Stay Salty - Mark 9:49-50 Series

Mark 9:49 Everyone will be salted with fire. 50 "Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other."

This is a very difficult passage to interpret—trying to figure out what Jesus means by salt, and what on earth this has to do with the context. There are a lot of theories. Let’s see if we can work our way through it.

Everyone Gets Salted

49 Everyone will be salted with fire.

Two big questions here: 1) what does the fire represent? And 2) What does it mean to be salted? The NIV doesn’t translate it, but the first word in the sentence is “for,” so Jesus connects this with what he just said, which was a description of hell. 48 where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched, for, everyone will be salted with fire. So the fire of v.49 is connected to the fire of v.48, which refers to torment in hell. Obviously he’s not saying everyone will go to hell, so I take this to mean everyone will experience torment and suffering. So the fire refers to suffering.

What about salt? If you read the commentaries, they will go on and on about all the different uses of salt in that day—seasoning, preservative, fertilizer, etc. But it’s not hard to figure out what Jesus has in mind because he uses the words “salted,” and “saltiness.” Both those words always refer to seasoning, not fertilizer or preservative or anything like that. They are words that describe putting salt on food in order to give it flavor. So what he is saying is we will all be seasoned, flavored, made to be tasty; and it will happen by means of suffering—fiery trials. So what does it mean to be flavored with salt? Is that a good thing or bad thing? 50 Salt is good So, suffering makes you salty, and it’s good to be salty. In fact, being salty is so good and so important that the whole point of this passage and other passages is to warn us not to lose it.

49 Everyone will be salted with fire. 50 "Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves

With all the difficulties of this passage, one thing that’s crystal clear is this: Jesus wants us to be salty. So saltiness is being the way Jesus wants you to be. It’s living in a Christ-honoring, God-pleasing way—a way that’s palatable to God. So, what Jesus is saying here is that suffering will improve your character, and you must take care not to lose that. That’s my feeble effort at interpreting this difficult passage. It could be wrong, but I’m fairly confident that it’s right because it stays consistent with the word meanings in the immediate context… , and the overall point you end up with lines up perfectly with the broader context of the last couple chapters… , where following Jesus in suffering has been a major theme. And it’s certainly in line with the context of Scripture as a whole, where being refined and sanctified through suffering is a dominant theme.

Sacrifice?

Many scholars see the imagery of sacrifice here, because that’s the only other context in Scripture where you see salt and fire together. The grammar does not require that the fire accomplishes the salting. It could be translated “salted with fire” or “salted in fire” or “salted in connection with fire.”

Ezekiel 43:24 … the priests are to sprinkle salt on them and sacrifice them as a burnt offering to the LORD.

So did Jesus intend a reference to sacrifice here? It’s possible, but I’m not convinced. First, salting sacrifices was not connected specifically to fire, because grain offerings as also salted (Leviticus 2:13).

Second, Luke is writing to Gentile Christians, so the procedures of the sacrificial processes were not a part of their daily life at all. It’s true that Mark does assume his readers have a thorough knowledge of famous OT passages related to the Messiah, which isn’t all that surprising. But being aware of one obscure verse that connects salt with burnt offerings seems less likely to me.

And third, the following statements about not losing their saltiness and having salt in themselves don’t have clear meaning in the context of salting a sacrifice. So I’m not convinced that Jesus intended a sacrificial reference.

Stay Salty

So, Jesus says that we will all be made salty—sanctified, purified, refined, conformed to Christ’s image, and it will happen by means of suffering. That’s v.49. Then he goes on to his main point which is, Don’t lose it. Have salt in yourselves and don’t lose it. Because if you lose it, what good are you? Your task is to be salt; so if you lose that, you lose your reason for being. That’s the point of the question: