Treasure in clay jars

This article was published in the September to December 2024 edition of Rapport magazine.

We’ve only got to catch the briefest snippet of news to realise that there is turmoil and apparent uncertainty all around. There are so many conflicting powers and voices and it’s increasingly difficult to tell truth from falsehood in the barrage of information that hits our eyes and ears each day. Not surprisingly, society, especially the young, are increasingly anxious and confused. This was just the sort of milieu the apostle Paul encountered in Corinth.

Paul wrote:

‘For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus, Christ, Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness”, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.’

2 Cor. 4:5–7 NRSV

Paul spent 18 months in Corinth (Acts 18:1–18) and was instrumental in founding the Christian community there, comprising mainly Gentiles but including some Jews, in around AD 51. About a century earlier Corinth had been rebuilt by the Romans. Temples, such as the one to Apollo, and shrines, such as the temple of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and life, were rebuilt. It became a centre for Hellenism and Greek thought and philosophy, a centre for religious and philosophical debate, to which Christianity now added to the mix. It was infamous for its immorality, stemming in part from its links with Hellenism and the cult of Aphrodite but also because it was a seaport. It boasted two harbours where people from every nation would gather after long journeys and travels, looking for rest and pleasure.

The Corinthian melting pot

Corinth became a powerful and cosmopolitan city, with considerable racial intermixing and many different perspectives on life and how to live it. It was into this melting pot and maelstrom of voices, cultures, uncertainty and energy that the early Corinthian church emerged. Unsurprisingly, the cultural context created challenges, problems and anxiety for the early believers and new converts. Paul wrote to them out of his love and concern for their steadfastness and resilience of faith, as they were in danger of being distracted by doubts and questions being posed by those around them. In this world of learning and hedonistic pleasure, did this new Christian faith make any sense at all? Its followers spoke of a deeper, richer, eternal life and believed in a God who raised his Son from the dead. Some believers – of higher education and social standing – were developing independent views about the gospel and social practices, and Christian leaders who passed through had often had differing views on how the church should function.

Treasure in clay jars

Mindful of all this, Paul wrote on practical matters to this broad-based, multicultural audience. He knew his authority was not universally recognised, so made it clear that he spoke not of himself but of Jesus Christ who they served as slaves (doulos). In contrast to the ethos of Corinth – lauding position and self-importance – Paul’s message was of power through weakness, reconciliation, fragile pots containing treasure: the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. This message of servant-hearted service ran counter to the cultural forces opposing the gospel, speaking of a truth and spirituality based on the indwelling of the Holy Spirit – treasure in clay jars.

The Corinthians were well known across the Mediterranean and the Roman Empire for their highly glazed, beautifully decorated pottery, as well as everyday pots made from inferior clay that could crack and break when fired (think The Great Pottery Throwdown); pots that were valued in their own right, and those in which the value of the contents far outweighed the value of the jar itself. Paul’s imagery would have been very familiar, yet he drew attention to the inferior jars not those of great value, proclaiming that outward, physical appearance is unimportant compared to what God chooses to place in clay jars.

Fragility and resilience

Clay jars made from locally available material almost certainly had imperceptible cracks and imperfections that might only become apparent when they were used. These were not kept for special occasions but were everyday – ubiquitous, fragile yet durable and resilient.

That’s how Paul described the people who were holding the treasure – the glory of God – within them: imperfect, flawed but vessels that God uses nonetheless. Paul prayed these fragile people would be resilient in the face of all that was happening around them. He knew they were ordinary – just like us and the clay jars – shaped from the local terrain, people who feel keenly all the imperfections, blemishes and scars of life, people who feel fragile, crumbly, flawed, far from perfect – yet, in Christ, durable and resilient. Through God’s grace, and Paul’s encouragement, despite all the conflicting views and perspectives around them, the Corinthian believers would indeed hold onto the power of the resurrection, living out their faith in the reality they experienced in Christ.

Paul’s message of treasure in clay jars is one of great encouragement. With this simple, graphic imagery, Paul recognises the fragility and vulnerability of our human existence but radiates an unshakable belief and understanding that Jesus uses those who aren’t yet perfect, to share God’s love and message of salvation through Christ for the world. Paul knows, as does Christ, that the person we are within, the treasure we contain, which is being constantly transformed and renewed as God speaks to us through Scripture, as he reveals himself to us through his Word, as we listen and speak to him in prayer, is not crumbly at all.

Letting our light shine

Despite what we may see and hear on the news, the trials we go through, the anxiety and uncertainty we feel, God uses us already as we are. The light of his treasure and glory that is within us shines through all the cracks, holes and imperfections. Christ, who makes all things new, continues his ongoing work of restoring and bringing to perfection the world and his vessels, no matter how cracked and broken. God is in control, whatever the world out there might want us to believe.

A radical message

In the cosmopolitan metropolis that was Corinth, and in our world today, Christ’s love and power, reflected in Paul’s message was deeply challenging, countercultural and radical. ‘We do not preach ourselves but Jesus, Christ, Lord’, as some translations render it. Jesus as Saviour, a radical message for those outside the church and on the periphery of faith. All can be welcomed and included in the kingdom of God, all are invited to become cracked vessels that enable God’s light to shine through. Jesus as Christ, the Messiah had come. For the Jews who heard this message it was new and radical, something contrary to the law, hence his appearance before the authorities in Acts 18. The waiting was over: Christ, the Messiah who makes all things new, no matter how cracked and broken, has come. For the Romans, Jesus as Lord – not Caeser as Lord – a radical message for those who had rebuilt Corinth and those way outside any life of faith.

It was a message of power through blemishes, frailty and weakness, not status, outward beauty or wealth. It was the way of the cross rather than the grand palace. It was the way of plain clay jars, not highly decorated fine bone china. It was the way of service, not being served; the way of revealing God’s glory that is within us – the way of life to which we are all called, for we too have treasure in clay jars.

A non-anxious presence

Just like the lights that would have sometimes been placed in these cracked and flawed jars, God invites us to reflect the iridescent light of Christ in his world, the light of his glory in the face of Jesus; to be beacons of hope where there is hopelessness and to bring Christ’s peace and shalom where there is anxiety. Like the early Corinthian believers, we need to make sure we’re not so distracted by the outer, physical, material things of the world, and all its cares, chatter and noise (the outer jars), that we take our eyes off our true faith and resurrection belief, our relationship with God through Christ (the inner treasure) we’re called to reveal.

Being naturally supernatural

Sometimes that service and revelation is as simple as being ourselves, being present in our communities, as Paul was in Corinth for a time, and letting the light shine through. Sometimes it may be more. Whatever God calls us to in Christ, as the light shines through, it impacts ourselves and others, as the earthen jars we are reveal the treasure which lies within as it sparkles and shimmers through the cracks of our earthly life.

Revd Canon Dr Sam Cappleman
Executive Chair,
Lee Abbey Movement