WE HAVE THIS TREASURE IN JARS OF CLAY
2 Corinthians 4:5-12 - June 2, 2002
. 5For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6For 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 the glory of God in the face of Christ.
7But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. 12So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.
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Dear Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:
When we have a treasure, we usually try to protect it very well. We might hide it; we might put it in a safety box; but we would make sure that it is secure and safe from being stolen or ruined. Yet, in our text we heard how the Lord tells us we have treasures in jars of clay. Now that is not a very safe place to put our treasure. It is almost as if putting or hiding something under the mattress of our bed, not very safe when it comes to those who want to steal it or take it away. Yet, the Lord reminds us that this treasure in jars of clay refers to mankind himself--that we are jars of clay. The Lord reminds us of that from the very beginning. When we turn back to Genesis and look at crea-tion, we read: "The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being"(GENESIS 2:7). Thus from the dust, the jars of clay were formed. God’s choice is upon mankind to have in him the treasures, which He has given to each one of us. What are those treasures? Our text tells us, and we use as our theme the verse in the middle of our text: We have this treasure in jars of clay. I. This treasure is God’s light, and II. this treasure is Jesus’ life.
I. THIS TREASURE IS GOD?S LIGHT
Now in order to understand the importance of being a jar of clay, Paul tells us in verse 7: "We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." We know that a jar of clay is not very sturdy. When you tip over a clay pot, it is broken. There is not much you can do about it. Paul says there is a reason for this. There is a reason that God put into jars of clay His treasures. That is so the jars of clay would be reminded that they have no power and that they are as fragile as a jar of clay or a clay pot, but God has all-surpassing power. This is an all-surpassing power, which is to sustain His clay, jars; an all-surpassing power to make sure that this divine treasure is taken care of.
That is important for us to remember as we study the rest of our text. We as jars of clay are on own fragile, but God has His all-surpassing power to take care of us. In verse 5 we read: "For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake." Paul realized as a jar of clay he had no power or strength on his own, but his only power and strength that he had came from Christ and Christ alone. That was always his message--he would preach Christ crucified. He would declare to the world around him the light of the glory of God. That was the treasure that God had given him. He says, "God, who said, ’Let light shine out or darkness,’ made His light shine in our hearts." Here, Paul goes back to creation and says, "Imagine that! This God who created the heavens and the earth and who made light itself when the world was empty and without form and was dark." This God who said, "Let light shine" made light shine in the hearts of believers.
Again, we don’t probably treasure that light as much as the people of the Old and New Tes-taments. They didn’t have flashlight. They didn’t have electricity. They had dim lamps and flicker-ing candles. They did not walk around with matches to light those lamps and candles. They had to make sure a fire was burning or another candle was lit in order to have something to light the next candle. So the Lord talked about this light. It was, indeed, a precious treasure.
He goes on and says, "What about this light of God? What does it mean?" He says, "He made the light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." He says in that divine Son, Jesus, we see God’s glory. As we see God’s glory, we see that the treasure that is in us as clay pots is God’s love. It is important for us to understand the importance of light. We just turn on a light whenever we want, and our society is lit up from one end to the other with electricity. We are kind of lost when the electricity goes out. So the Lord wants us to look deeper and understand the world in which we live. This world is really a world of darkness and there are many in this life that do their deeds and works in the dark thinking they can hide them from God. There are many in this world who live, as the Lord says, as sons and daugh-ters of darkness rather than of light.
The Lord reminds us that He is light and that His light is our light to guide us on the path of life. Scripture tells us and describes that for us: "This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all"(1 JOHN 1:5). That is a great com-fort for you and I and every believer in this world for He gives us the answer to the question that sometimes we ask, "Why?" In the world around us, if we watch closely to the news or listen to it, often there are people wondering, "Why has such bad things happen to me? Why is my lot in life so difficult?" It always centers on this person or that person. At times it centers on ourselves, but the Lord reminds us that in Him is light. There is no darkness at all. He tells us the answer to "Why?" It simply is because God cares for us.
When we think there are difficulties in our life, the Lord uses those to strengthen us, to test our faith, to increase our love for Him. There is no darkness in His will for us. He causes all things to work for our good. Realizing that, our lives are changed. We look at the Lord and realize that He is the light of the world; and more specifically, He is our own personal light of salvation. We can live lives of joy and thanksgiving. Paul encourages us in Romans: "The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light"(ROMANS 13:12).
