THE JAR IS JUST RIGHT
- It contains the power of God
- It is sustained by the power of God
Have you ever had champagne poured out of a Styrofoam cup? I haven’t either. Because normally when you have a chance to drink champagne at a wedding reception or an upscale restaurant, it comes in a nice champagne bottle. As with most things in this life: the container usually reflects the quality of what it is holding. When expensive jewelry is purchased at a jewelry store, it isn’t simply dropped into a plastic sack for you to take home. No, it is carefully placed into a black velvet box with little white cushions inside. The container usually reflects the quality of what it is holding. A very nice perfume or a high-quality cologne is not placed in flimsy Windex-like spray bottle. It comes in a fancy glass bottle and even that is placed in its own special little box. The container usually reflects the quality of what it is holding.
As Christians, we are holding on to the greatest treasure available in this world. We have the drink more satisfying than the best of champagnes, the gem more costly than the rarest of diamonds, and the aroma more pleasant than the finest of perfumes. Paul calls this treasure “the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” We have the gospel. We have faith in our Savior. We have salvation that is absolutely free, complete in every way, and eternal in every respect. We have an everlasting place prepared for us in heaven by God himself. It is the most precious fortune a human being could ever possess. But the container that holds this treasure does not usually reflect the quality of what it is holding. Because the Lord does not offer this indescribably priceless treasure to the world in the hands of his angel armies; he doesn’t announce his plan of salvation by coming down himself in all of his glory; the Lord doesn’t even accompany this invaluable gift with outward miracles of healing or prophecy or speaking in tongues as he once did in the past. Instead, “We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” These are the words of the apostle Paul once again. He realized that he was just a clay jar compared to the message he was privileged to carry and proclaim. He was nothing special. There was nothing outwardly spectacular about him or any other Christian. He was a jar of clay holding a magnificent treasure. You are a jar of clay. I am a chipped, discolored, barely useable jar of clay. Our small Synod is a jar of clay. Our congregation is a jar of clay. This building is a jar of clay. But these jars are just right.
These jars are just right because that’s the way God wants it to be. He wants this indescribable treasure of his saving gospel to be carried around in simple, common-looking jars of clay, so that when his power does work in the hearts of sinners, all of the glory and all of the credit and all of the honor have to go to the Lord alone. The contents of the jar will be clearly identified as the only reason a person believes in their Savior without any help from the jar itself. “We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” If someone is brought to faith it won’t be because of our art of persuasion or our ability to convince the heart or our great congregation or our magnificent building facility or anything else that we can contribute to the matter. The clay jar is supposed to be overlooked. The clay jar doesn’t even do justice to what it contains! But that’s OK. That’s the way God wants it to be. Even though the jar may not reflect the quality of what it holds, the jar is just right as long as it contains the power of God.
We get a little impatient, though, don’t we? We get a little impatient waiting for the contents we carry to work. The gospel, the power of God himself, doesn’t always seem to work like we think it should. And I’ve heard that frustration expressed by multiple people lately: that our efforts as individuals and our efforts a congregation to reach out to the lost souls around us with that powerful Word of God don’t seem to be working all that well. There haven’t been too many visible results from our work. There doesn’t seem to be any positive feedback coming from the people we try to share the Word of God with. And that may be true! There has not been a lot of visible fruit from our labor. But, my friends, let us not fall into the temptation that I’m sure each one of us has fallen into before: having doubts that God’s Word really is working and then, in turn, thinking we have to do something more with the jar to pick up the slack.
All of us, myself included, have regretfully put too much credence into the size and color and outward adornment of the jar at times. Thinking that if the jar were just a little bit bigger, if the jar were just a little more noticeable, if the jar were just a little bit more impressive, then people would come. Then people would stay. Then people would take a little more notice of what they’ve been missing… “If only we had our own church building and got out of this storefront, then all of our problems would be solved!” A new church building may prompt some more people to come in, but that clay jar will not make them stay. “If only our congregation were filled with young parents and their children so that more young parents and their children would want to visit us and hear the Word!” That congregational dynamic might bring a few more people in, but that clay jar will not convince them to make this their home. And sometimes I even think to myself, “If only I were a little bit more outgoing, if only I were a more powerful speaker, if only I had a personality that people were naturally drawn to... then, then the seats would start filling up and the Bible classes would overflow and the membership list would grow by leaps and bounds!” A friendly face, a genuine invitation, a loving encouragement might bring a person through these doors, but those clay jars will not keep them coming back. We tend to give too much credit to the jar and what we can make that jar become. Sure, we want to take out any obstacle or roadblock that might get in the way of the Word. But when we start basing our “success” on the jar, we are ripping the glory and the honor right out of the hands of the Lord and trying to give it to something else that we think might actually work better!
