By using this image of being the salt of the earth Jesus is saying several important things. First and foremost Jesus is saying to his followers that they are valuable. While a lot of Jesus messages focused on the confession of sin, and he did call his followers to deny themselves and even take up a cross, none of this was because people weren’t worthwhile or because they had no value, quite the opposite. In Jesus eyes, everyone had value and worth and purpose. This is really one of the bedrocks of Jesus teaching that we often overlook. We talk a lot about sin and sacrifice and suffering when we talk about what it means to follow Jesus, but Jesus worked hard to lift people up and help them see that they had infinite value to God. When Jesus reached out to heal lepers, when he spoke with women and when he welcomed children into his arms he was making a radical statement about the value of people. When whole groups of people were simply disregarded and told they had no standing before God – Jesus came along and told them that they were loved by God.
In a culture that often didn’t lift up people’s human rights or dignity, Jesus reminded everyone that they had value and that they had a place in the kingdom of God. When we consider the world around us today, maybe we need to recapture that fundamental message of Jesus and remind people that they are valuable. I heard someone say this week that no matter who we are, we are somebody’s child, we are someone’s son or daughter and even if there is on one in this world who would claim us as their own, God does. I’m not sure I ever looked at Jesus statement, you are the salt of the earth, and thought of it in terms of Jesus saying to his followers you are valuable and important, but it is true and this statement was simply one more way that Jesus lifted up and encouraged those who followed him.
But Jesus is certainly saying more here. We aren’t just important and valuable to God; when Jesus says we are salt he is giving us a purpose and a responsibility. Again, in Jesus day salt had one main purpose; it was used as a preservative. To put it simply, salt was rubbed on meat to keep it from rotting so what Jesus is saying to us is that our interaction with the world around us needs to make a difference, we need to help our culture and community from rotting. We have to work for and preserve what is good and Godly around us. As salt we are to bring life – God’s life – and love and hope and peace into our world, and take note here that this is not an option or suggestion, it is a statement of fact. You are the salt of the earth, Jesus says, not you can be or you should be, but you are, but we will only be that salt when we are living our lives for Jesus Christ.
Look at where Jesus placed this teaching; it comes right after the section we heard last week called the beatitudes. In the Beatitudes, Jesus lays out the attitudes we need to embrace in our hearts and lives if we want to experience the fullness of God. He tells us that we need to be poor in spirit – which means not trusting in ourselves but in God. We need to be meek and merciful, we need to work for peace and hunger for righteousness. The consistent theme of the beatitudes is that we need to surrender ourselves to God and live in a way that reflects the values and the desires of God. If we will do this, we will be the salt of the earth. If we will live the way God calls us to each and every day then we will be living a life that makes a difference in the world around us and our words, actions and attitudes will help keep the world from rotting.
As we think about being the salt of the earth Jesus says we need to think about the power of purity, look at Matt. 5:13.
Jesus talks here about salt losing its saltiness, which is hard for us to understand because the salt we use never loses its saltiness and the reason it doesn’t is because it is pure, this salt has no impurities, but salt in Jesus day wasn’t pure. Salt came from many different sources and depending on where it came from it carried with it many other minerals and substances and it was these impurities that would make salt lose its saltiness quickly and once salt lost it’s saltiness it couldn’t be used as a preservative, it actually wasn’t good for anything except to be thrown out into the streets. So what Jesus is saying here is that if we are going to be the salt of the earth, then we need to pure, so let’s talk about the power of purity.
Now when we talk about purity here, we are not talking about being morally perfect – we are talking about being authentic and real. Are we willing to be genuine followers of Jesus, which doesn’t mean we never fall or fail, it simply means that we are honest? As followers of Jesus we will make mistakes and we will struggle with sin. It will happen and God knows this, so what God is looking for isn’t perfection, its honesty. When we fail, are we willing to be honest and confess our sin? Are we willing to be real with people about our shortcomings and honestly talk about God’s forgiveness and grace? Are we willing to share with people what we struggle with when it comes to our faith? God is looking for this kind of honesty.
