The Salt and the Light

We finished up our study on the Beatitudes last week, but I don’t want you to lay them aside just yet. Their purpose was to lay a foundation for us as we continue studying the Sermon on the Mount. Oswald Chambers says, “The Sermon on the Mount is not a set of principles to be obeyed apart from identification with Jesus Christ. The Sermon on the Mount is a statement of the life we will live when the Holy Spirit is getting his way with us.” We cannot approach this series with the idea that we will be able to master all of the ideals Jesus sets before us. In fact, there is no way for us to master any of these values without the help of Jesus through His Spirit. As I have read through these passages the only thing that comes to mind is, I can’t. I can’t live up to these ethical standards, I can’t possibly keep all of these moral codes.

I don’t think that Jesus intended for this to be easy. He knew what was ahead for Him, the cross and resurrection, but He also knew what was ahead for us, the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. So, in our flesh, there is no way that we can live these ideals out with integrity. The point is, we were never meant to live them out in and of ourselves, He wants His Spirit to do the work in us and through us, so at the end of the day, He has had His way in us.

1. I can’t, but He can.

This brings us to the next portion of scripture, Matthew 5:13, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.”

When I was in high school there was a prank that people would pull at McDonalds with those little plastic salt shakers. They would place a quarter on the table and slam the bottom of a salt shaker on the quarter, then leave it there for the next unassuming guest. When the poor patron would pick the salt shaker up, all of the salt would come pouring out the bottom of the salt shaker, rendering it useless. Another prank kids would pull at different restaurants was to unscrew the lids of salt shakers until they balanced on the rim, leaving it for the next unassuming guest, who would go to sprinkle a little bit of salt onto their dinner and find that their dinner would soon be covered in a mountain of salt. Don’t ask me how I know about these pranks, I must have been hanging out with the wrong crowd as a teenager.

Moving on…Jesus used this analogy as He spoke to the crowd because they would have been familiar with salt. At that point in time the main purposes for salt were to give flavor and prevent corruption.

2. Salt enhances the natural flavors of the food.

If you do not add salt, food tastes bland and is unappealing to our taste buds. If you add too much salt, it ruins the dish and it is no longer palatable. So how do we find the balance?

When used in this context, Jesus is telling His followers that they are to be people who are wise. The Rabbis would commonly use salt as an image for wisdom so the people would have understood where Jesus was going with this.

We are to be people who depend completely on the wisdom of God not the wisdom of this world nor our own wisdom. When we utilize the wisdom that He gives, we will enhance the conversations we have with people. We will enhance the relationships we have and the activities we participate in. When we are filled with the Holy Spirit we are given influence in this world. We see things as He sees them, we respond as He would have us respond. That influence, and how we use it, is vital for the Kingdom of God.

Paul writes in Colossians 4:5-6, “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”

Christians tend to go one of two ways when we speak with people who do not share our same values. We can be like the salt shakers at Mcdonalds and let all the salt drop out the bottom and not share the wisdom of Christ with anyone. This often happens when we enter into a conversation with someone who is an “outsider” and we haven’t fully prepared for that conversation so we clam up because we don’t want to offend. It’s easier to let them dictate the conversation and not say a word. We are intimidated by their convictions so we remain silent.

But We have no excuse for being ill-equipped for these conversations. James 1:5 tells us, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”

God is a generous God and He wants to give us His wisdom generously! As His children, we have full access to this wisdom if we spend time in His presence, being filled with His Spirit and seeking Him.

We can also go the other way and be the salt shaker that explodes all over the conversation. Instead of being seasoned with salt, our conversations become a verbal assault. Again, this is because we are not relying on the power of the Holy Spirit to give us the self control we need when we are confronted by someone with differing opinions and views. In Colossians 4:6, it does not say that we are to pelt them with truth. It says our conversations are to be filled with grace.

Here is something we have to understand and start to truly grasp as believers in Christ.

3. Grace does not mean that we condone sin or condemn the sinner.

We don’t condone a view or behavior, grace means that we see beyond the conversation and into the heart of those we are speaking with. Jesus did this all the time. He allowed people to speak to Him, ask Him questions, question His ways and even condemn Him. Instead of reacting, He would take every opportunity to show love, grace and mercy while speaking truth. This beautiful mixture brought about heart transformation in those who had once been outsiders.

