Salt and Light

Title: Salt and Light

Text: Matthew 5:13-16

D.T Affirm Christ through attitude and action

Introduction: If you were to travel in time and arrive in 1st century Palestine, you would find 2 things in every household. You would find salt and you would find light. These 2 things were essential to a household during this time, if these items were absent from a household, the household would greatly be inhibited from functioning properly. The health problems and safety problems posed would be potentially dangerous. If you were to fast forward to modern day households. Do you know what 2 items you would find in just about every household? Salt and light, these items have never and will never lose their importance to the lives of humanity. This is exactly why both Salt and Light are used as an illustration. Jesus has just finished the beatitudes, now he was looking for a way to illustrate the character of the beatitudes in practical application. Enter Jesus using the examples of Salt and Light. Jesus tells us the character found within the beatitudes are affirmed in attitude and action.

Salt (READ Matthew 5:13-16

Matthew 5:13–16 ESV

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

In the time of Jesus people didn’t have access to refrigeration. The people of Jesus time weren’t able to have access to General Electric appliances, the local Maytag man was not available for call. Since there was no refrigeration, people had to use other methods of preservation. Throughout history salt has been used for 2 main reasons. People have used it to season their food, this one seems rather obvious. I imagine each of us have seasoned food with salt before, some of us might even know people who like salt too much. These are the type of people who like a little bit of food with their salt, we all know one. The other use for salt was for the purpose of preservation. If salt being used in preservation would somehow become contaminated, that salt had to be thrown out and the person would have to buy new salt. Why? Because once salt becomes contaminated or adulterated it will no longer effectively preserve food, therefore it would be useless. The only thing you can do with that salt is throw it out. If you try and preserve food with bad salt, that food will go bad.

So what does this analogy of salt becoming contaminated have to do with Jesus? We are followers and disciples of Jesus, and Jesus calls his disciples to a certain standard. Jesus calls his disciples to deny themselves and take up our cross and follow him, that’s in Matthew chapter 16. In Matthew 28 Jesus gives the great commission where he tells us to go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father, son, and holy spirit. Upon studying the scriptures it becomes apparent that as Christ followers, we are called to preserve the character of Christ as salt preserves food. Is our attitude like Jesus? In Philippians 2 Paul encourages us to have the same mindset/attitude as Christ Jesus. We should be pure in heart, peacemakers, merciful, and all the other beatitudes. If we let the world contaminate our attitude, if we live our lives without pursuing forgiveness of sin and repentance, our Christlike attitudes will become contaminated. At which point we will no longer be an agent of preservation, and we run the risk of being thrown out and trampled underfoot.

Light (READ Matthew 5:14) Many of us are familiar with the childrens song “this little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine” growing up we used to sing this song in Sunday School. In the version of the song we sang, the third verse would say “Hide it under a Bushel? No! I’m gonna let it shine! As a child I thought the song said “Hide it under a bush? Oh no! I’m gonna let it shine. I was always confused and perplexed by that verse. Even as a child I realized how futile and useless hiding a light under a bush would be. If you place a light in a bush, the light is going to just shine through the bush, it won’t hide the light at all. However if you hide a light under a bushel makes much more sense. A bushel is equal to eight gallons, and would be measured with a basket. This also makes it fall in line with Jesus' words because it mentions that you don’t hide a light under a basket rather you let it shine for all to see. As a city on a hill is not shrouded or camouflaged, but it’s visible for all to see.

So how does this analogy fit in with Jesus? If you have a light you let it shine for all to see. This passage encourages us not to be shy about Jesus. As Christ followers we all have the light of Jesus, and we should let the world see that light. Our actions and attitudes should be like Jesus, and people should be able to tell we follow Jesus by our deeds, actions, and attitude. In Romans 1:16

Romans 1:16 ESV

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

The way we let the light of christ shine in our lives should be visible for everyone to see

If you attempt to hide a light under a basket, not only does it hide the light, but it could also snuff the light out. If we hide the light of Christ in our lives, not only are we doing the world a disservice by hiding the light, but we also run the risk of seeing that light snuffed out. Just as we run the risk of becoming contaminated salt that is unsuitable for preservation

Sometimes an illustration used in a 1st century sermon will require a bit more explanation for us, because the world is so different, we need to be able understand how they would have viewed the teaching. However the illustration of Salt and Light is not one of those examples. When Jesus used the illustration of Salt and Light, he was using an illustration that would remain relevant and impact history. Just as attitude and action will never lose their importance or relevance to being a Christ follower. Jesus Illustration of using salt and light to describe how we display his character in our lives, it encourages us to affirm Christ in attitude and action. So Christian I ask you this question, how will you affirm your faith in Christ though attitude and action?