Salt & Light

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

There are many things that we learn as children and some of those things stay with us as adults and other things fade away. There are things that we seem to outgrow, things that we seem to forget, things that overtime seem to get lost in the shuffle of adult life. But one way to try and keep things to memory is by attaching something to song. Maybe some of you remember the books of the Bible with a song that you sing. Or perhaps - that tune for the “A, B, C” song is stuck in your head. For me, we had to learn the prepositions in English class by using a song. Songs can help you remember. One song, that many us have heard in Sunday School before and have most likely sung many times is, “This Little Light of Mine”. To remind us of the past, and keep our minds afresh, how about we get our lights out and sing?

“This little of mine, I’m going to let it shine. This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine, This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, all the time.”

This is such a common refrain. This is such a common song that we have sung time and time before. But the question is who are you shining for? Are you shining for God to see the light within you? Are you shining hoping that you can draw enough glory and attention to yourself - hoping that God will smile upon you and bless you? Or are you shining for the neighbor in the community that doesn’t yet know Christ?

Jesus gets at this in our text from Matthew chapter 5. In our text, Jesus is near the beginning of the famous sermon on mount. He is addressing His disciples and instructing them what it means to be a disciple - what being a part of the Kingdom of God looks like. He says to the disciples gathered there. Matthew 5:13-15

Matthew 5:13–15 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.

Jesus calls His disciples salt and light. This idea of disciples of Jesus being salt might be a strange concept. In our day of age, salt is used for taste. It makes things taste better. For example, my favorite snack is the good, classic bag of pretzels. There normally is that crunch and that pop that happens with salt. Now have you ever tried an unsalted pretzel? It doesn’t taste the same. It doesn’t taste like it is supposed. The salt stands out and adds important flavor to things. It stands out for everything else around it. But in the day of Jesus, biblical times, salt wasn’t just used for taste, but often times salt was used as a way to preserve food. It was a way to keep things fresh. Jesus says to His followers, you are the salt of the earth. You are the means I have sent out to preserve the world. You are the people I am sending out to keep things full of life!

Jesus also gives us a more familiar image describing who we are. He says, as followers of Him, you are the light of the world. Jesus expounds upon this image a little more. He says a light gives light to all the house, a light isn’t something that is hidden but it is revealing. It reveals. Often times through the Bible, the world - is a place filled with darkness, is a place filled with sin from the devil, the world is overcome with sin and darkness. And Jesus says you are the light of the world. The light stands out in a place of darkness. Even if you have a night light on in a dark room, a small night light sticks out. Jesus says you are things that I have sent out to shine in this world of darkness.

Jesus in our text after gives these two images, He pushes the focus outward! He says in Matthew 5:16

Matthew 5:16 ESV

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.

That the purpose of you being salt, the purpose of you being light is not a benefit for yourself. It isn’t even a benefit for God. But the whole purpose of you being salt and light is so that the neighbor around you may see the good works you do and give glory to God! The whole focus on living as the light and salt is outward towards others not for the sole purpose of ourselves. This answers who are we shining for? Not for God, not to be recognized as great, but for the neighbor!

This idea pushes back and against how we normally think. When it comes to faith in Jesus we find our thoughts so centered on ourselves instead of the other! When it comes to sharing about things in our lives we are comfortable with certain topics. We love talking about the weather - will it snow today or not? Will it warm up or not? We love talking about sports - like who do we have winning the Super Bowl or what Olympic games we are going to watch. These are less central topics of our lives. But then there are other topics of conversation that as whole we aren’t comfortable bringing up. One of these is Religion. We generally don’t like talking about what we believe. And often times we mask it with, “My faith is only between God and me.” or maybe we say something like, “My actions will do enough speaking for themselves.” We try to find ways to keep ourselves in our own comfort zones. What I believe is between me and God and no one else needs to know this! In our faith lives - the focus seems to be on me. This could be from fear of what we are going to say. This could be fear of judgement from other people. If we are honest, with ourselves, it could be because we want to look and be like everyone else who “normal” around us. But Jesus doesn’t call us to be normal or comfortable - He calls us to be light and salt for the world. We are comfortable where we are in our faith with Jesus - and we want to keep it that way.

Or another we tend to keep the focus on ourselves when living in faith with Jesus is by hoping that our performance will lead to more blessings from God. Maybe we say, “I’m going to shine brightly” for Jesus but deep down we are hoping that God will send extra blessings our way. Or maybe we say, “I’m going to shine for the world,” hoping God or others may recognize how hard we serve or how great we are in our service. Jesus doesn’t say in our text, let your light shine so God will see you; He doesn’t say shine as dimly as possible so no one notices. He says let your light shine for the benefit of others - that they may glorify God. When we hide our lights, people in our community sit in darkness. When we fail to be salt, the world begins to decay. When we focus only ourselves, we lose sight of the mission that Jesus calls us to. Let your let shine - for the benefit of the world! As Luther is famous for saying, “God doesn’t need your good works, but your neighbor does!” We shine not to gain status with God, not to receive more blessings from Him, but for the sake of the neighbors around us!

This is exactly what Jesus did for you! Jesus didn’t keep the light of His glory to Himself, Jesus didn’t only think about preserving His own life, and He also didn’t ask questions like - how will God bless me because of this? But Jesus came to this world for you! He was completely focused on the other, He was completely focused on you! Jesus has come and He is the light of the world - for everyone to see the love and peace of God. Jesus came to this world, as the Salt of the Earth - to bring life and salvation in this world of decay. Jesus stepped forward from His throne in Heaven to completely give of Himself, that you may know they love and forgiveness that God has for you! Jesus today shines in the world of darkness, He shines His love in world filled with sin. He didn’t need to go to the cross, but did it out love for you!

Today, as His people, He calls us forth to shine. And we don’t do so on our own. But Jesus and His love is the source of our light, Jesus and His message of life is the source of our saltiness. We simply are pointing people back to Jesus. Because it only in Him alone - that we have light in the darkness, it’s only through His death and resurrection that we have life in this world of decay. It’s only through His love, that can be light. Jesus isn’t giving us a big set of demands, but rather He is describing who we are in Him. We are lights because the light of Christ has already shined on us!

As we live as His people, we free to shine for Him. Not to earn status, not to receive more blessings, not to be impress others around us, but in hopes that others may glorify God. So as we close, get your lights out, and as we shine, let’s sing together:

“This little of mine, I’m going to let it shine. This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine, This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, all the time.”

Let’s shine as a community for the rest of the world to see and glorify Jesus!

Now may the grace of God the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, may it guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.