‘You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. ‘You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Matthew 5:13-16 NIVUK
The city of Edinburgh is one of the most famous places in the UK for tourism. Every year, people from all over the world throng to it for its castle, gardens, historical quarter and annual arts festival.
Yet one of its lesser-known attractions lies one train stop, and around a twenty-minute walk, from the city centre, hidden from the main road in a place where few tourists venture.
We discovered Dean Village almost by accident and decided to pay it a visit. We got off the train, went straight there and arranged to meet my brother and his family, who live nearby, close to its entrance. They’d heard of the place, seen charming pictures of it, but had no idea where it was.
Ironically, the entrance where we met them was around a minute’s walk from a bus stop which they passed every time they travelled to the city centre. They had passed Dean Village many times, but had no idea it was there.
These verses are well-travelled. I have no doubt that you will have heard many sermons preached about them and read many books or meditations on them. However, it’s so easy to let the words whizz by and not stop to think.
My hope and prayer is that this time you will stop and see them for yourself, in detail.
Jesus here has three pictures of what His disciples are: not ‘could be’, not ‘should be’, not ‘might be’, but are: right then, right there.
Now, that’s quite something to say. He was close to the start of His relationship with them. They were still getting to know Him. We know from future conversations that they really weren’t quite sure who exactly He was, even close to the end of His mission. They had their doubts. They had their fears. They even had their immature jostling for position.
But Jesus, right then and there, on that mountain, said three surprising things about them. And we should find that very encouraging, because if He said them about those disciples, it isn’t any stretch of the imagination for Him to say them about us.
The first of these is ‘You are the salt of the earth’.
Now, in British English, something that is the ‘salt of the earth’ is something that is good because it is ordinary.
However, this verse was not originally written in British English. It was written in Greek.
The Greek word for salt has multiple meanings and inferences. Salt in the ancient world was used to preserve meat or fish in the absence of refrigeration. However, some of the salt that was sold was poor quality, adulterated with other minerals, and so wore out. When this happened, it was completely useless and was dumped – hence what Jesus says about salt that looses its saltiness.
Many commentators – and I agree with them – believe that Jesus is calling us to work to preserve our community and culture from moral decay. We do this this by standing against it, absolutely. But we also do this by offering people a better alternative. The Kingdom of Heaven only becomes attractive when we say ‘Yes’ to the right thing, and not just ‘No’ to the wrong.
Salt wasn’t just a preservative. It changed the taste of the food – it enhanced it (Job 6:6).
This is an aspect of being salt that many Christians fall down on. Many Christians resemble British food, in that it might look good and appetising, but it doesn’t take you long to realise that it is very bland and needs to be flavoured.
But we can’t be that way. We were not made to be flavourless wallflowers. God made us who we are, with all our quirks and foibles, to enhance the flavour of our communities and cultures – to add to then, and not extract from them.
Salt was also used in small quantities as a fertiliser. A saline solution enhanced the productivity of a field.
This to me shows that our calling as salt is to help people live better lives. Jesus came to give us life in all its fullness (John 10:10), not boredom in all it’s emptiness.
However, we can’t escape the fact that salt was also used as a weapon. Concentrated salt was a picture of desolation (Deuteronomy 29:23; Psalm 107:33-34; Jeremiah 17:6; Zephaniah 2:9). This tells me that salt must be spread out. It cannot be heaped up.
In the same way, as Christians, we cannot spend too much time gathered in one place. Yes, absolutely, fellowship is vital. Of course it is (Hebrews 10:24-25). But we can’t just stay together in our homes and churches. Too much of each other and we will become a force for evil, not good. Our beliefs will become stunted and malformed.
Isn’t this exactly what has happened in large majority Christian states and nations across the world?
We must go out into our communities to be salt, not remain in an impotent heap in church.
Salt was sprinkled on the sacrifices the Jews presented to God (Leviticus 2:13), not as a flavour enhancer, but to bear witness to both the value (salt was expensive) and permanence (2 Chronicles 13:5) of God's covenant.
