I love grilling out on a beautiful summer day with the sun shining. My favorite thing is to grill steaks. I like to grill them till they are so tender you can pull them apart with a fork. Then I take roasting ears and dip them into water with the shuck still on; wrap them in foil and let the heat and steam do its magic. And what would a meal be without potatoes? Take them and wash them in fresh water, and then rub butter all over them; wrap them in foil and slap them on the grill. Shut the lid and let all that cook together, and the aroma of all that food cooking will drive you mad before you get it on the table. But now imagine one little thing missing — you don’t have any salt. The sizzling meat has no salt. The baked potato has no salt. And worst of all, the corn on the cob has no salt! And imagine one more little thing has happened. I started the process while it was light out, but by the time I was done it was pitch black out — and the electricity has gone off. We are sitting inside with food that has no seasoning, and now we can’t see it. It was a real good plan that went all wrong — just because there was no salt or light.
As early as the first century, Pliny wrote in his Natural History, “Nothing is more useful than salt and sunshine.” Jesus said, “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 by men” (Matthew 5:13). I questioned Jesus’ saying about salt losing its saltiness. Technically speaking, salt cannot lose its saltiness; sodium chloride is a stable compound. But in the part of the world where Jesus lived, salt was collected from around the Dead Sea where the crystals were often contaminated with other minerals. These crystalized formations were full of impurities, and since the actual salt was more soluble than the impurities, the rain could wash out the salt, which made what was left of little worth since it lost its saltiness. When this happened, the salt was thrown out, since it was no longer of any value either as a preservative or for flavoring.
Jesus was warning against the danger of our lives becoming contaminated and thereby becoming of no value for the kingdom. The actual word he uses for salt becoming “tasteless” is the Greek word moraino. It can mean “foolish” and is the word from which we get the word “moron.” He was saying that salt losing its flavor and becoming insipid is a picture of what it is like when a Christian loses his or her influence in the world. Their lives become contaminated with impurities and they become foolish. The Expositor’s Bible Commentary explains: “The point is that, if Jesus’ disciples are to act as a preservative in the world by conforming to kingdom norms, if they are ‘called to be a moral disinfectant in a world where moral standards are low, constantly changing, or non-existent. . . they can discharge this function only if they themselves retain their virtue’ (Tasker).” Christians are to permeate their culture as agents of redemption, and when they fail at this, it is a major error. It damages the individual Christian and impoverishes the world. The people of God are what preserve the world and give it flavor. So either we become good salt, or we are insipid and useless, and are cast out — not of benefit to anyone.
This is the picture in the Old Testament of Lot’s wife. Meant to be the salt of the earth, she instead longed for the life she had in Sodom — corrupt and wicked though it was — and in turning back died and became a part of the contaminated salt formations around the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea, also called the Salt Sea, is the lowest place on earth, and therefore has no outlet. It is 1,292 feet below the surface of the Mediterranean Sea. It is about 50 miles long and as much as 10 miles wide. The great heat of that area causes rapid evaporation of its waters which are about 25% mineral content — almost five times the concentration of salt in the ocean. No living thing can exist in the Dead Sea, and anything left for very long in the area is encrusted with salt and other minerals. Lot’s wife stands forever as a symbol of those who, instead of fulfilling their purpose of being different from the world and seasoning it, they instead become a part of the contaminated landscape. We are not to be pillars of salt, but the salt of the earth. We either salt the world or become a part of it. The book of James says that we are to keep ourselves from being “polluted by the world” (James 1:27).
There are many functions of salt and light. Both salt and light have unique functions, but I want to look at a few things that are true about both of them. The first thing that is interesting about both salt and light is: They are both important for survival. It was especially true in early Palestine that salt was important for survival, because it was the only way they had to preserve meat. Obviously, they were not as privileged as we are with refrigeration, so salt became very important in their ability to preserve their food. The salt was rubbed into the meat before it was stored.
Salt was a necessity of life in ancient time. Salt was so important that it was sometimes used for money. The Roman soldiers of Jesus’ day were at times paid with it. In fact, our word “salary” comes from the Latin word salarium which referred to the payments to the soldiers with salt. We still use the phrase saying that someone either is, or is not, “worth their salt.” We don’t think much about salt because we can get as much of it in pure form as we want. It is just that little bottle with holes in the top on the table. But when you are completely dependent on salt to preserve your food, and when it is so valuable that it is used in the place of money, you get a completely different perspective on salt.
