Sermon Tone Analysis

Salt and Light

Jesus doesn’t say we should be salt or we should be light.

He says that we already ARE.

“YOU ARE,” he says.

As followers of Christ we ALREADY are salt and light.

The question is, how salty and how light are we…?

What is the purpose of salt?

To flavor food

Adding salt to food enhances its flavor.

Many times people on a low sodium diet complain because their food doesn’t have the flavor that it once had.

It also amazes me how many desserts call for a little pinch of salt in their recipe.

Why?

Because the salt brings out the best of the flavors.

When I am cooking and something doesn’t taste right, there’s 2 things I go for… either more butter or more salt.

Why?

The salt allows the best flavors to come through on the pallet.

2. For Jesus’ day, the purpose of salt was to act as a preservative and slow decay of meat/food.

There was no refrigeration in Jesus’ day.

To keep meet from decaying people would salt this.

(I am sure most of us know that…)

But, think about it… the world is decaying and Jesus calls us to be an agent that not only flavors the world, but slows down it’s decay!

Salt that has lost its ability to do this is useless!

It can’t enhance the flavor of food.

It can’t preserve the decaying meat… it is useless.

It might look like salt, but in reality it is just a flavorless, useless rock.

You might as well pave a road with it!

What is the purpose of light?

So we can see!

I am told that we do not see because our eyes see the object.

We see because light reflects off the object in front of us.

Our eyes are seeing the reflection of the light...

This is why when we are in a dark area with no light (pitch black we call it) we cannot see.

Because there is no light to reflect off the objects.

And, in dark, dark situations a little bit of light goes a LONG WAY!

In Jesus’ day, the lamps people would use were tiny.

They would be lit and placed high in the house so that the little light could illuminate as much as possible.

It would be a waste of resources - oil, wick - to light a lamp and cover it.

But, it is amazing how in the midst of darkness that little light could illuminate much.

There seems to be a message to Jesus’ followers that although they might think their light is small, when it is put on display it does A LOT...

We must remember that Jesus challenges us to be salt and light in ways that cause “Good deeds...”

Jesus is NOT encouraging separation from the world.

There were communities who wanted to be salt and light but they separated themselves from the rest of the world to do so.

The Qumran community of the Dead Sea scrolls is an example

They lived in the saltiest place on earth

They believed by their separateness they would flavor the world and arrest its decay as people would join them and be a part of their ideas.

The monastic communities often felt the same way

They separated so they could ponder God’s word and decrees in a way that they weren’t affected by the decay of the world.

A couple of weeks ago I was having a conversation with someone.

We were discussing Jesus and the hope of His return.

This person said something like, “I can see why the monastics would go off by themselves and separate themselves from the world.

That way they can focus on Jesus and His teaching.

But yet, at the same time, in their separating they are forgetting the call to be salt and light IN THE WORLD!”

Jesus says that as we are salt and light it leads to doing good deeds and bringing glory to God...

It is NOT a call for separateness.

This is a reminder that salt must be applied to the meat to arrest its decay and enhance its flavors.

Light must be placed high, but also NEAR the object so that it can highlight that object.

Light illuminates what is in front of it and it guides, protects, gives warmth and comfort.

It is NO DIFFERENT for us and our world… we must be in carne (in the meat) as salt and close to the world to illuminate the dangers, traps ahead.

But also in a way that provides comfort, warmth, and protection.

We are NOT salt and light unless being salt and light leads to good deeds… Which leads to God being praised.

Although our faith is PERSONAL, it is NEVER PRIVATE!

What does this have to do with fulfilling the Law?

Israel was chosen by God to be salt and light.

The purpose of the Law was to be able to work in them and teach them how to be salt and light in their world.

The WHOLE NATION was to be a nation that served as a priest to the world - mediating God and God’s goodness to the world...

But Israel Failed

Instead of arresting the decay of the world and illuminating the world with God goodness, Israel became decayed by the world and darkened by the worlds darkness.

What is God supposed to do when His preserving and illuminating agent has gone bad and stopped preserving and illuminating?

Well, although God COULD through Israel out, God promised to never do that.

So, God send Jesus the PERFECT representation of Israel and for Israel to be the true salt and light and to work through His followers so they can excel where Israel failed.

N.T. Wright in Matthew for Everyone (41) states, “He [Jesus] was the salt of the earth.

He was the light of the world: set up on a hill-top, crucified for all the world to see, becoming a beacon of hope and new life for everybody, drawing people to worship his father, embodying the way of self-giving love which is the deepest fulfillment of the law and the prophets.”

So God sends Jesus to be True Israel - to fulfill what Israel was supposed to fulfill.

Therefore Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law as he perfectly lived out salt and light in self emptying ways.

Jesus summarizes the purpose of the Law later in the sermon...

As the perfect embodiment of Love Jesus fulfills the Law and commands us to do the same....

The purpose of the Law was/is to point to Jesus

But, there is more than the legal ramifications of fulfilling the Law.

Yes, Jesus fulfills ALL the legal and sacrificial aspects of the Law, but he is also the fulfillment of the Law because the purpose of the Law was to point to The One who was greater than the Law.

The purpose of the Law was to point to Jesus.

In the book Reading Moses Seeing Jesus: How the Torah Fulfills Its Goal in Yeshua the authors state that the point of the Torah was not to make Israel more ethical.

It was to highlight how they, like Adam and Eve (who they believe that story is told to highlight how Israel, and all of us disobey) disobey God’s commands.

God gave them a land, commands, and told them to take care to obey it and to take care of the land.

Israel, like Adam, failed and they were exiled from the land, like Adam.

The point of the Law, then, was NOT to provide ethical standards whereby Israel wouldn’t fail God.

In fact, it was predicted in the Law that Israel WOULD FAIL...

Therefore, the purpose of the Law was to direct people to Jesus, the Messiah who would come and fulfill it as the Perfect Israelite - the Perfect Adam...

This is, in fact, what Jesus himself says...

Jesus fulfills the Law because the purpose of the Law was to point people to Jesus!

This is what Paul tells us...

Paul states that the purpose of the Law was not to make us better, but to remind us how messed up we are and to SHOW us our need and dependency upon THE ONE who would come and fulfill it for us.

This is what the Pharisees could not see

The Pharisees were SALTY.

They were abrasive and had no problem illuminating the the faults of others.

They had all 614 laws memorized and the Oral Tradition (which was a HUMAN addition to the Law) worked out.

They lived their lives believing that they were righteous as they fulfilled God’s Laws to the LETTER.

And Jesus says we cannot be a part of the Kingdom of God unless our righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees...

Think of the MOST Righteous person you know...

Someone who obeys God’s word PERFECTLY

Billy Graham, Mother Theresa, etc...