Being Salt and Light (Sermon on the Mount)
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Did anyone else notice how Christmas lights have been a really big deal this year? If you went out to try and buy some you probably did. It was like everyone was trying to release their inner “Clark Griswald” this year.
Even as light manufacturers were bracing for the same employee layoffs and low sales numbers like other manufacturers, they actually got just the opposite. They couldn’t even keep up with the demand as so many stores increased their orders as they quickly ran out of Christmas lights this year.
How did this happen? In a year when our government is sending out “stimulus” checks because people couldn’t even afford the essentials - how did Christmas lights becomes so…essential?
As I read through several news article on this phenomena what I kept hearing the same message over and over again. Maybe more than any other Christmas, People were looking for Joy this year and there is something in these little lights that stimulates warmth and lifts the spirits unlike anything else.
That makes sense to me, as I confess I spent quite a few quiet moments sitting in the dark of our living room with just the Christmas tree lights one. There is just something about the radiance of all those little lights working in tandem that I really enjoy.
I think that to some extent this favorable response to light is hardwired in the human condition, and that is why Jesus often used light as a metaphor for what His followers should be like in this world. One example is when He told us to: “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Mat 5:16b) It was to call us to work together to bring the warmth, beauty of brilliance of what we have in Christ into spaces that are otherwise dark and gloomy.
It is not a call to go out and buy more “Christmas lights”, not that there is anything wrong with that, but it was more a call to be “Christian lights” in our world, because people are looking for Joy, and Jesus Christ is the only true source of it.
Tension
You know this instruction on being light is found near the beginning of the most important sermon that has ever been preached, because it was preached by the most important person who ever walked the earth. It is what we call “The Sermon On the Mount”. It is found in Matthew chapters 5-7 and in this sermon, Jesus goes through so many different categories of the Christian life and what is expected of those of us who would claim to be one of His Disciples.
If you were with us last week then you know that at this point in our CHRISTOS series, Jesus has already begun his public ministry. His time has come. He has moved from miracles done in private - like the great catch of fish or the turning of water into wine - into public demonstrations of his power. Listen to this Summary found in Matthew 4:23-25:
23 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. 24 So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and he healed them. 25 And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.
Are you getting the picture here? At this point in his ministry...Jesus has gone 1st century viral. He is trending on their fishbook, slapchat or whatever social media looked like back then. Bottom line, everyone is talking about this new teacher and miracle worker who just exploded on the scene out of no where - and the crowds were flocking to him.
It is after this overview in chapter 4 that Matthew gives us the very detailed teachings of Jesus in the “Sermon on the mount”. But before we get into what is in this teaching, it is always a good idea to learn about who the first audience was in order to underestand some of what is being said…but that is not so easy in this case. Let me show you what I mean.
The scene before the Sermon looks like this in the beginning of Chapter 5:
1 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
And then Matthew gives us the Sermon. So who does it say is sitting here with Jesus up on the mountain? The Disciples, right. He saw the crowd and then he moved from the crowd up the mountain in order to get to what appears to be some level of separation between himself and the rest of the crowd. And if this is all we had to go on, we might think that Jesus has left the crowd entirely and is just having a private teaching time with His Disciples…except for what we read at the end of the Sermon.
Because at the end of the Sermon, in Chapter 7 verse 28-29 it says:
28 And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, 29 for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.
I thought Jesus was teaching His Disciples, so how is it that the “crowd” is there to be so astonished?
The only explanation is that while Jesus’ teaching was directed to His Disciples, somehow the crowd was still listening in. I don’t know exactly what this looked like or how their position on the mountain allowed for this, but that is what happened. The Disciples were being taught what was expected of a Disciple and the crowd was listening in and “astonished” over it all.
My reason for bringing this up is to piggy back off of something that we began to look at last week. You remember how Jesus led His Disciples to leave the crowd and get into the boat, but we recognized that the crowd was not representative of those who were opposed to Jesus - but people who were there because of Jesus. They were there because they wanted to hear Jesus teach and see what He what He would do next. The Disciples, on the other hand, had already made a level of commitment to Jesus. They had answered the call in such a way that they were getting into the boat.
