Sermon on the Mount

Salt and Light

English Standard Version Chapter 5

Salt and Light

13 “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.

14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 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. 16 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.

2,000 years ago salt was not the same thing as it is today. Does anyone know the scientific name for the salt? Sodium chloride. Today when when salt is harvested, it goes through a refining process, so that all you have left is sodium chloride. Sodium chloride is a stable compound, which means that it will never deteriorate or decay. However, 2,000 years ago they didn’t have the refining process that we have today, which means that when they harvested salt there would always be some other stuff mixed in with the sodium chloride. Occasionally, what would happen is that the sodium chloride, the actual salt, would seep out of the the salt, and you would be left just a lump of dirt. It looked like salt, but it had no flavor and more importantly it did not preserve food the way it was supposed to. Today, we typically use salt for making food taste better. Have you ever eaten a french fry with no salt on it? Terrible. However, add a pinch of salt and it’s delicious. The primary use of salt 2,000 years ago, during Jesus’ ministry, was to preserve food. Sense they didn’t have refrigerators or freezers to keep meat safe to eat, they would cover meat in salt to protect it from rotting. If the sodium chloride had seeped out of the salt that they put on the meat, then what would happen to the meat? It would rot. Now, why the big history and science lesson on salt?

Like salt, Christians are meant to be a preserving compound for a decaying world. Is there any doubt that the world around us in decay? Between Covid-19, politics, half the west coast of the U.S. literally being on fire, social unrest, and riots, it feels like the world just got thrown in a dumpster fire. What is God’s cure for the world’s decay? The Church. Christians must battle against the decay of the world, how? By living as Christ lived. There’s a reason this command to be salt follows the Beatitudes in Vs. 3-12. Jesus tells his disciples how they should live in this world right there. In short, to summarize the beatitudes, blessed are those who put their hope in Jesus Christ and not in this world, therefore they will live righteously, be merciful, be pure in heart, be peacemakers, and do not retaliate when persecuted, because they will be rewarded greatly in heaven when Christ returns.

If you were in Sunday school this last week, then it’s literally the opposite of how the Israelites were living when God called them out on their sin through the prophet Isaiah. In Isaiah 1 when God commands them Israelites to live holy lives, He tells them to learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless, and plead the widow’s cause.

Now, what I am not saying to you, 7th, 8th, and 9th graders, is not that you should go to California and start fighting wild fires or that you should volunteer as a test subject for a Covid vaccine, but when people, your friends, family, strangers, whoever, look at you is there something different about you? Are you compassionate toward the oppressed, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers? Are you the guy or girl who will break up a fight, or will you egg’ em on to fight more? Are you going to hold to what the Bible says is sin, or are you going to follow what your friends do? Jesus says be salt, if you lose what makes your different, and live like the rest of the world, then you have lost your effectiveness.

Next Jesus says, be light. Imagine you’re walking through the desert 2,000 years ago, just trying to get to the next town. It’s dark at night, but you know which way you are supposed to go, because off in the distance, way up on a hill you can see flickering lights. Lamp posts around the city walls are burning to give light to the town. There is no hiding a city that is built on a hill at night, its lights are too bright.

Or imagine, as we sit in this room, all the lights were off and we could not see, but I turn on a single lamp right here in the middle of the room. I could take this box and put it over the top of the lamp, essentially rendering it useless or I can leave it lit high up here where everyone in the room can see. The lamp only serves its purpose if it is on and uncovered so that it can give its light for all to see.

Likewise, Christ calls us to be the light in the world. More specifically, Jesus calls us to reflect his light to the world. Jesus is the source of the light, we are merely mirrors reflecting that light for others to see him. If we stop shining, we stop serving our purpose.

Think back to those pictures I had you compare earlier. They were different, sure, but the difference between them was so indistinct and unnoticeable that they seemed like the same image. To be the salt and light of the world does not mean to simply be slightly different, so that you are nearly indistinguishable from everyone else.