The world is begging us to participate in conversations about really hard and divisive subjects. People are going to bring up their opinions and views on things like homosexuality, abortion, and the Black Lives Matter movements. We are not to shrink back from these conversations, and we are not to demolish the other person while trying to prove our point. We are called to be people filled with the Holy Spirit and with His wisdom.

Jesus warns us that “if salt losses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” The Greek word that Jesus uses to represent, “loses its saltiness”, actually means “become foolish”. Jesus was telling his followers that a foolish disciple has no influence on the world.

If we are not careful with how we handle these conversations, we risk making ourselves look foolish, which then makes the faith we proclaim look foolish. Jesus did not create you to be a fool, He called you the salt of the earth.

He also goes on to say in Matthew 5:14-16, “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

4. Light, like salt, affects its environment by being distinctive.

Jesus was saying that His followers were not to fade into the world around them, they were meant to shine. They were to shine in a dark world.

These lights that we have up here on the stage have filters that go over the bulbs. This creates the right lighting to produce the atmosphere we are after. You will notice that we do not have a spotlight anywhere in sight, praise God. These filters help to make the stage easy to look at, welcoming, and inviting.

These filters block and change the true source of light so we can make you see what we want you to see. In the same way, we have filters in our own lives. Just like those hot topic conversations I brought up early, we will use those as filters over our lights so we only see things the way we want to see them. But this also causes other people to get a skewed view of Christ, the true light that dwells in us.

I see it all the time in myself. And if you examine your own heart, you might find some filters covering your light as well. We decide that we will be either for or against homosexuals having equal rights and we place that filter over our lights and every time something is brought up about this topic we allow that filter to change the way we see things and people. We can have a pro-life or pro-choice filter. A Black Lives Matter or an All Lives Matter filter. A republican or a democrat filter. We can even have a denominational filter that we’ve created over the course of our faith journey. We can also let our past put filters on our lights. If we’ve been hurt by a spouse in the past, we will say all women are evil, or men are evil. I know that I have been confronted by this this week, so if you’re feeling uncomfortable right now, you’re not alone.

5. Jesus was always shining a pure light wherever He went.

He would shine his light into the darkness of sin, but it wasn’t a spotlight of condemnation, it was more like a laser that He used to bring conviction.

In John 8 we find the account of the woman caught in adultery. I want to read this story to you, and as I read it, I want you to think about the difference between condemnation and conviction. “At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

11 “No one, sir,” she said.”

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

When was this woman brought to Jesus? At dawn. When light is just beginning to fill the starry sky. What was this woman accused of? Adultery. She had hoped that her sinful act would be covered up by the darkness of night, but now she found herself naked, standing in front of a large group of Jewish men who were condemning her for her actions. As she was dragged before Jesus, I am sure that she thought this was it. Her life was over. She had been caught. There was no hope.

The darkness of this world leaves most people feeling that way. We sin in the dark because we think we will get away with it. But the more we allow sin to consume us, the darker our lives become. And we end up in a heap, naked before Jesus, being accused of our sin, just as Satan would have it.

The Pharisees were trying to trick Jesus, but Jesus took a minute and began to write in the sand. Many scholars have different theories on what He might have been writing. It could have been the 10 commandments, or it could have been the specific sins those men had committed. But the thought dawned on me, what if Jesus was pausing and asking His Father for wisdom in this situation? What if He was taking a minute to seek God so He would know how to respond?

The Pharisees had placed this woman under a spotlight and the filters that were dictating their words and actions were filters of judgment, deceit, pride, and condemnation. And then Jesus stands up and brings to light their own sins without shaming them or disgracing them. This is called conviction.

“Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

Jesus uses that laser light of conviction and does the work of a heart surgeon.

Like every other organ or tissue in your body, the heart muscle needs oxygen-rich blood to survive. The heart gets this blood from the coronary arteries. But people who have coronary artery disease, the coronary arteries are clogged and diseased and can no longer deliver enough blood to the heart. These people usually need to have coronary artery bypass surgery, but some are too weak to go through this procedure. Doctors have found a new method using lasers called, transmyocardial laser revascularization. It uses a laser to make tiny channels through the heart muscle and into the lower-left chamber of the heart. When oxygen-rich blood enters the left ventricle, some of that blood can flow through the tiny channels and carry much-needed oxygen to the starving heart muscle.