Maybe the best way to say it is that the crowd is just “interested” but Disciples are “invested”.
The crowd was just the window shoppers, the tire kickers, the “I’m just browsing” crowd.
Where Disciples have a level of buy in. They were invested. These Disciples had a long way to go yet, as they knew very little of what following Jesus would eventually bring them into - but they were invested in sticking with Jesus no matter the cost.
It was to these Disciples, not the crowd that Jesus delivered his instructions on how to follow Him. But somehow the crowd still heard, and I believe that this happened because Jesus wants to make disciples from the crowd. To turn those who were just interested in the things that Jesus said and did into those who were so invested that they were ready to follow Him wherever He would lead.
So maybe the best question for us to ask before we get into studying these teachings of Jesus is, which one are we? Or maybe even more importantly, “Are we OK, with where we stand on this?” Especially since Jesus’ intention seems to be to turn those who are just “interested” into those who are “invested”.
My hope is that our time today will help us each grapple with these questions. So if you haven’t already, go ahead and open your Bibles up with me to Matthew Chapter 5, on page 809 in the Bibles in the chairs. I’ll pray and we will dive in together.
Truth
So Jesus opens his mouth and begins teaching by saying:
begins his teaching to His Disciples with something we call the “Beatitudes”, it says...
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. 7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. 8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. 10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
This list is something that we call the Beatitudes, from the Latin word beatus which means “happy” or “blessed”. We are not going to take the time this morning to go through these one by one, but I would like us to just look at the list as a whole. Right away Jesus gets His Disciples thinking as he presents these markers of what being “blessed” looks like in God’s economy. Things like:
The Poor in Spirit
The Mourning
The Meek
The Desperate for righteousness
The Merciful
The Pure In Heart
The Peacemakers
The Persecuted for Jesus’s sake.
Take a close look at this list and ask yourself if you were given a piece of paper and asked to write down the things that make you happy - how many of these things would be included? Right away the Disciples knew that following Jesus was not going to be like anything they had ever experienced.
But Jesus is just getting started...
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.
Our first them for the week is...
So what is this salt thing all about, well it was about more than just potato chips or pretzels. Salt, was a very valuable commodity in Jesus’ day, as it was useful for a wide variety of things as well as difficult to obtain…at least in any sort of pure form where you could use it effectively.
In fact, have you ever heard the expression “That guy is not worth his salt”? That expression comes from this era where part of a Roman soldiers pay was given to him in salt. So if a soldier didn’t performing up to expectations, it was said “He wasn’t worth his salt” or the amount that they paid him. The Romans greatly valued salt, they saw it’s value as second only to the sun in their religious and cultural dealings.
But valuing salt was not just a Roman thing, Jews also valued salt as it was used as a seal in business dealings as well as in the making of covenants. This included the keeping of the peoples covenant with God...
13 You shall season all your grain offerings with salt. You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.
So this salt thing was a big deal. Many ideas have been postulated for why Jesus uses the image of “salt” to describe the expectations for His Disciples.
Salt was used to preserve things so that they would be able to kept longer without spoiling
Salt was used to flavor foods for greater enjoyment, like in the grain offerings or in pretzels and chips
Salt also increase thirst, which could connect with the beatitude of being “thirsty for righteousness”
But maybe most important was how it was a symbol of purity
You see salt can never really loose its taste, except if it is not set apart and instead becomes mixed with other impurities. At that point, the salt is still salt - but it is no longer useful as such. When a family found their salt supply to have gone bad, in that some other mineral had worked it’s way through it making it bitter and so useless, there is nothing left to do but throw it out. So they would throw it out on the path to be trampled, because if you threw it anywhere else it might kill any plants that might be growing there. At least on the path it would just be ground back into the dense surface.
This is where Jesus is going here. As a follower of Jesus we are to be set apart, pure and unstained by other allegiances. In this way we will be able to serve well in preserving, flavoring and increasing a desire for righteousness in the lives of those who recognize us to be followers of Jesus.
