Episode Transcript
[00:00:29] Speaker A: You. Well, hello and welcome to student of the bible. I'm your host renee, and I really have some exciting news to share. As of February 1, I'm a pastoral intern at Victory Lutheran church in Mesa, Arizona. And oh my gosh, this is such an exciting opportunity as I'm rounding out my mDiv experience with the prayerful hope of of maybe someday soon becoming a pastor. So I'm just really excited that vicariously you're going on this journey with me. And as always, please feel free to share your prayer requests or your comments or ideas for future podcasts on my website, studentofthebible.com. Also, a quick side note. In my office right now, I have three dogs, two of which are my son Devin. So I have two goldens and my lab bucks. So if you hear some strange noises in the background, it's most likely the dogs.
So the God journey that I've been on actually brings me to the topic of this podcast, jars of clay. I recently was part of a leadership team at a women's retreat, and we focused on this topic, jars of clay. It was so moving. I wanted to share a part of it with all of you.
So we'll start out. I'm going to ask, have you ever felt broken, beaten down, or unworthy, either in body or spirit? Gosh, I have. I mean, even in the midst of something joyful like my opportunity to be a pastoral intern, I feel broken, unworthy, and really unsure what God is going to be able to do with all these pieces.
So imagine you're a potter, and you have this lump of clay, and you start out on your potter's wheel, and it's spinning along nicely, and maybe it even turns out pretty well. But then something happens, either in the trimming or the firing or the glazing. Or maybe you get it all done and it breaks because it falls off the shelf.
Well, what do you do with the pieces? You discard them, right? In ancient times, there wasn't a nearby craft store to get your supplies. So ancient potters would actually dig up the clay that they would use for their pots. Just go to a place where Clay was in a field, and they would dig it up. Then they would need to clean the dirt out of the clay, and then they would use it.
This land was also where they would throw the pots that were broken and therefore useless.
This land was also called a potter's field, a potter's field. In addition to where they would discard their broken pots, it was a burial place for poor people, criminals, unknown people. It was a nondescript, barren piece of land.
Keep that in mind as we talk about the imagery of a jar of clay.
Now, in the Bible, Paul refers to us as jars of clay.
Now, it's sort of a strange metaphor until you understand what he's talking about.
In two corinthians, chapter four, verse seven, Paul starts his chapter by talking about how in and of ourselves we are broken, dirty, fallible, like jars of clay.
The treasure we have inside of our broken pots, well, that's the knowledge of God.
The gospel truth is this priceless gift contained in our broken vessel. Paul says, for God, who said, let light shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay. Why? To show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us.
We have this treasure, this priceless gift in our jars of clay.
This is so important because without Christ, we truly are worthless shards of clay that are discarded by the world.
We may paint ourselves falsely as worthy, or we may despair in the agony of self loathing, but either way, we are nothing without the priceless gift of Christ.
Though we're weak and it seems utter foolishness that God would choose us, use us.
He does. God uses us, broken vessels, jars of clay.
To spread his gospel. Paul goes on to say, we are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed.
Perplexed, but not in despair.
Persecuted, but not abandoned, struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.
This is the unbelievable truth. The valuable message of salvation in Jesus Christ has been entrusted by God to frail, sinful jars of clay.
Us.
But hear this.
Paul's message isn't focused on the perishable vessel, the broken pot. No, it's focused on the priceless contents, which is God's power living in us.
Though we are weak, the important thing to remember is that God gives us the power to do his work.
We need to know the power is his, not ours.
We need to remain humble, not proud. We need to remain in contact with our power source, and that's God.
Okay, getting back to the jars of clay metaphor.
So who's the potter? At the beginning, I had you imagine that you were. But truly, is it us? Some of us certainly think we are, don't we?
We think we can shape ourselves into who we want to be.
I've certainly been guilty of this. And if you're a type a personality. You might be guilty of this, too.
What's the result?
Well, a lot of frustration, disappointment. You may get to the end of your life. And like the book of ecclesiastes points out, it's all hevel.
Hevel? H-E-V-E-L. It's the hebrew word for meaningless.
So how do you avoid the hevel?
Well, we seek out God's will for our lives, not our will for our lives. We know that our earthly lives will end someday. But we also have the assurance that Paul says, the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus.
Therefore, Paul says, don't lose heart, though outwardly we're wasting away. Yikes. So true. When I look in the mirror, yet inwardly, we're being renewed day by day.
