Jer 18:1-2 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 2 Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. KJV
We’re all very familiar with this Word from the Lord to Jeremiah. I’ll bet we have all heard may sermons concerning the clay on the potter’s wheel. But this morning I got to thinking about another Potter and His backyard; His field.
The potter’s back yard was a field outside his house where all the broken pottery was cast; just like an infamous field in Jerusalem.
Matt 27:3-10 3 Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, 4 Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that. 5 And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself. 6 And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood. 7 And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in. 8 Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day. 9 Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value; 10 And gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord appointed me. KJV
Think about all the broken vessels laying in that field. For 30 pieces of silver, Judas betrayed Jesus and yet what good news that was. We were all those broken pieces of pottery laying in that field; broken and discarded. But we weren’t left there. That 30 pieces of silver, the blood money of Jesus, purchased that field and all the broken pieces of pottery in it; so they could be made whole again. Think about that, because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we are once again up on the potter’s wheel, being transformed into something beautiful, something wonderful that is being created to bless this world. But it’s not going to happen unless we stay on the wheel.
As the challenges of life, like the spinning wheel, revolve around us and the pressure of The Potter’s hands (the problems, trials and struggles of life) make us want to jump off, we have a choice to make. We can jump off the wheel and hit the floor or we can stand firm and wait to see what the finished vessel looks like. Well, we all know what happens when we jump off. We wind up flat on the floor and get walked on by everyone, and we stay there until we ask The Potter to pick us back up again. Then He once again begins the process. The problem is that we seem to continue this cycle again and again; spinning, falling, and getting back up again. Why?
Perhaps i’t because we don’t think about what’s in His backyard.
How He takes a broken piece of pottery and softens it once again into a piece of clay to mold is a mystery. I only know that those 30 pieces of silver paid the price for my place back on the wheel. Which left me with a couple of thoughts this morning. First, I need to realize that the wheel is the only place for me to be if I want to be the beautiful, precious, holy and pure bride He is coming back for, and I must stay on the wheel no matter what my “feelings” are telling me. And secondly, and perhaps more importantly, I need to ensure that all those other broken vessels in the back yard know that they also can be brought back into The Potter’s house. Those 30 pieces of silver paid the price for all of us, we only need to know that we don’t have to stay in our broken state in that field forever.
Thirty pieces of silver! Oh, how we have learned to despise Judas for making that deal, and yet it was all part of The Potter’s plan to get us back on the wheel, His wheel of righteousness. If we truly understand that, then how can we fail to convey that “good news” to the other broken pieces that are still lying there in the back yard?
Yes, we need to stay on the wheel and endure the molding process and those times in the kiln when the heat seems unbearable. But we can’t afford to do that at the expense of forgetting where we came from and those who have been left behind. And maybe, if we think about it, as The Potter pushes and prods us into becoming more like the finished product, the other pieces in the field might just ask us how that happened. Sounds like a plan developed by someone a lot smarter than me!