Scripture: Matthew 5:13-17; Psalms 112:1-10; 1 Corinthians 2:1-16
Theme: Jesus Salt!
Proposition: Jesus affirms and encourages his disciples by sharing the Good News that they are the salt of the World. I. Like Salt we are to be Stable and Consistent II. Like salt we are to be Essential and Indispensible III. Jesus wants us to be Salt that is bursting with Flavor
INTRO:
Grace and peace from God our Father and from Jesus Christ, His Son who came to take away the sin of the world!
This morning, I would like for us to look at a passage of scripture that we find in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount as recorded by St. Matthew. In chapter five, Matthew begins by telling us that Jesus wanted some quality time alone with his disciples. So, Jesus leads them up on a high mountain to get away from all the hustle and bustle of the crowds. What Jesus has to say to them is/was of the highest importance and he did not want them to be distracted by a great deal of noise. Jesus was wanting them to understand what it meant to be a Christ follower.
That is what we discover as we read Matthew chapters five through seven. Matthew shares with us this beautiful collection of Jesus' teachings, principles and virtues that make up what it means to follow Jesus. This morning, if you have ever wondered what it means to be a disciple of Jesus then I would encourage you to take some time to read the Sermon on the Mount.
However, let me also add a word of caution. Please don't attempt to fully understand and assimilate all of the Sermon on the Mount in one or two sittings. You will discover that it cannot be done and then you will be discourage. What Matthew has provided for us is enough material to last our life time. There is just so much truth, so many spiritual gems and so much of the LORD in these passages. When he wrote his book on the Sermon on the Mount, Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones was compelled to use over 300 pages in his attempt to share its riches. Father Richard Rohr writing recently on the Sermon isn't quite as verbose but even he could not condense it to less than 200 pages.
There is just so much here to read, to meditate on and to soak up The passage I would like for us to look at this morning is the one that we find after the Beatitudes. Now, if you have read our Lord's Beatitudes or have heard them then you know this morning that you could spend a whole week just looking at, studying and understanding them. As you read them you begin to see how Jesus desires for us as His followers to have a whole new vocabulary, a whole new vision and a whole new value and virtue system. He invites us to understand the true meaning of having a life blessed by His Heavenly Father. He invites us to understand the depth, the breath and the width of God's Kingdom. It's all rather amazing!
I would like for us focus our attention on Matthew 5:13 -16. In this section our Lord uses a couple of wonderful little designations or symbols to help us understand what it means to be His disciple. He uses these symbols to reveal a part of what He sees as their identity and character. Both of these symbols (salt and light) are very expressive and underneath them is the foundational thought that they never exist for themselves. Salt does not exist for itself and light does not exist for itself. Both of these symbols speak of reaching out and of being a service to others and to our world at large. Pliny the Elder, a great Roman scholar and writer around the time of Jesus said this, "For the whole body nothing is more beneficial than salt and sun." (Natural History 31:102). It is with that same attitude that Jesus wants us to see ourselves as His salt and light. He wants us to understand that in the Kingdom of God and its global mission we are necessary, indispensible and beneficial.
Sadly, we don't have enough time to adequately look at both symbols in the depth that they deserve. Therefore let's for a few moments direct our attention to the first symbol - that of SALT. Let's allow the Holy Spirit to open up our hearts and minds this morning and share with us how we are the Salt of the Earth and what that exactly means today.
I. Like Salt we are to be Stable and Consistent
One of the primary problems that still affect the Body of Christ today is that of being stable and consistent. Historically, we in the Church have suffered from this problem all the way back to St. Peter, St. Thomas and the rest of those early disciples. In our every changing world we in the Church have made the mistake of being reactive instead of just being Christ. Instead of merely being in what I will call Salt mode we have all too often been in a reactionary mode. At times we have worried more about what the world thinks of us than in us simply following the will and directions of our LORD.