God is the potter, God is the creator. And the metaphor of the jars of clay, it's important because, guys, it also symbolizes renewal and rebirth.
Christ changes us as vessels. He puts us back on that wheel, and he redoes us. We're renewed, refreshed, resurrected.
But, renee, you say, yeah, that rhymes. I'm depressed.
Things aren't going well for me. I feel like a broken vessel, and I'm not feeling the light of Jesus.
How do I stay the.
You know, Paul seems knew something about pain, and he actually talks about it. Now. We don't know exactly what was going on with Paul. There's been lots of guesses about what this thorn in his flesh was.
Apparently, malaria was common in the areas that Paul traveled. So some scholars think that might have been his illness.
Paul just speaks briefly of his illness.
And regardless of what this affliction was, it's interesting that Paul talks about it directly after talking about the spiritual gifts he had received of visions and revelations.
The gift of revelation and visions.
Oh, my gosh. Incredible, right? I mean, in today's world, think how many books he could sell, how many Ted talks he could do, how much money Paul could make on tour just talking about his revelation and his visions. And Paul says, I want to sing praises to God because of this gift. But Paul also know, because he's human, it could cause him to become a boastful man. After all, not many of us receive visions from God. So then Paul briefly mentions his brokenness, and he says that he sees that God allows this thorn in his side to keep him humble. Paul tells us he begged God three times to take this affliction from him. But Paul says, the Lord told him, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.
This affliction kept Paul from becoming self sufficient.
The affliction reminded Paul of his need to remain in constant contact with God.
Wow, that really got me thinking about the suffering that I see all around me. And while it's not advisable to tell someone that they should buck up, buttercup, because God's power is made perfect in your weakness, I do find strange comfort in that fact, at least for myself.
And then Paul goes on to reflect. He says, therefore, I'm going to boast all the more gladly about my weakness so that Christ's power may rest on me.
That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weakness and insults and hardships and persecutions and difficulties, for when I'm weak, then I am strong.
As a pastoral intern, I'm finding the need to reflect on my own unworthiness.
I mean, really, who am I that I should get to be in this position?
So then do I boast about all my worldly accomplishments so that you would understand what got me to this place? Do I put on my best self so that the world sees only the clean outer shell and not the cracks?
Well, that's exhausting and, quite frankly, not genuine.
But it is a real temptation.
But, you know, I've also seen the potters field lined with the debris of people who fell hard because they forgot whose story they were supposed to tell.
It's never, ever about us.
It's always, always about him.
Now, while this truth is countercultural, all of us are genuine and approachable and real when we're weak, when we allow people to see the shards and the cracks in our clay pot, it allows others to see God in us.
If you were to look closely at my clay pot, which some of the women at our retreat saw, the proverbial clay pot that I broke into, like, a million different shards, and then, oh, darn it. Had to try to glue it back together. Yeah, you would see a lot of cracks.
You would see the dirt from the times I've fallen. You would see the tears from the time I've not only been hurt, but that I've hurt others.
You would see fear.
You'd see uncertainty and doubt from the times. I've forgotten whose child I am. I need to remember.
I'm a child of God, you guys. Praise God that our lives are redeemed from being a broken, discarded lump of clay. Through Christ, we are a new creation to be used for his purpose and his glory. Yep, right now, our cracks still show through, but someday soon, all our cracks will be gone. All our wounds will be healed. All our tears will be wiped away.
But right now we're to proclaim the light of Jesus in the darkness of this broken world. Remember that jars of clay are the greatest contrast between the value of the treasure that is inside of us. That's the knowledge of the glory of God.
And then there's us, the broken vessel that God has chosen to contain this incredible treasure.
Now go and be a blessing.
[00:16:30] Speaker B: Renee Bennett is a student of Luther House of Study, pursuing her Masters of Divinity since 2020. She has been producing podcasts on various Old Testament and New Testament topics. She has been to Israel twice and has been a student of the Bible for over 30 years. She's had various ministry positions in youth leadership, Bible study, lutheran social services, and most recently, she is a member of the Unite Leadership collective that works to equip the priesthood of all believers. She would like to direct you to her website, studentofthebible.com, where you can enjoy her over 100 podcasts and her recent edition of blogs on various contemporary as well as biblical topics. Please also follow her on her facebook page, Student of the Bible for updates on the latest podcasts and blogs. Renee welcomes any feedback or suggestions for future podcast episodes.
