Sermon Tone Analysis
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Intro
Last week we looked briefly at the Beatitudes and learnt what we referred to as the soundtrack of our lives.
The rhythms and lyrics to the song our lives sing are wrapped up in those verses.
The big takeaway from hearing those Beatitudes is that we hear that we have been called by God to be called Blessed and with this privilege comes the responsibility that our lives should be different.
The beatitudes finished by saying that we should be different and that by being different, living for Jesus would be paradoxical to the rest of the world.
When the world aspires to pride, Christians look to humility in repentance.
When the world looks to win at any cost, we look to be merciful.
Each step of the beatitudes leads us to live a life different to those around us.
And the beatitudes conclude with a note that we will live differently and be persecuted for it.
We will encounter suffering for Jesus' name.
And on that note the Sermon on the mount continues through Matthew 5.13-16 we hear again from Jesus that our lives do need to be radically different to those around us.
We don't just live lives differently from others, we have a crucial role to play in the world.
This morning it would be ideal if you had Matthew 5 open in front of you.
If you don't have a Bible, the relevant words should appear on the screen.
We are going to look at the metaphors that Jesus present and consider how it is that Jesus calls us to be the Salt and the Light of the World.
The two roles Jesus calls us to is as preservers and as beacons of hope.
Salt of the Earth - Preservers
Mt 5.13
Jesus begins by saying that you are the salt of the earth.
He says "You" as if pointing at someone and here this links back to how the sermon started last week.
He is addressing the disciples that have been called up on the mount, away from the crowd, and he is teaching them what it means to be a disciple.
"You" refers to people like us who have been called to live lives for Jesus and Mt 5-7 is Jesus great teaching on righteousness.
So naturally this metaphor should have something to do with living righteous lives for Jesus.
So, You are the Salt of the Earth.
What does that mean?
Some scholars are willing to list up to 11 different possibilities of what this could mean and the brevity of the metaphor gives little away.
The most convincing meaning behind this I have found suggest that the salt was used as a preservative.
What are preservatives?
Well, they keep things fresh and edible.
It's what Maccas pump their food full of, as as a result of moving this week, its also what I am full of now!
They preserve the life of something so it can be useful for longer.
Preservatives prevent corruption.
They prevent bad stuff from getting into foods and other things and making them go off, or mouldy.
So we are to be the salt of the earth.
We are to be preservers in the world.
As followers of Jesus we have a crucial role to play in being that preserving element for the world.
And by world, this does not just mean the soil - but people as well!
This is not the first time Jesus has used metaphors to refer to people like this.
Consider the crucial example of Jesus calling his first disciples: Mt 4.18-20
Here, instead of fishing for fish, the disciples are told to fish for people.
Likewise, as the salt of the earth we have been called to be that one element that is useful for preserving the lives of people.
Not simply as a doctor would preserve life, but as those who have their minds and hearts fixed beyond this world.
Think back to last week and the way the first and the last beatitude are framed both end like this: Mt 5.3
The kingdom of heaven is what we are preserving people for.
This is what we are being used to keep people alive for.
As the salt of the earth we are being called to be that element that prevents souls from decay.
Not food - souls.
And how are we to 'preserve' people, well, as the beatitudes concluded last week we are in the same line as the prophets.
This does not mean we are prophets, but we share a similar duty of preserving the proclamation of God's word.
We are to preserve the world by preserving the prophetic tradition of proclaiming God's word.
So if salt loses it's saltiness, what does that mean.
Once again, we need to do some digging here.
The poetry of a metaphor takes a meaning of a word and rephrases it for its poetic function.
The same word used for loses it's saltiness reappears later in the gospel, but you would hardly know it.
Later, in Matthew 25.1-13 Jesus is once again in a larger block of speech of sorts and he tells the parable of the ten virgins.
Let's pop over to Matthew 25 (go to the bottom of page 1511 in your bibles).
We came here briefly last week when we considered how the acts of mercy described in the beatitudes are shaped by Jesus.
Now at the start of Matthew 25, we read this.
Mt 25.1-13
The same word for 'loses it's saltiness' is used again here in verse 2 when it mentions the word 'foolish'.
The original word is where sounds a lot like our modern word 'moron'.
Here Jesus says that you are a moron if you do not prepare for the coming of the kingdom of heaven.
And because they are morons, when the day comes and Jesus returns to call us home, they will here Mt 25.12
So if we lost our saltiness, we would be morons - and this has dire consequences.
Jumping back to Matthew 5.13
If we lose our saltiness, if we stop looking forward to the coming of the kingdom of heaven, we might as well be tossed to the streets.
We would be, for all intensive purposes, useless.
Good for nothing.
Why?
Because we have been commissioned to be preserves of life on earth.
We carry with us the words of eternal life, and through the Holy Spirit, these words have the power to change hearts towards God.
To give eternal life.
If we become morons and lose saltiness, we have given up on that role.
We have allowed ourselves to become corrupted.
We have turned to from being sustainers of life, to being useless.
Those who now march to their own graves because they do not know Jesus trample us underfoot.
This metaphor describes us as having a crucial role to play in the world those who would make a long lasting difference.
As we dig deeper into the passage we have seen that if we stoped living the life we have been called to we would be useless.
We would not preserve life, but submit to the decay of it.
This salt metaphor it is dynamic.
It refers to an active life where, we as those who are prepared for the kingdom of heaven are being used to preserve the lives of those on earth.
How, by the very words of God.
If we are not salty, we will rot.
Our very cores will decay and when the rot sets in, the effect is immediate.
Look at how direct Jesus is here - we will be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
Let us spend our lives keeping ourselves salty, not being morons.
Let us fix our eyes upon Jesus who is our certain hope for life after death and the forgiveness of sins.
Let us be reminded of the coming kingdom of heaven, of which we are citizens and not throw away our saltiness by embracing the corruption of sin.
Let us use this saltiness.
Salt is a tasty preservative and that is how our lives should be - tasty.
But this tasty doesn't necessarily mean 'likeable'.
We are not to just adopt whatever is new or trendy or invest in worldly treasures.
Such morons are referred to later in the Sermon on the mount in Mt 6 as those fools who only invest in worldly treasures.
We need to buck the trend and use our conversations we have with people with actual intent to keep them alive.
This is the negative example of failing to be a difference maker in the world for Jesus.
Let's end on a positive note.
The Light of the World - Beacons of Hope
Mt 5.14-16
We are the light of the world.
The meaning of this one is a little more apparent as light is used as a metaphor all over the Bible.
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