Light is also necessary for survival. Without it nothing would grow and nothing could live. Turn the light of the sun off and the planet would die. The point is that Christians are necessary for the survival of the world. We saw that when the people of God could no longer be found in Sodom, it became thoroughly corrupt and violent, and God ended their existence. We saw the same thing with Noah and the flood. The people of God were removed and the unrighteous world was destroyed. In Egypt, the people of God were removed from the others and the unrighteous of Egypt were destroyed. You will remember that when Abraham talked with God about Sodom, he said, “But what if there are fifty righteous people in the city, will you still destroy it?” And God said, “For the sake of fifty I will not destroy the city.” And then Abraham kept going: “What if there are only forty? Only thirty? Only twenty? Only ten?” And the Lord said, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.” But ten could not be found, and the city was destroyed. It is the people of God who act to preserve the world. They are the salt of the earth. They give the earth its flavor when they faithfully live for God and promote his kingdom on earth. You are what makes the world acceptable to God. You are his delight. You give the world flavor and your faithfulness in living for God is necessary for the world’s survival.
The second thing that salt and light have in common is that they both: Have the ability to purify. Last summer, on the final night of my wilderness canoe trip in the Adirondacks, it poured down rain. The next morning we had to pack up in the rain, and our tents and all our gear were soaked. Then we had to drive back with all that wet gear in the back of the SUV. The first thing I did when I got home was to take everything and lay it out in the sun. I did that not only to dry things out, but to prevent mold and mildew from growing on my tent and equipment. I learned that lesson the hard way. Years ago, we had a tent that got wet and I was not careful to dry it out in the sun, and every time I used the tent afterward I could smell the mildew. Light purifies. Nothing is better than the fragrance of clothes that have been hung out in the sun. As we hang out in the light of God, a cleansing takes place in our lives. The Bible says, “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 yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by 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).
As you know, salt also has purifying qualitites. It was used in wounds to purify and speed healing. We still talk about “rubbing salt into the wound.” Mothers rubbed salt on their newborn babies to protect them from infection. Salt was used in the Old Testament sacrifices to make them acceptable to God because it was a symbol of purity. Our lives are also to be salted. They must be lived in purity in order for our lives to be acceptable to God. Only then can God use us. The Bible says, “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone” (Colossians 4:6).
I sometimes hear people say, “I am only one person, and all the people around me at work are profane and tell coarse and crude stories. It is so hard to be a Christian in that atmosphere where no one seems to care about God.” But you know, it only takes a little salt to season a whole pot of stew. It is amazing the effect that one Christian can have when they love other people and serve them in the spirit of Christ. Don’t preach at them, just model the servant spirit of Jesus and exemplify his love. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt. Let your light shine and do good to those who mistreat you or falsely accuse you. Bless those who curse you. A small candle can light up a whole room of darkness. Don’t be afraid of coming into contact with darkness. Darkness has no power. It can’t do anything but frighten. Darkness is passive. It is only the absence of light. It is nothing in itself. A little light dispels a lot of darkness.
The third thing that is true about both salt and light is: They both must make contact in order to have an affect. Salt left in the salt shaker does no good. And as Jesus said, “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” (Matthew 5:15). If the salt doesn’t come into contact with the food, it does not flavor the food — regardless of how pure and good the salt may be. If the light does not fall on the world, it does not matter how powerful the light is. It must illuminate an object and meet the eye to do any good — otherwise there is still only darkness.
The point here is that the people of God must come into contact with the people of the world in order to have an affect on the world. The salt must come out of the shaker. The light must come out of hiding. You can’t be a secret Christian! You can’t hide if you are going to do what God is asking you to do. You can’t keep your relationship with God a secret and have any kind of impact on the world.
I was confused by Jesus’ statement that no one takes a lamp and puts it under a bowl. Remember that they did not have electricity; the only lamps they had were oil lamps. What confused me was that if you took a lamp and put it under a bowl it would go out. Then it dawned on me that that was precisely the point of what Jesus was saying. Put your light under a bowl and it will go out. Hide your relationship with God and it will be extinguished. Take it out from under the bowl and let it shine and it will burn brightly. It will give light to everything around it. Let the salt out of the shaker and it will flavor all your food. But we have to come into contact with the world if we are going to reach the world. We have to take risks, get out of our comfort zones, be inconvenienced, put forth effort and get our hands dirty if we are going to do what Christ is asking us to do. And when we do, it will bring glory to God.
