Tents and Clay Jars
On the edge of the little rural village where I grew up, a quaint pottery business sits next to the creek that forms the county border. The man who lives there with his family converted an old three-story roller mill on the property into a workspace and shop for his art. I loved the few times I was able to go in there and watch him work, his foot pumping the pottery wheel in perfect time as his hands molded a formless piece of gray clay into a plate, or a bowl, or a cup, right before my very eyes. Each piece would then be dried upside down, covered with plastic sheets. The next day, he would trim them, sign them, and adorn some of them with handles before firing and hardening them in his propane and wood-burning kilns. The ceramic pieces are then glazed before heading to the shelves.
His handmade pieces of pottery are gorgeous. Walking around his shop can feel like you’re in a museum. Yet he encourages visitors not to feel like they have to tread lightly. After all, he will be the first to tell you that he made each creation to be used and enjoyed – not to sit on a display shelf.
The apostle Paul spoke of himself and his fellow ministry partners as having “treasure in jars of clay” (2 Corinthians 4:7). The clay jars were their physical bodies. Molded carefully out of common earth for sometimes ordinary purposes, used for jobs that sometimes required them to get dirty, even abused – they recognized that the outward appearance or the things they endured physically, was not the final word.
That’s because the treasure they carried inside was Jesus Christ. Specifically, the resurrection power of Jesus Christ that accomplished powerful things in and through them even as their bodies were abandoned and beaten and threatened by death. The message of the gospel that they carried throughout the known world at that time, was the message of life for all who would hear and accept it. Many didn’t, but then many did. For the apostles, it was the life of Christ that flowed through them, most evident in their sufferings, that gave them power to continue their mission and to do so with great joy.
These “clay jars” were signed by the Potter Himself. They were used for the purposes for which He created them. And they knew that when their earthly clay finally cracked through all it had endured, their lives were only just beginning. The temporary would then give way to the eternal - the seen to the currently unseen glories to follow for the faithful children of God.
In another metaphor, the apostle Paul compared our “earthly tent” to a “building from God” (2 Corinthians 5:1). A tent is known for being a transitory shelter, to be set up temporarily and then taken down again. That is our physical body here on earth. One day, it will be taken down permanently. Unless the Lord returns first, every one of us will die. But what was once so temporary and vulnerable to the wind and rain of life will be replaced with something much sturdier – in fact, with something that will never be destroyed.
Those who trust in Jesus Christ for salvation are given the Holy Spirit, “a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come” (2 Cor. 5:5). The mortal will be swallowed up by life (2 Cor. 5:4). Our payment in full will be “a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands” (2 Cor. 5:1). One day the Lord will complete all that He said He would, and we will receive resurrected bodies, never again susceptible to pain, decay, and death.
That kind of promise should transform the way we live. God has promised His children a future that cannot be shaken, no matter what this world may do to us. We have the hope of one day being in His presence, finally finding rest, peace, and security forever. How do we respond to such a promise? The only right response is to live a life pleasing to Him. A life dedicated to His service, to telling others of the joy – a foretaste now, and fully in the future - that comes through knowing Christ and the power of his resurrection.
One day, every follower of Christ will stand before His judgment seat, and we will receive back from Him all that we have done in the body, good or bad (2 Cor. 5:10). Based on how you’re living now, what will that day look like for you? Is there anything you need to surrender, or surrender again, to the Lord? Is it time to stop looking at outward appearances and look again to the treasure within your temporary jar of clay? Let’s pitch our tents at the foot of the cross of Christ and at the entrance to His empty grave, until we’re reminded that life does not end here. Our home will be a permanent building in the presence of God.