Salt Baths
Text: Matthew 5:13-16
There is a saying that is often told that:
‘You are what you eat.’
If that is the case then I reckon I’m going to turn into a Chicken!!
As a result of ill health, my diet has been drastically reduced of late. I can’t eat fatty foods, dairy products, fibre, and when it comes to meat the only type I can safely eat is Chicken. So my wife, Clair, keeps looking closely at me to see whether I am starting to grow feathers and strutting around a bit!!
Food issues, over the past 40 years have always made the news, especially when it comes to what foods are, or are not good for us. Potatoes went out of fashion until a piece of research proved that we need Carbohydrates in our diet, and so potatoes came back into favour.
The same has been said about ‘Salt’. Medical research found that there was a link to heart diseases whenever there was excess salt in the diet. Massive health promotion campaigns were introduced in which salt was made out to be the baddy, and recommendations were given for salt to be removed, or at least drastically reduced from the diet.
However later medical research indicated that our bodies need salt to function properly, and the best way that body can obtain salt is through our food intake.
Even the British Heart Foundation stated that:
‘Salt is an essential part of our diet’.
Although they do qualify this statement by adding:
‘But like everything else it should be taken in moderation.’
A body that goes without salt deteriorates and is likely to get muscle cramps, nausea and lowered resistance to infection.
Lack of salt contributed to the nightmarish conditions of Napoleon’s 1812 retreat from Russia. Thousands of his soldiers died when their salt-starved bodies could no longer resist disease or infection.
So we see that salt is very important to the body, and especially so at the time of Jesus. He lived in a hotter climate than we do and salt was particularly precious.
It was so important that it became part of the language and history of the peoples of that world. In ancient Rome salt was so valuable that it was doled out to Caesar’s soldiers as part of their pay, called ‘Salarium’, from which our word ‘salary’ is derived.
[MINI PAUSE]
In some areas where salt was scarce it was traded ounce for ounce for Gold.
And in Ancient Greece it was even common to exchange salt for slaves, which resulted in the phrase ‘not worth his salt’.
During Shakespeare’s time salt was still a very precious commodity, and during that time those of high status within a household were allowed to sit closest to the salt on the dinner table, perhaps because they used their fingers to dip into the salt and thus didn’t want contaminate their food.
[PAUSE]
I have mentioned all of these points merely to provide a background to the saying of Jesus we read in Matthew 5:13
“You are the salt of the earth”
I’d like us today to consider three aspects of ‘Salt’ and see how they can be applied to us as Christians today.
1. Purity
The first of these three aspects is Purity.
When you think of salt, what colour comes to mind?
WHITE
If you bought some salt and found it to be discoloured when you got it home what would you do?
[SEEK OUT RESPONSES SUCH AS:
TAKE IT BACK;
SHOW IT TO ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH; or
THROW IT AWAY]
We automatically associate salt with pure whiteness, and similarly it is this whiteness and purity that God expects of us. Not only does God expect it of us, but non-Christians also expect it of us. It is very easy for Non-Christians to pigeon-hole a Christian as being a ‘holier than thou’ type of person, and so when they see any divergence from this pre-conceived stereo-type then this is frowned upon, because it doesn’t fit into their expectations of us.
Many are ready and waiting to knock Christians who fall short of those expectations instead of realising that we are not Jesus.
We are not without sin. We often make mistakes, for which we know we can ask forgiveness of the Lord. Through true repentance the slate is wiped clean, because the price of the forgiveness has already been paid-for when Jesus was nailed to the wooden cross.
Jesus paid the price for our sins, and also for the sins of all non-Christians, but they don’t know that. This is why WE must tell them all about the good news of Jesus Christ.
About 10 years ago I decided that I would buy a newer second-hand car, and so I went for a Volvo 340DL, for those of you who know something about cars.
When I went to buy it I was very taken with the low mileage, the performance and the cost as it was £300 under the book price for that particular model. My wife Clair was very dubious about the colour – for it was white!
It was not just white, but VERY white! It had white colour coding, which is white wheel hubs, white wing mirrors and a white rear spoiler. Now Clair was very conscious of my car cleaning record in the past, often leaving the car many weeks, even months before it was washed down and cleaned up.
Anyone who has ever had a white car will know that it shows off any dirt, dust or bird droppings very clearly, and consequently white cars will need more frequent washing than other cars.
I told Clair that I would take the car to the garage once a week and put it through the car wash. But I soon found out that although the outside of the car looked clean, as soon as you opened the doors it became obvious that the car wash had only superficially cleaned the car. The sills of the car, that is the area of the bodywork immediately below the doors were still dirty.
God doesn’t want us to go around like my white Volvo appearing clean to everyone we meet, and yet dirty on the inside. He wants us to be wholly clean. God gave the world Jesus for that very reason.
The people of Israel made a great show of worshipping God, and yet deep down there was corruption and evil within them. Christians who lose their purity become humiliated in front of loved ones and those who long to mock and wound the Christian Church.
I’m sure we have all read or seen on TV examples of prominent evangelists or others in a high office of the Church who have fallen foul of this particular problem. Satan hates to lose battles to the Lord and so he seeks out ways of corrupting the pure. As a consequence the fallen get trampled on by the media.
‘You are like salt for all mankind. But if salt loses its saltiness, there is no way to make it salty again. It has become worthless, so it is thrown out and people trample on it.’