This is exactly what Jesus does to our hearts. In our fallen sin nature our hearts become calloused and hard towards God. It takes the work of His Spirit for those hard hearts to be infused with life again. When Jesus saved the adulterous woman, he was not tempted by her nakedness, he didn’t have a filter of lust covering his light. And he didn’t have a filter of disgust towards her sin. Instead He had a pure laser that cut right to the core of the issue. This laser like precision is very different from from the projection of a spotlight.

The Pharisees wanted to shine a spotlight of shame on the woman caught in adultery. When this is done, the person who is being accused and shamed for their sin will oftentimes allow that spotlight to cast a shadow on who they truly are. That shadow is a constant reminder of who we were and what we have done. We are forced to walk around with this shadow of our sinful nature following us, haunting us and forcing us to constantly remember what a terrible person we used to be. Satan knows this and uses this method quite often. If we can stay in bondage to our shadow self we can never live as people of God who are free and truly alive.

Jesus first called Himself the light of the world in John 8:12, “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

6. The light of Christ cannot coexist with darkness.

When Jesus comes on the scene whatever is done in the darkness will come to light. We may feel exposed, but we will never feel condemned. The light of Christ exposes lies and brings truth, it confronts our sin and brings freedom. Demons have to flee, and somehow we he breaths new life into places we thought were dead.

Our family became quite fond of Hide and Go Seek in the dark during the three months of quarantine last spring. Our kids begged us to play ever evening. We would have 20 seconds to find a hiding place before the seeker would come and find us. It’s amazing how many hiding places you can come up with while in quarantine. It also taught our three year old some pretty great hiding places that she will sometimes utilize while we are not playing the game.

This happened a few weeks ago, the Sunday that Pastor Frank announced that I was officially the copastor of our church. My husband had taken our kids home after first service, which he normally does. When I phone began to ring during second service I was a little concerned because most people know that at 11 I am usually pretty busy on Sundays. After Frank and Dennis prayed over me I looked at my phone and saw two text messages. Both from my husband. The first said, “I can’t find Clara.” Then right under it it said, “I found her. She was under the pillows on our bed.” He had asked her to clean up her little kitchen area and when she didn’t obey, he got after her. She got her feelings hurt and decided to quietly go hide in a hiding spot I had created during our game. Carsten and the kids had searched and searched. They even drove around the neighborhood looking for her. Then they finally found her under the pillows on our bed.

She knew she was in trouble so she hid. She covered herself up so her dad wouldn’t find her in the darkness. When he finally found her, he didn’t discipline her, in his relief he embraced her and reminded her of his love. I feel like this is what happens in our lives. We do something we know is wrong so we try to hide because we are afraid that when we are found we will be disciplined. But this isn’t what Jesus modeled. He brings our sin to light so that He can forgive us and set us free to live an abundant life in Him.

As believers we have to be aware of how we respond to people and their sin. We must remove our filters so we do not misrepresent Him to a watching world. If we pull out our Bibles, beat them over the heads with scripture, and tell them how terrible they are, we will never win their hearts for Christ. They may modify their behavior, but it will never transform their hearts.

Where will the woman who is suffering from the post trauma of an abortion go to find forgiveness? Where will the young pregnant teenager go when she feels like she can no longer go on? Where will the young addict find hope? Where will the minorities feel safe?

If we continually ask for the filling of the Holy Spirit, and for God’s wisdom as we live our every day lives, we will be given the words to say in order to pierce people’s dark hearts with the pure love and light of Christ. This happens when we sit across from someone and allow them to share their hearts with us without judging them or trying to fix them. It’s embracing them when they confess to a sin that has tormented them for years. It’s speaking life into them, reminding them that Satan is after them because of the potential they have in the Kingdom of God. When they say things like, “I am so afraid you will judge me for what I’ve done”, we remind them that nothing can shock us. We don’t condone their sin, instead we shine the unfiltered light of Christ into their dark situation and trust that God will do the work of conviction in their life.

Let’s pray that God will give us opportunities to have these kinds of interactions with “outsiders” and remind them that they are never outside of God’s love and forgiveness.

Let’s pray

The New International Version. (2011). (Jn 8:2–11). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

The New International Version. (2011). (Mt 5:14–16). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

The New International Version. (2011). (Col 4:5–6). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

The New International Version. (2011). (Mt 5:13). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.