Now, the Lord describes that light as being armor, something that would protect us from darkness and from Satan himself. When we are armed with that light of God, then we realize the prophecy of Isaiah: "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you"(ISAIAH 60:1). As children of God in this world, which is filled with darkness, we are chil-dren of light. The light of God is in us--in jars of clay.
So, we have this treasure in jars of clay, this light of God.
II. WE ALSO HAVE JESUS? LIFE.
Paul already mentions the importance of Jesus’ life. He describes for us how intertwined the lives of believers are intertwined with the life and death of Jesus Himself. Towards the end of our text he says, "We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus." That may sound strange, because who would want to carry death around in their body? But the comparison he uses in both of these verses is that we have the death of Jesus in us so that we might show His life. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our bodies. Paul understood that Christ died for his sins. Because of that, he lived his life proclaiming that message of salvation. He lived his life, not just showing Jesus death, but proclaiming His life--that He came back from the dead and that He had power over death. So by showing His death, He also showed His life. He says, "For we who are alive are always given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that His life may be revealed in our mortal body." Paul, in the joy of his salvation, preached the Word of God; but also by his life revealed the Word of God; as it was his light and it gave him life eternal.
Paul describes for these believers about part of his life that may happen to them and how God is with them. He says, "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair." Paul, too, faced difficulty. People didn’t want to listen to his message, so he was per-plexed but not in despair or crushed. He goes on, "persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed." Paul was driven out of the cities, stoned and left for dead, but not destroyed. God was with him. He was abandoned. He was struck down; and yet, that jar of clay was not destroyed, fragile as it was; because he had the treasure of Jesus’ life in him.
Then he gives us the meaning of all these things in the last verse of our text. He says, "So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you." Again, going back to the fact that the Apos-tle Paul preached Christ crucified, that is the message we need to hear yet today.
We as jars of clay have the divine treasure that God has given to us. It is the life of Christ. The only way that you and I appreciate the life of Christ is by understanding that He was first put to death. First, He had to suffer and die not for Himself, but for us and for all of mankind, for the sins of the world. As He suffered, as He died, He was buried; and He came back to life. He did that not for Himself, but for us. Scripture tells us: "(God’s grace) has now been revealed through the ap-pearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel"(2 TIMOTHY 1:10). So that light of salvation, once again, is through the life of Christ.
We see it very vividly today. Death and life have a close connection even if they are oppo-site, don’t they? Yet, for the believer they are very closely connected; because without the death of Christ, we would not have life. Without the life of Christ, we would certainly face eternal death. God Himself sent His Son that He might die that we might live and that the world and believers throughout the world might live. They would live not just a life on earth, but they might live an eternal life forever in heaven. So this close connection of death we hear in Scripture, we see also in the Sacrament today--the Lord’s Supper. The Lord says, "This is my body; this is my blood." We are reminded of Christ’s death. Yet, we are reminded of Christ’s death with a certain sadness be-cause it was our sins that caused Him to die. We also rejoice because it reminds us forgiveness. Therefore, Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, says, "For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes"(1 CORINTHIANS 11:26).
We are reminded of His death but also His life and the change that it has made in us; we who are jars of clay, we who are fragile human beings, easily broken. He describes it in Galatians: "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me"(GALATIANS 2:20). Reminding us once again as jars of clay, we can’t depend on our own power or strength, but on the power of Christ that lives in us. Christ was crucified and raised again from the dead so that we too might live forever.
As Paul writes, we have this treasure in jars of clay, a treasure of God’s light, a treasure of Jesus’ life. In this case it is good that the jars of clay, so to speak, were broken. Not broken so that they were destroyed; but broken so that the light of God would be seen in the world around us and so that the life of Jesus would be declared in our lives. Jesus, when He was speaking to His disci-ples, reminded them of the importance of light. He called them a city on a hill, which could not be hidden. He reminded them and said a light, when it is lit, is not put under a bowl or a bushel; but it is put on the table so that people would see. As He was telling His disciples that, He was reminding us, too as believers, that is our purpose in life. Then He concludes by saying, "In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven"(MATTHEW 5:16). This is not praising the good deeds of the believer; but praising our Heavenly Father; because we have this treasure in jars of clay, God’s light and Jesus’ life. Amen. Pastor Timm O. Meyer