I believe we could also testify that sadly at times we suffer a rather roller coaster experience with Christ. We find ourselves being up and then being down. We get hot and then we get cold. We are all on fire for Jesus and then we find ourselves falling away. One day we are passionate about the Word, about prayer and fasting and worship and the next day we have to drag ourselves to worship, we notice our Bibles are gathering dust and we haven't practiced the spiritual disciplines of prayer and fasting for days, weeks and in some cases years.
Jesus understood this would happen. He understood that one of the things that His disciples needed to hear and understand was that as His Salt they could live a stable and consistent life as a disciple. That is exactly one of the main reasons Jesus used the symbol of salt for you see, there are very few things in our world that are as stable and consistent as Salt. Salt is salt and salt stays salt.
Salt is not manmade. It is not something that we humans invented or created in some chemical lab. Our Lord God made salt. When He created the heavens and the earth the LORD created salt. It was Our Lord God Almighty who put sodium chloride together, put in on our earth and called it Salt. In fact, He put a great deal of salt on our earth. There are trillions of tons of salt all over the earth. Salt is one of the most common minerals on our planet. And it is one of the most stable and consistent minerals on our planet. The only way you can truly change the properties of salt into something else is to make it go through a rather complicated process using electricity.
Salt not only stays salt it also stays salty. So, with that in mind then, what exactly is Jesus saying here when he refers to this idea of salt losing its flavor or saltiness in verse 13?
Actually, Jesus was having a rather good time with his disciples. And in doing so, He was abundantly assuring them that a life as Christ salt can and should be a life of stability and consistency.
You see, there is an old Jewish story around the time of Jesus that can help us understand what we read here in our passage. It involved a rabbi named Joshua ben Hainia. The story goes that Joshua found himself surrounded by some Greek philosophers that were doing their best to stump him. They asked him question after question after question only to discover that rabbi Joshua was well versed in all kinds of knowledge. Finally, one of them thought that they could trip him up with a question concerning salt - "When salt becomes unsavory, how can it be made salty again?"
Ah, ha. Now they have finally found something to stump the rabbi. Finally, they have asked a question he could not answer. However, let's listen to the answer that rabbi Joshua gave them:
"Salt may be made salty again with the afterbirth of a mule."
What? Let's hear that again. "Salt may be made salty again with the afterbirth of a mule." Let's let that sink for a moment. Was the rabbi crazy? Quickly, the philosophers quickly objected. "Does a mule have an afterbirth?" No, the philosophers knew that mules are born sterile, and therefore it is impossible for them to reproduce and as such they can never have an afterbirth.
Rabbi Joshua watching them struggle over his own question brings the truth home: "And can salt lose its saltiness?" He answered their question with a question. Just as a mule cannot have an afterbirth, the laws of chemistry make it impossible for salt to lose its saltiness." Salt doesn't lose its saltiness. Once salt always salt.
So, what was Jesus saying then here in our passage?
Everyone sitting around him knew that salt would always remain salt. If you eat salt and then sweat you still can taste the salt in the sweat. Even if you dilute salt you may think that you have in some way gotten rid of it but you haven't. All you have to do is to allow that salt and water to sit in the sun and in a few days after the water has been evaporated you will once again have your salt.
The fact is, you can't make salt unsalty. Salt is salt. Jesus salt will stay Jesus salt. In other words, a disciple who is Jesus salt can and will stay Jesus salt as long as they stay pure and connected to Jesus. As long as we stay connected to Jesus they can enjoy a life of being consistent and stable. It's only when we disconnect from Jesus that we suffer from instability and inconsistency.
However, as Jesus tells us salt become polluted and that is what Jesus was pointing to at the end of our verse. And when salt becomes so polluted it can lose its ability to properly function as salt. It can appear to have lost its saltiness. However, we understand that it is still salt but because of all the pollution around it no one can use it as it is suppose to be used. It's salt but unusable salt. It's salt but it's good for nothing. Again there was a story that was going around the time of Jesus that shares what Jesus was meaning.
