A call to be salt

“You are the Salt of the Earth. But if salt loses its flavor, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled on by people.

History of the Text

His

Salt was highly valued, the Greeks said that salt divine, the Romans went as far as to say that “There is nothing more useful than sun and salt”

Looking a Matthew we see that his gospel has carefully been patterned, notice that in his story of the baptism of Jesus, he shows us Jesus realizing that the hour has struck, and that the call to action has come, and that Jesus must go forth on his crusade.

It is strange how something that some many of us love

In his story of the temptations, he shows us Jesus deliberately choosing the method He will use to carry out his task, and deliberately rejection methods which he knew to be against the will of God ( Our plans must line up with Gods will)

Anyone who embarks upon a great task needs helpers, assistants and staff....So Matthew goes on to show us Jesus selecting those who will be his fellow workers ( Jesus did not just call them and say go to work.... that is what I love about Jesus, He will never give us an assignment, without the ability and instructions to get it done!) So he gives those he have called instructions to do their work intelligently and effectively.

He teaches them what we know as the Beatitudes.

(Frequently used as a proper noun to denote a collection of eight dominical logia at the beginning of the Matthean Sermon on the Mount, the term beatitude properly designates a whole body of sayings with a similar literary form.)

The beatitudes are not simple statements; they are exclamations: ‘O the blessedness of the poor in spirit

Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of Matthew (Third Ed., p. 102). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.

Jesus is letting them know that this is not pious hopes of what shall be, what we have as Christians is not a blessedness which is postponed to some future world of glory; it is a blessedness which exists here and know.

There is with all the suffering, all the trails that we go through the beatitudes really say to us O the bliss of being a christian, o the joy of following Christ, O the sheer happiness of knowing Jesus Christ as Master, Saviour and Lord.

( Any body here can say even though I have had ups and downs, through it all God has and continues to bless me)

Jesus suggest to us that we should not worry so much about how the world treats us, He says in “Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Jesus suggest to us that we should not worry so much about how the world treats us, He says in “Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

That is good news this morning, that when you model the life that Jesus has taught , you can face the trails of this would and know that “No weapon formed against you will prosper.”

Jesus moves from the beatitudes to the Similitudes where He compares them to sal

Jesus moves from Beatitudes to similitudes, in other words, He says; now that you have been prepared for how people will treat you, and now you know how to handle it, you have a job to do. ( too often we learn things, but we forget it because we don’t put it to use)

here it is:

The Lord is my strength, but never us it

The Lord is my light, but yet I am walking in the dark

He is a leaning Post, but I am always looking for someone or something to lean on...

This goes back to verse 1, he opened His mouth and taught, it reminds me Faith comes by hearing..... which suggest to me that when you hear the word it should increase your faith

In Verse 13 Jesus says “ You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste how shall its saltness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden underfoot by men.”

The use of the word You in this verse is emphatic and restrictive, it lets us know just who Jesus is now talking to and likens them to salt; of all things salt?

As I read this text it made me wonder why use salt, There is a funny Paradox about salt. As a culture we have been told to that salt is not good for us, it causes high blood pressure but the truth is that we can’t survive without salt. Our bodies need salt to survive.

This text has given us an expression that has become one of the greatest compliments that can be paid to anyone. Anytime we talk about one’s solid worth and usefulness we say “people like that are the salt of the earth” This verse simply put, tells what we are liken to.

We find ourselves being moved from a point of instruction to a call to duty, we are called to a duty to spread the word of God and to do it with the right attitude.( To often people see the us as people they would not want to be, they see us with our head down, wondering how we are going to make it, but yet saying how much we trust God!!!!) God likens us to salt for a reason.... In the time of Matthew’s writing salt was very valuable commodity. The Greeks called salt divine, The Romans said that “ there is nothing more useful than sun and salt”

Three reasons we are likened to salt as Christians:

Morris, L. (1992). The Gospel according to Matthew (p. 104). Grand Rapids, Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press.

Purity

Salt came from the purest of all things, ( we were made in the image of the Purest Person) .......the sun and the sea. As Christians we are to hold standards of purity in speech, in conduct, and in thought. ( Even in the world we are in, reminds us that we are to keep ourselves unstained by the world.

2. Preservative

It was used to keep things from going bad, and to hold putrefaction at bay.

“ Plutarch, the Roman historian and philosopher, has a strange way of putting that. He says that meat is a dead body and part of a dead body, and will, if left to itself, go bad; but salt preserves it and keeps it fresh, and is therefore like a new soul inserted into a dead body.”

Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of Matthew (Third Ed., p. 138). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.

Since we are likened to the salt of the earth we have to have a preserving quality about ourselves, therefor we must sake our salt shakers on the lives we come in contact with.

3. flavor

No one of us likes blann food, the first thing that most of us do is grab the salt shaker to give our food a better taste ( we need some flavor) As Christians we should lend flavor to life, people should see our excitement about the Goodness of God, this is not to suggest that we want have hard times, but when they arise we should be able to look at where God has brought us from, we should be able to Thank God for what He has done, is doing, and is going to do.

I know now why when I was a little boy growing up I would always here my Great-Grandmother walking through the house sing, Jesus Keep me near the Cross, Why she would be singing I woke up this morning with my mind stayed on Jesus, she was only shaking the salt shaker,

I know why the old church would sing them old 100s

like “I would not have a religion that I could not feel some times” They were only shaking the salt shaker

That is good news this morning, that when you model the life that Jesus has taught , you can face the trails of this would and know that “No weapon formed against you will prosper.”

Salt was highly valued, the Greeks said that salt divine, the Romans went as far as to say that “There is nothing more useful than sun and salt”