The power of God in the gospel does not need any help from the jar. The power of God in the gospel does just fine by itself. And when we start to doubt that and begin to think of other ways to speed the process up, we are not only stepping on the Lord’s toes, we are saying to him in a very real way, “Ya know, Lord, your power in the gospel doesn’t seem to be working well enough! It’s not pretty enough! It’s not special enough! It’s not attractive enough in this day and age! We’re going to try and help you out here and give this whole evangelism thing a jump start!” Now I know you would never consciously say that to your Lord. But that is exactly the thought we are conveying whenever we think that the quality of the jar is going to be the determining factor…
How and when were you brought to faith? Many of you might correctly say that you were brought to faith through baptism. And so let me ask you: was your baptism an outwardly spectacular event? Did the heavens rip open like they did at Jesus’ baptism? Did the Holy Spirit descend on you in the form of a dove? Did God the Father audibly speak about you from heaven? In other words: were you convinced to believe in your Savior because you were so visibly impressed by the breathtaking things that happened when you were baptism? I doubt it. The jar of baptism is plain. It is simple. It is ordinary. But the power of God that jar contained worked in your heart nonetheless and brought you to faith.
Others of you may point to a specific person who introduced you for the first time to your Savior. But were you convinced to believe in Jesus because that person was such a great speaker? Were you won over by their fine-sounding arguments? Were they so dynamic and appealing that you couldn’t help but believe what they told you? I doubt it. Your pastor or your mother or your father or your friend that led you to Christ were plain, simple, ordinary human being. But the power of God that those jars contained worked in your heart nonetheless and brought you to faith.
Some of you might attribute the nurturing and strengthening of your faith to a specific congregation - and rightly so. But were you won over by the size of the steeple? Were you persuaded to believe by the ornate decorations or the beautiful landscaping or the number of people in the pews? I doubt it. The jar of that building was relatively simple. It was not the biggest congregation in this country. And it certainly wasn’t even close to being the most ornate worship facility on this earth. But the power of God that jar contained worked in your heart nonetheless and brought you to faith.
Those plain, simple, ordinary jars were just right for you to come to faith; they will be just right for others. Because think of what those plain, simple, ordinary jars contained: they contained the news about God coming to this earth in a plain, simple, ordinary form! And so in a way, those jars do reflect the quality of what they hold. God placed himself in the jar of human frailty! The Almighty was a mortal human being: unimpressive, unremarkable, unexceptional. His brothers and sisters didn’t believe in him because he was born of the same mother as they were. The people of his hometown didn’t believe in him because they had watched him grow up. His fellow citizens didn’t believe in him because he was just another Jewish person - like they all were. Most of this world doesn’t completely believe in Jesus as their Savior because this man lived for 33 years and then was killed on a cross! How can this mortal man be the immortal God? The jar of Jesus’ human nature was just that: a jar. But that jar contained “all the fullness of the deity in bodily form” (Col. 2:9) Scripture says. That jar, bruised and cut and tortured though it was, poured out the blood of God himself. That jar poured out your forgiveness on the cross. The container did not reflect the quality of what it was holding, but that was exactly the way it was supposed to be. That is how your salvation was won. And now, that unlikely message is sent to the world in the jars of clay the Lord has saved.
As clay jars, though, we are open to abuse. The jar might get scuffed. The jar might get scraped up and chipped and even discarded. But that’s part of being a jar! “We are hard-pressed on every side,” Paul himself admitted, “but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” Although Paul understood from experience the pains of being a jar of clay, he was also fully confident that what the jar contained was the very thing that would sustain him. The benefit of being a jar that contains the power of God is the knowledge that you will always be sustained by the power of God! That message you carry is what makes you strong! That Scripture you hold is what gives you the peace and comfort to move ahead. The gospel you freely give is that which gives you freedom from guilt and sin and death. And so although being a jar of clay is not always going to be the most pleasant of responsibilities, you can be sure that the Lord will always sustain the vessels he wants to use to carry his gospel to the world.
Even if that jar may change over time. This jar may grow in size as we take on more members and move into a new church building. Your jar may take on a little different color the bolder you get in your own personal evangelism efforts and the more adept you become in sharing the Word. The jar of our Synod may or may not repair the cracks that have been spreading in different directions as of late. But no matter the size or shape or color of the jar, it will always be the power of God on the inside that keeps doing the work. The jar is just right - don’t worry too much about that. Because what the jar contains is just right. And you know that the same power of God that created the heavens and the earth is the same power of God that will work in the hearts of those around us when the time is right. And so just keep pouring out the Word. Keep drenching others in the blood of the cross. Continue to release the gospel. Because once they take a drink of their salvation, what the jar looks like on the outside won’t matter at all. And that’s the way it should be.
Amen.
“May the name of our Lord Jesus Christ be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” - 2 Thess. 1:12
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