Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the historic one-year lectionary.
Life and death. These are prominent themes in all of human thought. The Bible is no stranger to this discussion. Secially significant to today's reading in 2 Corinthians 4:7-10, life, particularly the life in Christ, is considered a treasure. Yet it is not always a treasure which is obvious. In the time and culture of the writing, a clay jar was perfectly common, ordinary storage solution. Often a jar which was used for one purpose would be repurposed. I'd comare it to a cardboard box. Really, I don't have 20 boxes of copier paper in my basement. There's something else in the boxes.
The priceless gifts of God dwell in us. Like the boxes in my basement, the package is often battered, ripped, stained, and poorly labeled. Regardless, the Christian is the dwelling place of God. Verses 8-9 describe some of the ways we endure hardship. Beneath our damaged exterior, we contain the life of Jesus. Like him, one day we will die. The box will fall part. It won't be useful for anything more, so it will be left to the earth, or perhaps recycled somehow. The contents, though, the resurrection life of Jesus, will remain.
Jesus, the one who has eternal life in himself, will also raise us on the last day, as partakers of eternity. Even though my cardboard box is battered, scarred, mislaeled, falling apart, or otherwise out of commission, Jesus still gives me this gift. He is our priceless treasure.
By the way, before you try to get the treasure from the boxes I have stored, you should know that those things are really only valuable to me. They are likely quite commonplace to everyone else. We look to Christ as our treasure.
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