Matthew 5:13-16 “Salt and Light”

We continue today with the Sermon on the Mount from last week. You will recall that Jesus is preaching from the top of a hill while many people are gathered around his feet. He has just told them the Beatitudes. He continues now in a unique way. He tells the people who they are. Yes, he tells the people who they are!

In seminary, I have heard preaching instructors tell their classes that they should strive to preach much as Jesus did. However, in these lines that we heard proclaimed from the pulpit Jesus does something that I could never do in a sermon. He tells his audience who they are.

Now, think about this: If you walked into this church, and I were to say that you are, let’s say, “peanut butter,” what would you do? For example, “Hi, Jane, How are you? Wait a minute. I know who you are. You are a peanut butter. That’s right, you are peanut butter.”

That sounds really strange, right? That is what Jesus does. He stands there and tells everybody that they are the salt of the earth. We have accepted these words today because we have heard them all of our lives and hence understand intrinsically what it means to be the salt of the earth. However, back then when Jesus first said these words, I think it would have sounded very strange. Just the idea that someone could tell someone else who they are is odd. Isn’t it?

As an aside, I think it is even stranger to tell God who God is: There is a modern hymn that was super popular two or three years ago called “Waymaker.” The chorus says, in speaking to the Almighty, “You are ‘way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness, that is who You are!” Honestly, the first time I heard that song I was a little shaken: I am not about to tell God Who God is! God can tell me who I am, but it does not go the other way. That is like a “Moses on the Mountain” moment. God is too great for me to fathom or comprehend. Nobody sings that song anymore–no longer popular.

To be sure, and because this was asked in the afternoon bible study on Tuesday: No, this was not a common phrase before Jesus said it in his sermon. This is absolutely a new idea. The idiom does not exist in the Old Testament or in Greek or Latin literature. Truly it would have sounded strange to everyone! Just today, we have gotten used to the phrase and accept its meaning–becasue Jesus preached it.

It is very strange—that is unless the person telling you who you are happens to be your Creator and Heavenly Father. Actually, who else could tell you who you are unless they have known you your entire life--or even before you were born? When Jesus stands before us and tells us who we are, that is in fact a sign of his being God incarnate.

This idea of someone else telling me who I am, or specifically God telling me, reminded me of the call of Jeremiah the prophet. He was only a boy when he heard God’s voice telling him (Jeremiah 1:5): “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. And before you were born, I consecrated you. I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

I love this idea that God knew me before I was born! It echoes a point in the Bible that Jesus later says to people who are once more gathered around him. John 15:11, “You did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit.”

You are a chosen people! You are the salt of the earth and the light unto the nations. This is who you are because the Creator in heaven made you to be this. This is who you are because your Father sees this in you now. This is the Father who has known you all your days.

I want to be clear on this point of God knowing you and the notion of being chosen: This does not mean that your destiny in this life is somehow predetermined. You do not just lay down on the floor saying, “I really do not have to do anything today because God has already figured everything out for my life.” You cannot just sit back and let life happen. No, the idea is that God knows who you are from even before you were born. He knows when he needs you to come off of the bench and get in the game to play so that God’s team will win. You might get tackled. You might make a touch down. That does not matter as much as the idea that you were chosen to play and you fought your hardest to win.

The Apostle Paul in the Bible always talks about his “running the good race for Jesus.” Check out 1 Corinthians 9:26 “Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.” Just about every time Paul mentions running this race for Jesus he couples it with the idea of “fighting a good fight.” Sometimes the path is not clear in our lives, but we do not run aimlessly. Sometimes the fight before us is daunting, but we do not back down! Jesus knows who we are and that we can win in this world!

Accepting that we are indeed created especially as God has deemed worthy to run this race and fight this fight before us, what should it mean that we are salt and light?

I remember the first time that I was asked to do a funeral on a surfboard. I was asked to paddle out and throw salt back into the sea. This was before adding the ashes of the dearly departed. I remember thinking to myself, “Why would I want to throw salt into the ocean? That hardly makes sense. Doesn’t the ocean already have enough salt?” Of course the idea here in Hawaii is that the salt is taken from the sea—down at Salt Pond where the sun bakes out the water and leaves the precious crystals. For a while, the salt is with us. Eventually the salt ends back where it comes from one way or another.

