Salt & Light

Sermon on the Mount, Part 2

Every time some food item gets bad press for lack of healthfulness here in America, somebody decides to create an advocacy group for it. Then we get to see slogans like, “Beef: it’s what’s for dinner,” or, “Pork: the other white meat,” or even, “Got milk?” I enjoy cooking, and last week I was browsing one of my wife’s magazines for recipe ideas when I noticed that salt now has an advocacy group, too. The ad claimed that 90% of the time when your recipe “needs something,” it needs salt. That statement got me thinking, because aside from using way too much salt, it seems that the claim is correct. Salt doesn’t just add flavor—it enhances those that are already present. We even put salt on out dinner tables so it can be added if the taste of something isn’t just right, allowing those who are consuming a particular dish to fine-tune the flavor to their liking. But most thought-provoking is the idea that salt is noticed more when it’s missing than when it’s present (unless there’s way too much, of course).

Jesus knew this when he used salt as an analogy:

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.”

Matthew 5:13, English Standard Version

Who’s the audience?

In my recent post about the Beatitudes, I pointed out that the identity of the audience is relevant to understanding the message. The same is true here: who is he calling “the salt of the earth?” It’s exactly the same crowd as before, but I think that the identity he’s referencing in this verse (and the few that follow) is the crowd’s ethnicity: they’re Israelites, descendants of the blessing promised to the offspring of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And as heirs to that promise, there was also an expectation that their uniqueness would be made apparent to Israel’s neighbors.

Consider this passage from the Torah:

“See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the LORD my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?”

Deuteronomy 4:5-8, ESV

By Jesus’ time, much of the nation of Israel was very arrogant about this blessing, to the degree that anyone who wasn’t a Jew was treated as if he or she were less than human. But although its preferred status with God is very real, the blessing was never intended to breed arrogance among the Israelites. In fact, rather than spurn the gentiles (or non-Jews), the blessing was intended to attract them. And notice that the blessing would be identified as having God near to them.

So, looking at Jesus’ analogy of salt, the nations would look at Israel, notice its relationship to God, and suddenly realize that their own existence “needs something….”

Grafted in

Okay then, “so what?” What’s Jesus’ point in telling that particular group of people that particular message at that particular time, and what does it mean to us at this particular time?

Consider that Israel, generally speaking, had lost it’s “saltiness” through the attitudes it kept towards the gentiles. Also consider that, at that particular place and time, God had never before been so near to them, although many of them may not have realized it yet. And lastly consider that, very soon, the message Jesus was preaching would race outside of Israel’s borders and begin reaching these very same gentiles, reviled as they may be.

Let’s look at the next few verses from Jesus’ sermon:

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

Matthew 5:14-16, ESV

Israel was chosen by God to represent him in this world, but it was never intended to keep God to itself. God is not only the God of the Israelites—he is the God of all creation, and I believe that all the gentile nations were (are) intended to become a part of Israel and share on its blessing. But how is that going to work? The apostle Paul gives us a clue in the book of Romans chapter 11 where he speaks of “wild olive branches” being grafted into an olive tree. Gentile believers in God and Jesus are ushered into the promise and blessing of Israel.

So Jesus, like Moses thousands of years before him, is telling his Jewish followers to let their saltiness and their light be apparent to everyone in order to attract the other nations to himself.

And, because we have been grafted into Israel, we gentile believers are under the same charge. So maybe we need to take a good look at the way our faith looks to unbelievers. Does the way we live our lives and the way we interact with others make them say, “surely these Christians are a wise and understanding people?” Do you think that by observing our lives, they can sense that there’s something missing from theirs—not wealth or happiness or popularity, but something more like peace and joy and grace?

As Christians—representatives of Christ himself—our lives should be remarkable for humility, not pride; for generosity, not greed; for justice, not judgment; for integrity, not hypocrisy; and for compassion, not complacency.

Something to meditate on….