Matt 5:13 GNB
2. Flavouring
The second aspect of Salt we are considering today is its use as ‘flavouring’.
As any good cook knows, certain foods cooked without salt can be very bland. In our household we have an unwritten rule that whoever does the cooking doesn’t have to do the washing up. So I guess I do the washing-up 97% of the time.
Which means that whenever I do any cooking I am out of practice and invariably forget to add salt where needed, which leaves very bland food as we heard in the sketch earlier.
There are certain foods that definitely taste better with added salt, for instance Tomatoes and of course what do we hear from the assistant behind the counter when we go to the chippie? ‘Do you want salt and vinegar?’
Salt acts as a flavouring to food to enhance and improve upon what is already available. We as Christians must live like this in our lives. A Christian should add flavour to life. After all a Christian who has nothing positive to contribute to the life of the world is surely a contradiction in terms.
3. Preservatives
The third aspect of salt we need to consider is its use as a preservative.
All around us there is so much darkness and evil influence upon our lives that it is no wonder that many become led astray. On TV we see examples of these almost every day: drugs, sex, violence, corruption and the evil deeds of mankind. Those of you who use computers will know that there are some nasty people who long to send viruses that easily corrupt and destroy all the files stored on a computer.
And yet we know that these evils will always remain. Jesus told his disciples this very point when he predicted about the end times. He said:
“…don’t be troubled when you hear the noise of battles close by and news of battles far away. Such things must happen, but they do not mean that the end has come. Countries will fight each other; kingdoms will attack one another. There will be earthquakes everywhere, and there will be famines. These things are like the first pains of childbirth.
Mark 13:7-8 GNB
One of the attributes of salt is that it is a very good preservative. It is used to keep things from going bad and to hold decay at bay.
Christians must be like salt in this way. William Barclay says that we must have a certain antiseptic influence on life.
When I was about 27 years old I developed an abscess in a rather embarrassing area of the body. Consequently I tried to keep quiet about it hoping it would go away by natural means.
Eventually the abscess got to such a size that the pain was intense and I was finding it difficult to walk. So I went to the Doctor, who took one look and immediately called the hospital to get me admitted. So One hour later I was an in-patient. Now I can tell you that at this stage I was IMPATIENT to get some relief from the agonising pain. Later that day I had an operation to cut out the abscess.
After the operation I was told that I had to daily wash the abscess in a bath to which salt would be added. Now I can tell you that the abscess itself was extremely painful, but placing the wound into a salt bath was sheer agony.
In fact on the first occasion I tried to do this I passed out in the bath and the nurses had to drag me out and return me to my bed. And yet the infected area of the body had to be cleansed if it was ever to be made whole again.
We as Christians must act like this cleansing salt bath. We must be prepared to be a presence that defeats corruption and makes it easier for others to become saved so they can know that Jesus is the way to Salvation.
Oh yes, it may hurt, and there may be much resistance and agonising by the individual whose life needs to be changed, after all Satan won’t give up one of his charges without a fight. But unless that person is willing to suffer in the process of change then their new life can’t begin.
Too often people come to that point of decision where to go on will involve a commitment to the Lord and possibly some form of sacrifice, even facing pain and hardship. And yet they back off. They won’t take that extra step.
[PAUSE]
Sadly they are willing to carry on with their existing way of life, just like I was willing to carrying on suffering the abscess because of my fear of embarrassment. And yet if I had not had that abscess removed it would ultimately have led to my death.
Similarly if people are not prepared to let Jesus take away their evil infection, whatever that may be, then it will definitely lead to death.
Challenge
There is an option open to you and I. We can let Jesus take away the pain, the embarrassment, the guilt, the shame that we hold inside and fear to let anyone know about.
It doesn’t matter that we have been a Christian for donkeys years, unless we regularly come before the Lord and acknowledge our weaknesses we will be limiting what God is expecting of us, and thwarting the chance of being as one with Him.
Whatever is holding us back from a loving relationship with God can be removed by bringing this to the cross of Jesus. Jesus wants to take on our pain, our embarrassment, our guilt and our shame, but He will only do it if we bring it to the foot of the Cross.
It’s no good languishing about in the shadows, or milling amongst the mocking on-lookers. You and I have to walk out in the open and go up to that Cross and lay down our infection, whatever it is, at the Lord’s feet. No one else need know about it because its between you and Jesus.
Golgotha
Now I’d like us to use our imagination and so in your minds-eye I want you to imagine that you are at Golgotha and Jesus is on the Cross. If you find it easier, then shut your eyes to take away anything that might distract you.
[PAUSE]
Only you know the real hurts and shame that keeps you from having a closer relationship to God. So I would like you to consider, in this scene at Golgotha with the crowd jeering and longing for death, just where you would be situated.
Where are you in relation to the Cross? How far away from it are you? What can you see going on around you.
Jesus is there hung on the Cross, with nails pierced through his hands and feet pinning him to the wood. He has blood streaming down from the Crown of thorns placed on his head, and from the wounds caused by the lashes to his back. He is dying, but before he does so He is waiting for us to come forward to bring that pain, that guilt, that sin which we have hidden from others and even from ourselves for so long.
He wants you and I to lay it all at his feet. Will you do that?
[LONG SILENCE]
It is finished.
Amen.