Secondly,
2. As followers of Christ, we are called to glorify God by reflecting His light (Matthew 5:14–16).
2. As followers of Christ, we are called to glorify God by reflecting His light (Matthew 5:14–16).
This is where we started out this morning, beginning again in verse 14 it says:
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.
Because of all the schools putting their performances online this year I got to see several of my nieces and nephews “virtual Christmas concerts” who live far away from us. I remember one of the Pre-Schooler groups were singing the old Sunday School favorite: “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine...” Remember that? “Don’t let Satan “hoof” it out, I am gonna let it shine... let it shine , let it shine, let it shine.”
Those are great words to create a foundation for kids to understand the importance of being a light for Jesus, but as our children grow up and mature, they need to know more about where that light comes from. Obviously it doesn’t come out of our finger....But we also do not access it by shear will power or just a general desire to be a kind and decent person. We don’t have the ability to “shine” like this on our own.
Just as the moon has no light of it’s own, but only reflects back to us the light of the Sun, we too have nothing to share of this light in and of ourselves. We can only reflect it from it’s true source. So what is the source of this light? This light that the world needs to dispel the darkness?
It is the glory of God radiating from the person of Jesus Christ and reflected to the world by His disciples.
6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
You see being “Salt” and “Light” is not something for the crowd that is just “interested”, but it was a teaching for the Disciples who would carry on Jesus work after He is taken up into heaven. At that point then the Disciples will be charged with continuing the work of Jesus by preserving the purity of His message and reflecting the light of Christ to the World. That is why God is the one who gets the glory in the good works of His Disciples, because He is the source of the light, we are just the reflectors of it.
12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
So to begin to answer our question of whether or not we are truly a Disciple or just a part of the “interested” crowd we see that “invested” Disciples are striving to keep themselves pure as they reflect the true light, the light of Jesus to the World. Does that describe you? Probably not perfectly, but is that something that you are even striving for?
One last measure that we are going to look at this morning from the Jesus’ Sermon is the measure of how we look to love others. Do we show love to people any differently than others who we know do not know Christ? Because
3. As followers of Christ, we are called to godliness through selfless love (Matthew 5:43–45).
3. As followers of Christ, we are called to godliness through selfless love (Matthew 5:43–45).
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
Can we just stop right here and be honest. If it was just up to us we would probably all tap out right here. Because this is not just about loving annoying people - that is hard enough - but Jesus calls his Disciples to reflect Him by loving those who have set themselves up as our enemy.
And notice that it isn’t saying to just love those who were once our enemies. This isn’t just about forgiving that bully in high school. It isn’t about those wounds that have scarred over now and are a distant memory. This word is in the present...active...tense. We are to show love those who are currently our enemies and pray for those who are persecuting us right now.
What is the point of that? What one earth will loving someone like that prove? It proves that we are in fact reflecting the pure and self-less love of God, for that is how He loves. Jesus calls us to love like this..
45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
When we show love to the people who show love to us, that isn’t a bad thing, but it’s a pretty common thing. It doesn’t take anything supernatural to engage in social transaction of just loving those who love you. Even the so called “undesirables” can do at least that much, and that is what “tax collectors” and “Gentiles” were considered in Jesus’ day. Even they did such things... their list of “friends” may be shorter, but they still show love to those who did so in return…at least up until the point when they too became their enemies.
And in that way, aren’t we just like them? We are all too willing to love those who love us back, but if we have some sort of fight or falling out then we don’t have to show them any love…do we?
Gospel Application
But when we show love to our enemies, that is reflective of a whole different kind of love. Something that is out of this world. Something that people will take notice of. Something that is effective as it shines brightly and purely and draws people into it...
How do we know this? Because that is how God in Christ, has loved us.
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Landing
This is one of the great evidences that shows us to be someone who has left the crowd and become a Disciple of Jesus Christ: How we invest Christ’s love in others. Oh, that we as Disciples of Christ would be salt and light in this world as we reflect the greatest act of selfless love that has ever been done: that “While we were yet sinners” enemies of God, Christ died for us.
As Romans 5 continues it says in verse 10
10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
And One of the ways that we rejoice in God is through the celebration of Communion where we remember the life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.