3 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty? It’s no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.
14 “You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light for all who are in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.1
Matthew 5:13-16,
The setting of this passage is the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus had just concluded what we call the Beatitudes which in themselves are descriptive of what it looks like to be a disciple of Christ… And then Jesus makes this very interesting statement… he says that the disciples are Salt and Light.
What’s interesting in this passage is that these statements do not contain a Greek imperative verb… what that means is that these are written as categories of “being” — Jesus tells the disciples that “you are the salt” and “you are the light.”
What’s important to grasp here is these are not moral commandments but statements of fact.
It is often thought and taught that to be salt and light is to participate in the political landscape or some sort of activism, but that is not what Jesus is teaching here. These are metaphors, of course, but what’s important is to understand they tell us how we are to be, not what we are to do. This is something we have to get. We must first “Be” something before we “Do” something.
In the ancient context, salt was used for two primary purposes- to preserve and to flavor. It keeps meat from rotting and from being tasteless. So here, Jesus says that his disciples are the salt of the earth, and by that he means all the inhabited places of the earth… he’s talking about the people of the earth.
What happens when you ingest salt? – it makes you thirsty right?
Thus, to be the salt of the earth is to have the characteristics of salt, preserving the gospel and the word that has been delivered to us once and for all, and making others thirsty for Christ through the message of the gospel.
And the disciples are salty because they are in Christ, who seasons them through his divine wisdom. But how does salt loose it’s saltiness?
Salt doesn’t naturally lose its flavor, but it can lose its flavor by being mixed with other compounds that dilute it. To be so mixed with other elements in the world means that it is, in effect, no longer salt. Can you think of elements in the world that would render a disciple less salty? What good is he, then, but to be trampled under the feet of those he should have been salt for?
Salt is not meant for itself, but for nourishing others. In the same way, Jesus has called disciples for the needs of others and not ourselves. We are not just to go and serve, but to be servants, this is what we are.
Also, Light isn’t meant for itself, but by a good light we can see the path we are to walk. It is useless to cover or hide a light, and in the same way, the disciples of Christ are, by their very nature, the means through which Christ’s light is displayed for the world to see. When disciples do what they are, their good works and faithfulness are like a lamp shining a light to show the way to the king.
So how does this work?
Well, perhaps you’ve heard of the homeopathic device called a Salt-Lamp. Supposedly, it helps you breath a little better by putting out negative ions that remove air particles. My wife and I bought these things to place in our children’s bedrooms at night with the hope that they might help with allergies and asthma.
As the lamp heats the salt, ions are released into the environment, and it can kill dust mites and other bad things in the air.
You see, you and I are like this salt lamp. Just by being Christ’s disciple… that is, when we are intentionally being his disciple, then we change the environments that we find ourselves in.
This may look like serving others and doing good things for others on the outside, but the Holy Spirit is using us to change the hearts of the people in our environments and open the doors for gospel message conversations.
That is what it means to be salt and light. You and I are called to be a salt lamp in the world and for the world. That’s living sent.
But this is important also: if I remove the salt lamp from its power source… it is no longer a salt-lamp but a pretty hefty paperweight. It doesn’t do anything.
Church, it’s the same thing for an unplugged Christian. You cannot Be salt and light unless you are plugged in. We don’t go to church, we must “be” the church. Together, we are salt and light.
- Picture attribution: Andrew Bossi, CC BY-SA 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/, via Wikimedia Commons [↩]