Jesus said, “In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). As I thought about that, I realized that the light does not draw attention to itself, it illumines things and brings out their beauty. I looked out my window as I was writing this sermon and saw a cardinal sitting on the show covered branches outside my window. The sun shining on that bright red bird in contrast to the sparkling white snow was stunning. When I saw it, I didn’t think about the light that made it possible to see and highlighted the beauty of the sight. I was enraptured by the beauty of the objects the light made it possible to see. Likewise, when you put salt on food, you don’t talk about how good the salt was. No, salt simply brings out the flavor of the food. In The Journal of Biblical Counseling, Timothy Keller makes this interesting observation about salt: “The… job of salt was to make something taste good. I don’t know about you, but I can’t stand corn on the cob without salt on it. When I have eaten a piece of corn on the cob that I really like, I put it down, and what do I say? ‘That was great salt.’ No, I say, ‘That was great corn on the cob.’ Why? Because the job of the salt is not to make you think how great the salt is, but how great the thing is with which it’s involved.” So when you are doing your job as salt and light in the world, people don’t come away saying, “What a wonderful Christian he is,” or “That woman really knows her Bible.” When we are doing our job, they are more apt to say, “What a great group. What a wonderful truth. I love learning about the Bible and being with other Christians.” We don’t draw attention to ourselves. When we are truly salt and light, we should leave people thinking about how wonderful God is and how great his truth is, not how wonderful we are. They should fall in love with God, not us. As Jesus said, “that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
I also wondered about how Jesus started this off by saying, “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden” (Matthew 5:14). I am not a city, I am only one person. I am only one candle in the darkness. But then I understood that I was never meant to be a single candle. I was meant to shine with others. I was designed to live in community. God’s plan is that we are to stand together and be a city. The church, that is, God’s people, are to be a holy city set on a hill. You can’t hide a city under a bowl, in fact, it is impossible to hide a city. That city is God’s kingdom. We are the city of God. We are to shine together. There can be no radical individualists — not if we are going to be God’s people. That is not what we were created for. The Bible says, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).
Reggie McNeal tells the story of how an electrical generating plant in Texas works: “First, huge shovels dig house-sized scoops of lignite coal. Pulverized and loaded onto railroad boxcars, the coal travels to a generating plant in east Texas, where it is further crushed into powder. Superheated, this powder ignites like gasoline when blown into the huge furnaces that crank three turbines. Whirring at 3,600 revolutions per minute, these turbines are housed in concrete-and-steel casings 100 feet long, 10 feet tall, and 10 feet across. They generate enough electricity for thousands of people. A visitor to this plant once asked the chief engineer, ‘Where do you store the electricity?’ ‘We don’t store it,’ the engineer replied. ‘We just make it.’ When a light switch is flipped on in Dallas one hundred miles west, it literally places a demand on the system; it registers at the generating plant and prompts greater output.” You can’t keep God’s power and grace in a jar. It cannot be stored, it was not meant to be; it can only be used as it is given. It is not to be stored, but to be lived out in the world which desperately needs it. The Bible says, “Arise; shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be see upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising” (Isaiah 60:1-3).
Rodney J. Buchanan
January 23, 2005
Mulberry St. UMC
Mount Vernon, OH
www.MulberryUMC.org
Rod.Buchanan@MulberryUMC.org
Being Salt and Light
(Questions for January 23, 2005)
1. The importance and symbolism of salt begins in the Old Testament. Read Leviticus 2:12-13. As you think about the meaning of Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:13, why was salt an important part of the sacrifices? What did it symbolize?
2. When Leviticus 2:13 uses the phrase “covenant of salt,” what is implied? If a covenant is an agreement between two people, what would the salt represent?
3. Salt played a very important role in primitive cultures like the one in which Jesus lived. What are some of the uses of salt? What does salt do?
4. Read Luke 14:34-35. What is Jesus saying in these verses?
5. Read Ephesians 5:8-11. Philippians 2:14-15. What challenges do these verses present us? How does this apply in a practical way to our lives?
6. What are the properties of light? How are these properties symbolic of Christian virtues?
7. Jesus said, “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9:5). Read 1 Thes 5:5. What is our responsibility now?
8. What would happen if salt or light never came into contact with anything? What does this imply for the church?
