You Are Clay Jars, Treasure-Filled, Indestructible
May 2024 graduation sermon excerpt
By President Rich Gurgel NWC ’81, WLS ’86
. . . What was God thinking? Why didn’t he choose more fitting gospel messengers than clay jars like you and me—with more sin lurking in our hearts than we care to admit? Why didn’t he just use his holy angels? They’re far more impressive beings. But that was not God’s plan, as Paul reveals in the first verse of your class passage: “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” (2 Corinthians 4:7).
God has poured into clay jars like us the immeasurable treasure of Christ’s love for us. God chose frail and sinful jars of clay like us because he wanted it to be very clear that the glory of his gospel is not anything from us, but it is the all-surpassing power of his grace to us in Jesus. So, yes, you are clay jars, but treasure-filled clay jars. God has loved each of you here with an everlasting love. He has known you by name from eternity. He knew that in the water of your baptism he would pour the treasure of his saving love into your hearts. And he keeps pouring his love into you day after day through his means of grace. He gives you a value that cannot be measured with all the world’s gold. This treasure brings hope and joy and peace every time you reflect on it.
At the heart of MLC’s purpose is pouring into one another this treasure of Jesus—in the hope that this treasure leaks out of us for the benefit of a world of clay jars around us.
But now, as clay jars, treasure-filled, you can expect that trouble will never be far from you. That’s especially true for all of you who will this very afternoon—or four years from now—be called into public ministry. Remember, Satan doesn’t take kindly to the plundering of his kingdom. Satan’s kingdom is undone when treasure-filled clay jars overflow to fill other clay jars. So, while Satan marks every sheep of Christ for slaughter, he puts an especially big red “X” on you. Please understand this. The fact that you’ll have struggles in your ministry is not evidence you’ve selected the wrong vocation. It’s evidence you’ve chosen the right one—and Satan hates you for it and to make things as challenging for you as possible!
But don’t be afraid, clay jars. Not only are you treasure-filled. You are also indestructible. That’s what Paul says in the last verses you chose: “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. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-11)
Do you hear God’s promise to you? Yes, you’re going to be hard pressed, but you’ll never be backed into a corner. Your Lord Jesus is always with you. He has already defeated any enemy against you. . . . Yes, you’ll often find yourself perplexed in life and ministry—at a loss to know the next step to take—but you do not need to despair. In Jesus you can never lose, because the living Jesus has you cradled in his arms. . . . Yes, unless you hide your faith in this post-Christian culture, you will be persecuted. But you are never abandoned. He has promised that he will never leave you or forsake you. . . .
Yes, there will be days you feel you’ve been struck down, as what you’d planned and worked on for weeks doesn’t turn out anything like you imagined. Yet you are never truly defeated. Your labor in the risen Lord is never, ever in vain!
Yes, you are going to be imitating Jesus’ ministry by carrying around a bit of his cross and death. Yet even when we feel the sentence of death, God is using us to deliver the treasure of life to others. Paul says that so simply as your verses end: “So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you” (2 Corinthians 4:12).
So, my dear brothers and sisters, to a world of sinful, struggling, and troubled clay jars, God sends out . . . clay jars! You are those clay jars, no strangers yourselves to sin and struggle and trouble. But there’s one massive, eternal difference. You are treasure-filled—filled to overflowing with the very treasure everyone in this world desperately needs—and indestructible!
Go, dear treasure-filled clay jars, and serve with that confidence! Amen.