There was a story of a woman who went to the market one day to buy some salt. She needed some salt to preserve her fish. So, she found a merchant selling some salt and purchased a small bag of it. When she got back home she began working with her fish and started rubbing down the fish with some of the salt she had just purchased. However, it didn't feel right and when she smelled it she knew she had been robbed. The man she bought the salt from had mixed some white sand in with the salt. While it looked like she had a bag of salt, what she really had was a bag of sand mixed with a little bit of salt.
There was nothing else she could do but wash off her fish and throw the salt away. While the salt that was in the bag was salt it had been so mixed in with the sand that the woman couldn't separate the two. She didn't have a way to separate the sand from the salt. It was ruined. The salt couldn't be used to savor or preserve the meat. All it could be used for was to either throw it out on the garbage heap or on the roadside where perhaps in cold weather it would help melt the ice.
Sadly, in ancient times there were quite a few merchants who cheated people by mixing white sand into a bag of salt. They ruined the salt. They made it unusable. That is exactly what Jesus wants us to understand this morning as His Salt. As His salt there is no reason why we can live a stable and consistent life. He has purified us and has filled us with His Holy Spirit. All we have to do is to be true to our identity and character. All we have to do is merely be Jesus Salt. The focus is on being and not doing. We are Jesus Salt - Therefore BE JESUS SALT.
Our only task is to stay connected to the LORD and remain pure. All we have to do is to not conform to the ways of the world. The Devil knows that we are Jesus salt. He knows that when we stay in Jesus our salt will always stay stable and consistent. We will not be tossed back and forth by sin, evil or the Evil One. The Devil knows that in Christ we are pure and holy and can stay pure and holy. So, he doesn't try to change our salt, instead, he tries to pollute our salt. He tries to put so much of the world around us that we get so mixed up in the ways of the world that our salt becomes impure and unusable for the Kingdom. When we allow our Jesus salt to become so polluted no one can see and taste Jesus because all they can see, taste, smell, touch and feel are the ways of the world.
And when we don't stay pure and allow the Devil to mix us up with his stuff - greed, hate, malice, pride, sensuality, lust and the list goes on and on - what happens is our salt gets lost in his sand. And then when we attempt to share a little of our salt with those in the world that needs us they are turned away because instead of pure salt they get Devil sand with a little of Jesus salt.
This would in some ways be humorous if it were not so dangerous and deadly. When people come to Church they expect the real deal. Not some imitation salt or not some mixed Jesus salt and Devil sand. They expect us to be stable and consistent in our love, our generosity and our mercy. They expect us to be the salt of Christ and not the sand of the world.
This morning, if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior and LORD then you are exactly what Jesus says you are in verse 13 - YOU ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH. You are His salt. And He has placed within you His Spirit - a spirit of consistency and stability. All He asks you to do is to be His. To be connected to Him. To live out your New Life through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. By doing so you will live a life of being the Salt of Jesus and not the mixed sand/salt of the world.
II. Like SALT we are to be Essential and Indispensible
Almost every living thing on our planet needs salt. Even those of us who don't live in the sea need salt. Without salt we would all die. Now, we hear a great deal today about watching our salt intake and it is true that an over saturation of salt can be harmful but the fact remains that salt is both essential and indispensible. Nothing can take its place. There is no real salt substitute.
Historians tell us that in the ancient world salt was used for many, many things. It was not only essential and indispensible as a food commodity but for life itself. For a period of time salt was used as money. People would give a bag of salt as payment instead of silver or gold. It was used of course as a seasoning but also as a preservative and as a disinfectant.
Salt was a vital ingredient of a sacrifice given to the LORD. Leviticus 2:13 reads: "And every offering of your grain offering you shall season with salt; you shall not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your grain offering. With all your offerings you shall offer salt." Imagine for example what people would think if this morning along with your tithes and offerings you place a pinch of salt in the offering plates.
