rubbish,' but we have in our hearts a most valuable possession. By the way, there is no robber or thief who can take this away from us.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, [1 Peter 1:3-4 NIV]
We have an inheritance, a treasure that can never perish, spoil or fade. But Paul is talking about something we possess right now - not something we are looking forward to in the future.
I remember hearing about a Christian brother who stood outside a Gospel Hall and was issuing leaflets to passers-by inviting them to the service. He must have forgotten to share the good news with his face and he looked a bit miserable. One person commented that he too knew what it was like to suffer from haemorrhoids! Not a great advert for the Christian message. A lesson for Robert Neilly too. During Lockdown, I was recording a video for the online service and I looked and sounded like the Rev. I M Jolly as played by Ricky Fulton.
I know Paul was not referring to our personality or facial expressions. He was making the point that we are very ordinary. God has chosen ordinary everyday people to be the safe deposit box for treasures that are so precious and valuable.
Do we really see ourselves as clay jars? Are we not thinking that this is a bit too strong? After all, the world tells us to focus on our appearance and to assert ourselves. When Paul is talking about us as jars of clay, he is not saying that we have no value in God's sight. God loves us and cares for us deeply. He loves us as individuals and wants to use all our talents and gifts. But compared with the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, we are merely jars of clay.
The overall message is that the reason for the jars of clay are so ordinary and unattractive is exactly that people will not see the containers (clay jars) and will focus on the contents (treasures). We should not seek to elevate or promote ourselves in any way to make sure that we do not detract from the subject of the message - Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God and the all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
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