Treasure in Clay Pots

Read: 2 Corinthians 4

At first look, this passage seems rather harsh. It speaks of non-believers being blind and that a fundamental part of Christianity is to endure hardships in the name of God. This is mainly what 2 Corinthians is about; the fact that Christians can boast about "the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ" (NIV). The letter was written after Paul's second visit to Corinth, where he discovered that the Christians there were beginning to slip back into their old ways, and was designed as a short, sharp shock to get them to buck up their ideas, to teach them that they didn't need to be quiet about their faith. Being a Christian isn't just believing in the Good News - it's about spreading it as well. At the end of the day, God has chosen to give us this wonderful news and the hope that comes with believing in Christ. God has chosen to give us the Holy Spirit, and the Old Testament has prophecies fulfilled by Jesus that prove His nature and that He was anointed by the Holy Spirit.

But just because we were chosen by God to share this wonderful Good News, does that really mean that we won't have hard times? After all, it is part of the human condition that we all have the power of emotion, and that will always allow something to make us feel sad, or angry, or troubled in some way or another. When we feel sad, it's easy to drift from God and feel completely alone, because in many ways the Bible depicts God as living outside of the human condition. What we have to remember, however, is that Jesus has been through everything that we have. Jesus has experienced sadness; He was forsaken by His disciples, accused by false witnesses, wounded, bruised, spat on, mocked. Many people don't see Jesus as having gone through the emotions that all of us face every day; after all, Jesus is God. But Jesus is God in human form, capable of all the emotions that we are -  both positive and negative.

We can see this when Jesus was praying in the garden of Gethsemane. He asked His disciples to stay and watch while He prayed, and three times they fell asleep. Jesus had counted on His friends to stay up with Him while He prayed during the most difficult time of His life, but they fell asleep.

In verses 3 and 4, Paul critisizes people who are too focused on earthly things and not on Jesus. He explains that as Christians we can see what non-believers can't; we can see "the light of the gospel" because we believe in Jesus and love God with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our body and with all our spirit. God has given us the Holy Spirit to live with us and take care of us, to make sure that we never stray too far from God even in the worst times of our lives. When Jesus was praying in the garden of Gethsemane, the Lord sent an angel down from Heaven to strengthen Him in His anguish. What Jesus was facing them, just before He was arrested, was probably worse than anything anyone else would ever have had to face, but God hadn't left Him, just as God never leaves us now. Compared to the earthly desires of the modern age, that seems to be a greater treasure by far. So what do we do with this treasure? Do we keep it safe and sound in a pot on the mantlepiece or hidden away in the back of the cupboard? Or do we proclaim it to the world? One of the most common earthly desires is for more time. Time to rest, time to do our hobbies, time to spend with the people we love and admire. As Christians, the person we should love and admire the most is Jesus, and we can't expect to really maintain a relationship with Him if we never spend any time with Him, praying or reading the Bible. The people whom Paul described as blind to the "light of the gospel" would probably consider praying or reading the Bible a waste of time; so how much closer to God would we be if we all spent a little more time working on that relationship with Him, or getting others to hear the Message as we do? Many of you may not have considered trying to spread the Message before. Many people think that's a job for vicars and rectors alike and that their own jobs are purely to turn up on a Sunday morning and listen to them. They may think they're not qualified, and that if they tried, people who are qualified will critisize their every word, nit-picking their attempt and scrutinizing every detail. But you can tell people about the Message in any way you want to. Because, after all, Jesus doesn't mind who is telling His story, or how it's being told.

Look at the Apostles. They were chosen by Jesus Himself to go out and preach the Message after He had ascended to Heaven. Yet He didn't chose people who were respected or famous. We don't know the occupations of all of the Apostles, but we know that at least four of them were fishermen. And Matthew was a tax collector - which was not a popular occupation to have in the time of Jesus. Compared to Jesus, the Apostles - then disciples - were unadorned clay pots. They were ordinary. Their lives were no more special or luxurious than any of ours. Yet they received the Holy Spirit from God and suddenly those clay pots became filled with treasure. Does anyone doubt that God never left the Apostles, just as He never left Jesus? God was with them throughout all of their ministries all over the world, but you can't deny that they didn't face hardships of their own.

In verses 8 and 9, Paul writes that we - as Christians - are hard pressed, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down. While that may not be a great advert for Christianity, he also writes that we are not crushed, not in despair, not destroyed and - most importantly - not abandoned. Through every hardship we have to endure, God has not left our side. In fact, it could be the total oppsite; that God has always been with us, and has been working in us without us noticing until the Holy Spirit can help us find a new direction to take. How wonderful is that? That we have someone with us all the time, even at the worst of times? And surely that's some of the best news that we have to spread - that no matter what situation we find ourselves in, God will find a way to help us deal with it, get past it and leave it behind. So whatever it is that you may be going through, God will have prepared you for it in some way or another; whether it's something seemingly insignificant in the past that gives you the knowledge of what to do, or whether it's the Holy Spirit giving you direction from within.

It doesn't matter what we may face on earth, because God is always with us. And even in the midst of our troubles, we can be at peace in the knowledge that they're not going to last forever. But everything that God has given us - everything that God has promised - that will.