The death of Superman

Read 2 Corinthians 4:7

7 We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. (NLT)

No follower of Jesus is a Superman (or woman). We are all more like Clark Kents. We are ordinary people who just happen to belong to an extraordinary God. We have no special powers of our own. We have not become Christians by virtue of our decency or hard work or bible knowledge.

So we are to give up any ideas of aspiring to be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound or rescue all and sundry from each and every danger. There has only ever been one Messiah and he bore the name of Jesus, not our own name.

And yet none of this renders us useless. We may be clay jars rather than exquisite ornaments, but clay jars are very useful. We may be fragile, not much to look at, and totally devoid of glamour. But we have a job to do and can do it.

Even more important, our Creator felt it right that we carry around the treasure of God’s grace and love. He entrusts himself to clay jars. And, as our text makes clear, he does so because he doesn’t want us to get carried away with self-importance. Useful we might be, valued we might be, but we are not Messiahs, not even comic-book heroes.

Just ordinary people who through the grace of God are conveyors of his grace.

Blessings
David Reay