We too, in our words and actions, must show the permanence – indeed, the eternal nature – of the covenant God has with us.
Being the salt of the earth is quite a challenge. We have to admit that we have not done a good job of this in the past.
Our society has not been preserved – it is rotten to the core.
We have not brought a sweet, pleasing flavour to our culture. In many situations it has been bitter and distasteful.
We have stood apart from doing things that raise our culture and our community up, and have instead delegated this to our government or to secular NGOs.
We have gathered in heaps, in fellowships and churches across the land, and not obeyed our Lord’s command to go.
It’s time to heed and obey the call to be salt for our cultures and communities.
The second picture is something of a surprise: ‘You are the light of the world’. This is surprising because of these verses:
In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:4-5 NIVUK
The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.
John 1:9 NIVUK
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’
John 8:12 NIVUK
I have come into the world as a light, so that no-one who believes in me should stay in darkness.
John 12:46 NIVUK
John consistently says that Jesus is a light and is the light of the world. So how can Matthew say that we are the light of the world? On the surface, it doesn’t seem to make sense.
Until you think about the moon.
The moon has no light of its own – indeed, no life at all of its own. It merely reflects the light of the sun. When the world gets in the way, its light is occluded and eclipsed. When it’s elliptical orbit takes it close to the earth, its light is clear and unmistakable.
This is what we are supposed to be.
But how do we become this light?
Firstly, by obeying the Word of God:
Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.
Psalms 119:105 NIVUK
Secondly, by living lives full of integrity and void of deceit, chicanery or spin:
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
1 John 1:5-7 NIVUK
Thirdly, by doing nothing to obscure or conceal the light within us, as Jesus explains in later verses:
Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Matthew 5:15-16
This is often (quite mistakenly) applied to only our talents gifts and abilities. I get it – there is an application there. But most importantly, this is about living our lives full of obedience and integrity before a watching world.
As the Bible commentator William Barclay once said, 'Secret discipleship is a contradiction in terms for either the secrecy kills the discipleship, or the discipleship kills the secrecy’.
Our light must shine.
But again, like salt, there is a caution to be had here. Light that for some is glorious and beautiful, for others is a source of pain and discomfort. The Bible is clear about this:
This is the verdict: light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
John 3:19 NIVUK
Our good deeds and our Christian life mat be benign, even constructive, for people around us, but we have to be open to the possibility that some may reject us because of them.
The third picture is mentioned in a flash, but I believe it is most helpful. It’s of a city on a hill.
I believe that this city is Jerusalem.
Pilgrims thronged to Jerusalem three times a year for the great Jewish festivals. We have fifteen of their pilgrimage songs in the Bible (Psalms 120-134). In particular, these verses speak at their delight when they set off on the long, tiresome journey:
I rejoiced with those who said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’
Psalms 122:1 NIVUK
I believe that the good lives we live when we are salt and light should draw people to us to learn more of Jesus like Jerusalem drew pilgrims.
And there is some evidence of this in Acts. The Philippian jailer, for example (Acts 16:30).
Even priests, at one time, were drawn to the Gospel (Acts 6:7).
My belief is that we, as Christians, must seek to be winsome in the way that we present our salt and our light. We cannot turn our salt into an irritant or our light into a laser. We cannot use our city as a stronghold where we keep outsiders beyond out gates.
No, we must live to preserve, to enhance, to better; we must shine our light of integrity and uprightness; we must set out to welcome those who seek the Lord.
Because if we do this, we are truly living for the Kingdom of Heaven.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, forgive me if I have become over familiar with these verses. Show me how I can be salt and light for my community, so that they are drawn to You as pilgrims were to Jerusalem. Amen.
Questions
1. How can you be salt in your community m, in a way that is not an irritant?
2. How can you be light in your community, in a way that doesn’t dazzle or blind?
3. How can you live your life in such a way that people are drawn to the Gospel through you? What do you need to change?
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