In ancient times salt was used in the sealing of a covenant. We see this spelled out in Numbers 18:19 and 2 Chronicles 13:5. When two parties would agree on a land sale or on a legal covenant between nations or peoples they would exchange a bag of salt as a permanent reminder. Salt was seen as a way to seal the deal. Just as salt never loses its ability to be salt the two parties were signifying that their covenant was to be just as everlasting and abiding. The eating of salt together was a sign of friendship. You only shared salt with someone you wanted as a close friend.
In ancient times new born babies were rubbed down with salt for two main reasons. One was for health reasons as salt was used both a disinfectant and for healing. Another was to signify that the parents would raise the child with integrity and truth. Salt therefore Salt became a symbol of signifying one's loyalty, one's faith, one's purification and one's durability. An honest person was worth their salt.
All of these characteristics and uses were well known to the people who were sitting on that mountain listening to Jesus. They knew very well that when Jesus used this symbol He was pointing out to the fact that they were to be consistent and stable. They also knew that Jesus was telling them that just as physical salt is essential and indispensible to the lives of others so to would they be just as essential and indispensible to the world as His disciples.
Jesus wanted them to know their vital importance to the mission of His Father the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY. When it came to sharing the message of salvation God provided no other plan than for His Church than to be His spokesperson. When it came for other people to see what God can do in the life of a person we are the only examples that God has chosen to use. We are His Salt to the World.
Way back in the Garden of Eden the LORD we see another plan of God's that involved mankind. It would be through men and women, boys and girls that the LORD would create His Garden of Eden to cover all of the world. It would be through His human beings that our world would become a paradise; a heaven here on earth. God chose to use us instead of the trees, the flowers, the birds, the animals and the fish. He could have spoken to any of them and said - "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion...". But He didn't. He chose us. We were to co-partner with the LORD and create an Eden that would cover the whole world. A place where we would enjoy what has been called authentic human life. That is a life in which a person enjoys a right relationship with God, with themselves, with others and with the world. A life that John Wesley called "holy living".
In a very similar way the LORD has called us disciples to be His Salt designed to be part of the transforming of our world today. Just as essential and indispensible as physical salt is for life here on our planet we are to understand that we as Jesus salt are to be just as essential and indispensible for the ongoing mission of the Kingdom of God.
However, I am not sure today that we in the Church actually believe that we are essential or indispensible. We have listened to the lies of the world that has told us that the Church can be replaced with governmental social programs, public education and public health. We have listened to the lies of the world that says that it is up to the media to keep people honest and pure. We have listened to the lies of the world that says that mental health is just a pill or a prescription away. We have listened to the world as it has told us that the Jesus salt we offer is no longer needed. Any old salt, any of the ancient religions will do just as nicely. We have listened as it has told us that Jesus salt is no better than Buddha salt, Vishnu salt, Mohammed salt or New Age salt.
And sadly, we have listened. We have forgotten and at times rejected our mission. What is that mission? I am glad you asked. It's the same mission Jesus spoke about recorded in Luke 4:18 - 19: "The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
Many Christ followers have forgotten the Great Commission - "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
We have forgotten that when we are filled with the Holy Spirit we become essential and indispensible.
Sure the government and other social organizations can hand out food - but will they share the transformative message of Jesus? Will they tell others that Jesus is the Bread of Life? Will they speak of the living water of our Lord and Savior Jesus?
Sure, there are hospitals, clinics and other places that can provide medicine and a place to heal - but will they share the healing message of Jesus that touches not only the body, but the mind and soul as well? Will they tell you that what Peter wrote in
1 Peter 2:24New International Version (NIV)
24 “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”
Sure the government can teach and show how to have a good family and a nice life - but can it or will it share that in Christ all things are possible? Will it share that in Christ the two shall be one - male and female? Will is share as Paul did in Ephesians chapter five the way to have and experience a Christian home?
