Treasure in a Clay Jar
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”
— 2 Corinthians 4:7-9 (NIV)
Fired clay was the cheapest material in a first century household. Local potters turned these pots out by the hundred, and a cracked one went on the rubbish heap. Even then the pieces kept working: people wrote receipts, tax notes and short letters on them, because broken pottery was free and writing material was not. Israel's law had a case where a pot used for boiling a sin offering was smashed, while a bronze one in the same case was scoured, rinsed and kept. Metal was worth saving, baked earth was not. That is the container Paul picks for himself, and just before these lines he says what fills it: God's glory, seen in the face of Christ. He quotes a complaint made against him, that his letters were weighty and forceful while the man himself made no impression and his speaking amounted to nothing. He grants elsewhere that he was never trained to speak. Earlier in this letter he says the trouble that met him in Asia was past what he could carry, and elsewhere he lists five floggings, three beatings with rods, three shipwrecks. The word rendered "crushed" is built on the term for narrow: squeezed into a space with no room to move. The next pair runs one verb twice, the second time with a prefix that pushes it to the limit: at a loss, but never at the end of the road. None of that is a claim to be tough. God trusts his treasure to people who break easily, so the strength on show is plainly his.
You do not have to pretend to be strong. Sometime in the last year you were pinned against the wall: a letter from the bank, being let go overnight, a shift that left you barely able to get home, months alone far from family, a night beside a sick child. And somehow you got up again, without the strength to do it. It is easy to put that down to yourself or to luck and forget it by the weekend. God puts his treasure in ordinary, breakable jars, so it is plain the power is his and not ours. The fact that you are still standing today says something too.
Write down what held you
- 1Write down, on paper or in your phone, one moment from the past year when you were pressed hard and did not break. Add one sentence: what held you then, if it was not your own strength. Tuck it into something you carry every day, your wallet, your phone case, a coat pocket, so it is with you next time.
- 2If no such moment comes to mind because you are in one right now, write: hard pressed, but not crushed, and tuck it away the same way.
God, you know how many times I have been pressed hard and thought that was it. I got up, and not because I was strong. Thank you for those times, even the ones I never noticed. If this is one of them now, keep holding me, because my strength runs out and yours does not. Amen.
Today I write down a moment when I was pressed hard and did not break, and what held me.
What did a jar of clay mean to Paul's first readers?
The cheapest ware in the house. Local potters turned these pots out by the hundred, and a cracked one went on the rubbish heap, though people still wrote receipts and short notes on the broken pieces because they were free. Israel's law had a case where a pot used for boiling a sin offering was smashed, while a bronze one in the same case was scoured, rinsed and kept.
Why did Paul use this picture about himself?
He repeats a complaint made against him, that his letters were weighty and forceful while the man himself made no impression and his speaking amounted to nothing. He grants elsewhere that he was never trained to speak. Earlier in this letter he says the trouble that met him in Asia was past what he could carry, and elsewhere he lists five floggings, three beatings with rods and three shipwrecks.
What does 2 Corinthians 4:7-9 ask me to do today?
Remember one moment when you were pressed hard and did not break, write down what held you then, if it was not your own strength, and carry the note with you. If you are in that moment now, write the passage's own words, hard pressed but not crushed, and carry those.