Just as the visiting pastor wrapped up his sermon, a loud explosion in the back of the church rumbled the building. In one moment, the believers went from worshiping God to frantically running for their lives. They tried to flee into the hallway, but another bomb exploded along their escape route. Bodies and blood were strewn everywhere in the church that was once called "sanctuary."
An elderly woman lay on the floor, unable to move. The Bible she had been studying moments ago in a worship service fell next to her, stained with her blood. It was opened to a page where she had circled three verses sometime before the attack on the church. "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed."(2 Corinthians 4:7-9)
The radical Muslims considered the innocent people expendable for the sake of their cause. But believers' deaths gleamed like jewels as a testimony to God's faithfulness. The enemy may have broken the elderly woman's body, her "jar of clay"; but her inner treasure was revealed as her spirit ascended to heaven a few days after the attack. That is the great purpose behind why we are called jars of clay. It is to show the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us (2 Corinthians 4:7). We are weak, we are frail, we are lame; and yet, we are chosen. We are loved. “God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (1 Corinthians 1:28).
Our only boast is in Jesus our Lord who is for us our wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption. He is our perfect righteousness, who not only meets us in our weakness, but covers our every sin and deformity by his blood. We are more aware than ever before that death may come unexpectedly at the hands of our enemy. Yet you do not have to fear death. We can walk confidently, not in our ability but in the ability of our Savior. We can walk confidently not in our strength, but in his. It is good to be a jar of clay.
After all, the worst our enemy can do to us is to kill our mortal bodies. Your physical body is not the real "you." Be comforted today, knowing the treasure of your soul cannot be touched.