Salt was made in the exact same way in ancient Israel. They made ponds next to the Dead Sea and let the sun dry the water out. Salt was used sometimes as money. It was used to season and preserve food. It was used to disinfect wounds, so to heal.

There is one use of salt mentioned in the Bible that is not common anymore but adds a lot to what Jesus was saying. In Leviticus 2 and elsewhere in the Bible it is noted that salt was used as an offering to God. In fact, one was not allowed to simply offer a lamb or other meats as offerings without the meat first being salted. One must not just offer something tasteless to God. Offerings must be seasoned.

When Jesus tells us that “we are salt,” I believe that he was referring to this ancient practice of offering salt on the altar of the Lord. We are supposed to offer our lives on the altar of the Lord. In doing this we will be made holy and righteous in our own lives. Like salt is needed to live, we offer back to God the very essence of our lives.

I have to point out that Jesus does not say, however, that we are the “sat of the sea.” He says that we are the salt of the earth. Yes, there were two kinds of salt back then. The sea salt was pure crystals dried from the sea in pits. The “salt of the earth” was rock salt that was still in the form of a rock. When one cooked something in a pot, the entire rock was thrown into the soup in order to season and help preserve the food. If you threw the rock into the soup, but no salt came out, then you would throw the rock away.

Do you just want to be a rock? Or, do you want to be the salt that enhances flavor and preserves the food?

I mention this preservation by salt because we do not think about this so much anymore. We like to freeze our meat to preserve it now. What happens to the meat in the freezer when the hurricane makes the power go out? You have to eat it up fast, but you could do what has been done for thousands of years, that is preserve it with salt! We do not even think about it anymore unless we are making Spam or Kulua pig.

Jesus also states that we are the light of the world. I could not help but think that if we are the light of the world, as Jesus tells us that we are, then we might in fact attract a lot of bugs! As strange as that may sound, I think it is true. If you go out into the world shining forth the light of Christ, you have got to be ready for what lands on you!

In nature there is an incredible attraction to light. We see flowers bending to face the light. We see insects and birds, such as the infamous shearwaters, attracted to the light. We see fish coming up out of the ocean when we use a light for night fishing. When Jesus says that we are the light of the world, that means that there is something that is incredibly attractive about us!

I don’t know about you, but I have always found those people who are strong in the Spirit of God and who have the light of Christ shining forth in their lives to be the most attractive people. I am drawn to them. I can see that light in their eyes and become like a termite about to be zapped by a four hundred watt lamp.

You know, when people come to me in my life, I want them to see that light of Christ. I do not want them to see me and my own weak and dim spirit. I want them to see the light of Christ in me! That will far out-shine anything other light. There should be no personal glory in our faith. All glory to Jesus!

The admonition that we get from Christ is that we are not to put our light under a basket, or a clay pot as it were. This is not just a waste of the light that has been given to us, but there is a greater danger. Today we can put a light, an incandescent bulb of some kind under a clay pot, and there is not an issue of course. Back then, a light meant that there was a flame that needed fuel and oxygen. If you put a flame under a clay pot, not only are you wasting the light, but you are extinguishing it completely. That is to say that if we do not let the light of Christ shine through us, then that light will go out in us!

You must give the light to other people. You are the light of the world. You are not just the light unto yourself! You must shine forth if you want to keep that light lit inside of your own life.

There is the saying in English “Use it or Lose it!” Let your light shine. Don’t just talk about it shining, let other people actually see it! I am standing up here talking about it, but really I want you just to see it. I want you to catch a glimpse. I want to project that light over you! What good is it to anyone if the light is not being used? We ourselves will lose it.

Listen to Christ call out who you are in this world. He knows. He is your Creator and Heavenly Father come down to be here with you. Offer yourselves on his altar to be sanctified and accept His light into your lives. Amen.