The harshest words that Jesus had for people were not for those who failed or even those who were caught in the most public and wretched of sins – those were the people Jesus loved the most and they were often the ones Jesus publically forgave and welcomed as his followers; no the people that Jesus was the most critical of were the people who simply were not being honest and real about their lives and their faith. It was the hypocrites, those people who professed to love and follow God and yet didn’t do either, who Jesus called snakes and vipers and whitewashed tombs. If we are going to make an impact in our culture for God, if we are going to reform and even transform our community for good, if we are going to make a difference in people’s lives, it won’t happen because we are perfect, it will happen because we are willing to be real with them about our relationship with Jesus. When it comes to being the salt of the earth we need to understand the power of purity, there is power that comes when we are real with people and willing to share with them what we know and what we don’t know.
When I think about the people who have had the greatest impact on my life and faith, I realize that it is not the people who were moral giants or people who gave the impression that they never sinned; it was the people who were honest with me about how they simply tried to follow Jesus. When I think of those men and women, I realize that they were poor in spirit, they confessed and mourned their sin, they didn’t have all the answers but they wanted to know more – the hungered and thirsted for God. They were merciful with me and their mercy and love was a reflection of Jesus. There is power in purity and if we want to be effective salt that works to make an impact in the lives of the people around us then we need to take seriously this power and be willing to be authentic with those around us. Even here at church we need to make sure we don’t act more righteous and holy than we are, we need to be willing to be honest and vulnerable and real about our lives and our sin and our salvation that comes from Christ alone.
Not only does Jesus say we are the salt of the earth but he also says that we are to be the light of the world. Notice again that it is not a suggestion, it’s not you should be the light of the world or you can be the light of the world, it’s you are the light of the world, and again we are the light that reflects Jesus and shines in the darkness when we are openly and honestly living our lives for God. If we want to be the most effective light we can be then Jesus says we need to understand the power of availability, look at 5:15-16.
When Jesus says that we don’t light a light and then hide it under a bushel but instead place it on a lamp-stand to shine in the darkness he is telling us that we need to make ourselves available to God by going into the dark places of our world. Think about it, the power of light is that it penetrates the darkness, a light shining in an already lit room doesn’t make any difference, so if want to make a difference in our world then we need to not just be content to live boldly for God here in the brightness of God’s people but out there in the world where living for God is noticeable because it is different, and where the light of our faith can make a difference.
The truth is that there is a lot of darkness in the world today that God is calling us to go to. There is the darkness of hunger and poverty, the darkness of injustice and the oppression of women and children around the globe. There is the darkness of depression and loneliness, the darkness of hopelessness and isolation felt by people of all ages. There is the darkness of violence, the darkness of despair, the darkness of disease and death. There is the darkness of doubt and brokenness and sin all around us and God is calling us to go to that darkness and just live lives of faith. If we will go and live authentic lives as followers of Jesus – we will be a light that brings hope, a light that brings possibility, a light that brings love and truth and life. What is the darkness that God is calling you to go to? What is the darkness that God is calling us as a church to go to? We are all called to shine the light of Jesus in the darkness, so where are those dark places that God is calling us to enter?
As salt we need to understand the power of purity, the power that comes when we are honest and real about our lives and our faith, but as light we need to understand the power of availability and be willing to go into the darkness that lies all around us, but there is one more power we need to understand if we want to be salt and light. When we get serious about living for God in this world, things will get messy. Think about it, when we act as salt we are coming up against the brokenness of our world trying to reform and preserve, so it will get messy. When we shine light in the darkness it means that we are living in the dark places where there is sin and pain and despair, so being salt and light is messy and difficult and the problems we face will be beyond our ability to fix, but they are not problems beyond the ability of our God. Our God is greater than any problem or any darkness in this world, so as we live as salt and light we need to understand the power of prayer.
Ultimately, the power that will reform our culture and make a difference in the darkness doesn’t come from us, it comes from God. I am constantly reminded that the power to change someone’s heart or life doesn’t come from me, it doesn’t come from anything I will say or do, it comes from God. The power to preserve our community doesn’t come from us, it comes from God and the light that will guide people to Jesus ultimately doesn’t come from us – it comes from God living in us, so as we seek to be salt and light, we need to first be people of prayer asking God to reform and transform us and then through us and through the power of God working through us, change our community and world.
Next Steps:
• Identify one relationship where the power of purity (being honest and real about your faith) can make a difference.
• Ask God to show you the specific darkness that he is calling you to, and then outline ways you might be able to go into that darkness with the light of Christ.
