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‘60s Spirituality: Jesus People and Clay Pots
By David Jeremiah
A lot of the early “Jesus People”—think California in the late sixties—looked like the hippies they had been. Their dress and appearance were “countercultural”—sandals, patched bell bottoms, peasant shirts, beads, flowers, and long hair. They were “Jesus Freaks,” a label they wore proudly. They brought their hippie, contrarian lifestyle with them into the Body of Christ.
Many in the early Jesus People movement lived communally, imitating the lifestyle of the early Jerusalem Christians (Acts 2:42–47; 4:32–37). Artists and craftsmen pursued their vocations and sold their goods—paintings, pottery, weaving, music—to help support their Christian “family.” They lived, worked, shared, studied, and discipled one another as committed Christians.
The Potter and the Clay
Because pottery was a common artistic pursuit among some in the hippie movement, and thus among the Jesus People, biblical references to “the potter” and “the clay” caught the attention of early converts. This was an image they knew well:
But now, O LORD,
You are our Father;
We are the clay, and You our potter;
And all we are the work of Your hand. (Isaiah 64:8)
To their credit, many Jesus People were sincerely dedicated to following Jesus. Their communal lifestyles—giving up personal ambitions for the sake of Jesus and His people—reflected their simple, yet profound, understanding of what it meant to be a Christian. Indeed, they didn’t see a lot of radical commitment in established American churches. The idea of being clay in the hands of the Divine Potter appealed to their sold–out, spiritual sensibilities.
The Jesus People, in their love of the potter–clay imagery, latched on to something that shaped their spiritual outlook. And we should allow it to shape ours as well—to yield to God the way clay does to the potter’s hands.
The Divine Potter
What would we do without the variety of containers we use every day? Plastic milk and water jugs, glass jars, plastic containers of all sorts, cotton and canvas bags, wooden and cardboard boxes, large and small. We don’t think twice about what a benefit they are. But think about biblical days, especially in the Old Testament. They had one kind of container that served a multitude of purposes: clay jars. If you had a variety of different needs, you simply made or purchased a different sized clay jar or pot. Everything was clay! Some were fancy, some were common (2 Timothy 2:20–21). But they were all made of the same stuff—dirt (clay) and water.
It’s no wonder the potter–clay image shows up so frequently in Scripture—beginning in Genesis 2:7 where “God formed man of the dust of the ground.”
Human beings represent the very first examples of God’s skill as the Divine Potter!
And the image continues.
In the midst of his agony, Job reminded God that He had “molded [Job] like clay.” Why would God now destroy what He had made (Job 10:8–9, NIV)? Isaiah rebuked Israel for thinking that she, the clay, knew more than God, the potter (Isaiah 29:16; 45:9). Jeremiah lamented that Israel, “once worth their weight in gold,” had reduced themselves to mere “pots of clay” (Lamentations 4:2, NIV). The apostle Paul used these Old Testament references in defending God’s right to elect whom He will to salvation—the pot not having the right to challenge the potter’s work (Romans 9:20–23). And the image of God as Judge is often pictured in terms of a clay pot being smashed to the ground (Psalm 2:9; Jeremiah 19:10–11; Revelation 2:27).
The dominant theme in Scripture is a simple one: God is the potter and humanity is the clay. It is another way to express God’s sovereignty over all humanity; a way to express our need to yield to His divine plan; a way to encourage us to find the purpose for which we have been made; a way to accept the divine purpose for all of God’s handiwork.
The Divine Potter’s Plans
In 1902, a forty–two–year–old woman sat in a prayer meeting with a broken heart. She had served the Lord faithfully all her adult life in various capacities, all the time dreaming of her heart’s desire—to take the Gospel to Africa as a missionary. Finally, her plans seemed certain to be fulfilled. But at the last minute, her dream evaporated like a mist because she had not been able to raise sufficient funds. Heartbroken, she attended a prayer meeting at church.
Hardly able to focus on what was going on around her, she was struck by the words of an elderly woman who prayed, “It really doesn’t matter what you do with us, Lord, just have your own way with our lives.” She couldn’t get that idea out of her mind as, later that night, she sat meditating on Jeremiah 18:1–3, the story of God the potter shaping Israel the clay. Before retiring that night, Adelaide Pollard wrote out all four stanzas to the now–beloved hymn, “Have Thine Own Way, Lord,” published in 1907. You may know the words to this beautiful hymn by heart, the first verse of which says,
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.
In Jeremiah’s image of the Divine Potter and the clay, one thing caught Adelaide Pollard’s eye: The Potter saw a blemish in the clay He was using, so He shaped the pot again. Had God delayed Adelaide’s trip to Africa in order to shape her differently, to refine her for His service? She didn’t know but was willing to yield herself to the Potter’s hands. And she did eventually get to Africa as a missionary, all in God’s time.
Adelaide’s heart and hymn prompt us to ask:
Have we yielded to the Divine Potter in our life? Are we content, indeed happy, with how He has shaped us?
The Divine Potter’s Purpose
Here are four lessons to take from the biblical imagery of the Divine Potter and His clay:
First, He has a plan. I’ve already said that pots were the primary containers in biblical days. From my survey of Scripture, I find references to them containing manna, broth, meat, stew, flour, silver for refining, scum, and certainly water. When potters shaped their pots, they made them of various shapes and sizes according to purpose and plan. If God is the Divine Potter and we are His clay, should we not be willing to yield to His plan for our life? (Psalm 139:13–16)
Second, there is variety in what He makes. Look at God’s creation! The beauty and variety we see reflect God’s infinite creativity. And we are part of that creation. Does a sparrow look at a hawk and wish it could soar as high? I don’t think so. But because of our fallen nature and resulting insecurities, we find it hard to be content with God’s design. We like the shape and size of someone else better than our own image. We are wise not to fall into the trap of making comparisons (2 Corinthians 10:12).
Third, there is an ultimate purpose for God’s pottery. Just as there is one raw material for clay pottery, so there is one ultimate purpose for God’s pots—to contain a “treasure”: “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6–7). Like fragile clay pots, God has made us like “earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us” (verse 7). Look at us!
Are we not a motley collection of humble, earthen vessels? Indeed we are. But the Gospel is not about us. It is about the “treasure” we contain to carry to the world.
Fourth, there are no imperfect pots. Jesus collected a dozen common, chipped, cracked, leaky earthen vessels with which He would change the world. He poured Himself into those vessels regardless of the shape they were in. (One substituted the treasure of Jesus for thirty pieces of silver that were ultimately used to buy “the potter’s field”—a burial place for strangers [Matthew 27:1–10]).
You and I are earthen vessels—imperfect, even damaged—that the Divine Potter has shaped for a purpose: He has filled us with the treasure of knowing Jesus. Don’t despair about your shape, size, or condition. Rejoice that God wants to fill you and use you—so when others look into you, they will see a treasure beyond all others!
This article is adapted from the August 2013 issue of Turning Points Magazine and Devotional, a ministry of Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah. Request your complimentary subscription today.
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