The world will always tell us that we who are Jesus salt are not needed. It will tell us that because as Paul tells us in Ephesians 6:12 - "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places."
But look around us. The world is going to hell (Hades) in a hand basket. But we have the answer. We have always had the answer. The answer is our Lord Jesus Christ. He has chosen us to be the agents of transformation. You and I as essential and indispensible this morning.
Our world today needs Christian salt. It needs the salt of Christ to be a disinfectant. It needs the salt of Christ to bring healing. It needs the salt of Christ to bring purity. It needs the Salt of Christ to bring value and integrity. It needs the salt of Christ to bring unity, harmony and peace.
Today, you are vital. You are as vital as the salt that is in your body right now. It is not a large amount. In fact, according to science the average person has about 7 ounces of salt in them right now. That 7 ounces doesn't sound like a great deal considering the trillions of tons of salt all over our planet. But without that seven ounces you and I would be dead.
So, too will be our world be dead without the salt of Christ followers. Our world needs to hear, to feel, to see and to be touched by the salt of Jesus today. Salvation will not happen through Buddha or through Mohammed or through Vishnu. It will only happen through followers of Jesus allowing the salt to be seen, to be felt and to be tasted all over our world.
III. Finally, this morning, Jesus wants us to be Salt that is bursting with Flavor
Saltiness is one of the five primary basic tastes that our human tongues can detect. We can detect salt, bitterness, sourness, sweetness and umami ( (/uˈmɑːmi/) - savory - meaty taste). What we may not fully understand is that when the right amount of salt is added to a substance it can bring balance to that substance. It can reduce the amount of sweetness or sourness. It can make something taste just right.
Most of us associate salt with flavor. We may be aware of its other uses and its necessity for live but it is in regards to its ability to add flavor to food that we are most aware.
I remember years ago we were getting ready for a church fellowship dinner and while we were putting out the plates, the utensils and the napkins we noticed that our most of our salt shakers were empty. After the last few fellowship meals we had forgotten to get some salt and refill our salt shakers and now here we were within minutes of starting a meal and we didn't have enough salt.
There wasn't any store open at the time and so we did our best to split what salt we had in as many saltshakers as we could. Then we hoped that everyone had remembered to salt their potatoes, carrots, beans and peas and other foods. Everything went well but afterwards we noticed that now almost all the salt shakers were completely empty. It appeared that some things did need a little more salt.
Salt is just a necessity when you cook. Salt can make a meal a success or a failure. Salt does more than just improve flavor. It intensifies it. It brings food to life. It makes what is good bursts with flavor. It helps bread to rise and it makes ice cream - ice cream. Salt is as vital to French fries as it is to steak and potatoes. Salt can make foods like broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, and cabbage editable. A little pinch of salt and suddenly those foods aren't so bad. All kinds of foods come alive when we add just the right amount of salt.
Have you ever watched one of those cooking shows on TV? Every now and then you will see one of the judges give a thumbs down on a dish and more often than not you will also hear them say - "it could have used more salt." "It could have used more salt."
This morning, I believe what our world needs is not only the stability of Salt Christians, not only the purity that Salt Christians can bring to our world but it is desperate for the wonderful flavor that Salt Christians can bring. Our schools, our factories, our work places, our homes and our communities will come alive as we share the Salt of Jesus.
Think about it for a moment. You are in the room and people are getting heated and an argument begins to formulate. There is the potential for a great deal of feelings to get hurt and relationships to get ruined. It is at that moment that as Salt Christians we are able to bring peace and harmony into the room. Through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit we can shake a little "agape" salt around the room.
You find yourself in a room where people are overtaken by grief and sorrow. You don't have to say a word - all you have to do is to allow the Holy Spirit to use you to bring peace, comfort and peace.
You see a person in need. A person who needs help with their physical body, their emotional body or their spiritual body. You ask the Holy Spirit to allow you to be His Salt Shaker as you follow the lead of the Holy Spirit and pour a little salt around the person in need. You find ways for them to find some financial help, some emotional help and some spiritual help. You make a difference in their lives.
