Notre Dame Has Fallen...But God's Spirit Has Not

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner 

self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is 

preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 

 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are 

unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that

are unseen are eternal. 

 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

This afternoon I watched in shock as the most iconic church in the world succumbed to flames. Notre-Dame de Paris, or simply Notre Dame, had stood largely complete since the early 13th century, its towers beacons of hope and its flying buttresses lending to its grandeur. Tonight it is but a shell of its former self...literally.

As I watched in disbelief while the flames licked away at the centuries old structure, ironically at the climax of the church calendar, I couldn’t help but juxtapose the reality that the stuff of this life is all temporary but God remains forever, a permanent fixture in an ever changing world. The apostle Paul put it this way, “the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

Victor Hugo published his book Notre-Dame de Paris, more commonly known in America as The Hunchback of Notre Dame, in the early 19th century in hopes that the cathedral, which largely lay in disrepair at the time, might receive some attention (which it did). Lindsey Ellis, a researcher on Victor Hugo, said of Notre Dame, “In Hugo’s eyes it was the summation of human ingenuity. Hugo’s idea was the building will outlast the time it exists in.” She added as a result of the fire, “that’s just not true anymore.” When something as significant as a medieval cathedral which has stood through many lifetimes falls, it might just shake your world.

In my lifetime, as I’m sure you’ve observed in yours, things wear out or get broken or lost. Life happens. In Paul’s life his bold proclamation of the gospel brought him jarring consequences. In your lifetime, you likely have encountered difficulty as well. But Paul tells us to not lose hope:

We have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed. 

 (2 Corinthians 4:7-10)

Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. 

 (2 Corinthians 4:16b-18)

Jars of clay was Paul’s way of saying “Life as you know it is temporary.” You may be experiencing temporary affliction, but it’s nothing when we compare it to eternity. 

 Have this hope: “the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” (2 Corinthians 4:7)

 Notre Dame has fallen...but God’s Spirit has not.