Today’s passage is 2 Corinthians 4:7-12. Join us in reading it.
In the Indiana Jones movie Last Crusade, the characters have to figure out which would be the cup of Christ which gives eternal life. Of course, the bad guys look for the most beautiful chalice and choose poorly. Indy finds a simple, almost ugly cup - the cup of a carpenter - and chooses correctly. It was a paradox only the enlightened, Indian Jones, could recognize. Now that was a fictional story but it symbolizes a truth. We have a great treasure yet God has chosen to keep that treasure in “jars of clay.”
Christianity is full of paradoxes and Paul almost assaults us with them in these 5 verses. The Gospel is the most wonderful and powerful thing in the world given to us by God yet it is entrusted to and proclaimed by us mere mortal people who can fail. Paul preached the Good News, something that should have been received with great joy but instead, he was hard pressed but not crushed, at wits end but not witless, hounded but not caught, knocked to the ground but not grounded. He was always at death’s door that the life of Christ might be seen and that others like the Corinthians may have life.
It is amazing that God has chosen to use us to bring others to him. We are jars of clay and often feel we are ugly, smashed, and pushed aside. We are undesired by the world which looks for the bling. Yet we contain the very thing they need. We can choose to hide our plainness and never share the great treasure God has placed in us or we can step out in faith, despite the dangers, and proclaim God’s grace and mercy to the lost.
Questions:
- How would I recognize the ‘surpassing greatness of the power’? How would I recognize that power as being of God and not self?
- How is the life of Jesus being manifest in my life? Again, how would I recognize that in myself?
- Am I allowing the fear of being a “jar of clay” from letting others see the surpassing power from God which has been entrusted to us?