You see, Jesus wants us to understand that we are to be the salt that brings His flavor to our world rather than our world bring its flavor into His Church and into His World.
Since the Resurrection, the Ascension and the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit we are called to be salt shakers for Jesus.
Salt sitting on a shelf may look good but that is not the purpose of salt. Salt is only good when it is being poured out into a life. The same is true of us as Christ followers. When we isolate ourselves or when we attempt to hide behind our tribal walls and tribal rules we are like salt is salt shakers not being used.
We must allow the Holy Spirit to not only infill us with His Salt but we must also allow the Holy Spirit to poured us out into the lives of others around the world. At times that means the Holy Spirit will use us like money, like a preservative, like a cleansing or like a healing balm.
If you take a moment and go back and look at the Beatitudes you can find a great group of people that the LORD wants us to see and to work among and be a member of throughout our lives. He wants us to bind up the wounded, to give to the needy and to encourage and wrap our arms around the persecuted.
One of the things that all of us notice when we eat something is if it has salt on it or not. If it has the right amount we enjoy the food to the last spoonful or handful. If it has too much salt or not enough salt we notice that either the food taste bland or that all we can taste is the salt.
At times in our haste we have all poured too much salt into people lives but that is another sermon for another day. More often than not today we have been guilty of not being there and the world sees the Church as tasting bland and choosing something else to digest. We see the World looking over and grabbing another shaker. Sadly, those shakers have a perverse flavor, they lead to an addicting lifestyle, they lead to materialism or narcissism. The Devil is always out there to get the world to live on his imitation salt which rather than giving flavor and life gives chaos and death.
You see if we will not provide the right salt for the world then we need to understand that the Devil has a host of other seasonings that he will provide. Millions of people's lives have been ruined while we have kept our Jesus salt safe and dry over in the corner. At times we have been afraid of being rejected or being ridiculed or we have believed that it is none of our business. That when they believe that they need the Church they will come to us. Otherwise we are to stay out of the way and out of sight. That we are only good for Sunday Morning and not for Monday thru Saturday.
The only problem with that is when the Church, the Body of Christ no longer makes the Great Commission its business it leaves a vacuum that is filled with false religions and idolatry. When we keep our salt from being poured out into the world the world seeking some kind of flavor will choose the wrong thing and that wrong thing will bring chaos, destruction and finally death.
As followers of Jesus this morning, we are the salt of the earth. As His Salt, we are to be true to our Christ given nature - a nature of consistency and stability. In God's plan we are essential and indispensible. He has no feet but our feet. He has no voice but our voice. He has no message unless we are willing to share it. And finally, we are to bring flavor and zest to life.
The question we have to deal with today is - What kind of salt are we? Are we pure and holy or are we allowing the world to mix in its sand and pollute us?
Do we still believe in Jesus' mission that the Body of Christ is essential and indispensible or have we accepted the lie that the world no longer needs the Church? Do we live like the world no longer needs the Church? Are we allowing the Devil to intimidate us or to deceive us into thinking that Jesus is nothing more than a good teacher or philosopher?
Finally, are we shaking for Jesus or merely sitting on a shelf. In order for salt to do its work it must be put into action. It must be digested, it must be out there working in the world. In like manner, the more people see, hear, feel, smell and taste Jesus the more it will fall in love with Him.
This morning as we close let us go to the LORD. Let us surrender our hearts, our minds and our souls over to Him. Let us be the Salt of the Earth that He has called us to be today, tomorrow and for the rest of our lives.
This is the Message of the LORD for His People Today.
(May the LORD bless all those who read and use parts of this sermon. Thank-you for allowing us this opportunity to co-partner with you as you study and prepare to share God's message. May the LORD anoint you with His Holy Spirit, may the LORD bless you and give you favor this week and enable you to be a blessing to all that you meet and greet.)
