Salt and Light (Matthew 5:13-16)

In what many see as the most famous sermon in the world, came from the lips of our Lord Jesus Christ. In these verses there is a shift in the Sermon on the Mount. In the verses previously Jesus listed the beatitudes, where He pronounced the benediction or blessing upon those who experience certain things. We transition from benediction to responsibilities. Jesus says these words to His disciples and those who heard that Sermon. "You are the salt of the earth." (v.13a).

Jesus uses these words to explain who and what His disciples are defining what they are to do. What was the primary function of salt in the ancient world? Salt was used to give zest or tang to food, just as it is used today. Yet the most important use of salt was as a preservative. There were no such things as refrigerators, and even if there was a technique, the average person would not have it. To keep the food from spoiling was to cover it with salt. Salt also produces a sense of thirst.

Jesus uses this metaphor for His disciples, to show that they are to be people who add zest to the world. We are to be tang that makes life more delicious. Christians are not called to withdraw from the world. We are not just salt of the earth, but we are salt for the earth, so that we may add flavor to life itself. Christians should be the most filled with love for life, and we should have a contagious sense of the joy of living.

One task of the church is to help keep the world from self-destruction. Historic Christianity is often criticized for bringing warfare and great pain to the world. It is true that zealous Christians have brought division, yet the criticism distorts the historical record. If we consider the history of Western Civilization, we see that by the time Christ came, the golden age of Greece had turned to rust, and the culture of Athens had degenerated into barbarism. That empire gave way to Rome, and Rome ended in the same type of pagan corruption.

It has been said that the intellectual history of the Western World was saved by the intellectual contributions of the apostle Paul, in particular, and of Christianity, in general. It has also been said that the advent of Christianity is what saved Western Culture from pure barbarism. If we look over the influence of the Christian church, particularly in the West from the first century to the present day, we will see that the Christian church more than any institution has been responsible for the establishment of higher education. The university system was the brainchild of the Christian church.

It was the Christian church that brought in the arts... music, painting, and literature. Many of the world's greatest artists have been Christians, and the same is true in the realm of music, with Christians such as Bach, Mendelssohn, Handel, and Vivaldi. The church began the hospital movement in the West. It was the Christian church, following the mandate of Jesus to care for orphans, that ushered in orphanages.

Even though the New Testament was written at a time when slavery was still in vogue, John Murray once made the observation that all the seeds for the abolition of slavery were sown in the pages of the New Testament. In a real sense, the church of Christ has been the preservative that God has used to keep Western Civilization from imploding from internal corruption.

There is talk among historians that we are living in the post-Christian era. Others have described our culture as Neo-Pagan. There are others who have gone even further and describe our culture as Neo-Barbarian. It is barbarism that makes people sacrifice their infant children to the Canaanite god Moloch; throwing babes into the fire, and the procession increasing in their volume to mask the pain filled shrieks from their burning children. Only barbarians would slaughter their unborn children at the rate of around one million per year (the U.S., even more worldwide). A nation that tolerates and condones that kind of corruption cannot last.

The church is meant to be salt to preserve our culture while the culture is doing everything in its power to remove the influence of the church from the mainstream of American life. Right now we still have some protection from persecution. We are free to meet for public worship, but our freedom is limited by those who say that Christians will be tolerated only if they keep out of the public square. The minute we take the message of Christ into the culture, we run into the resistance of the pagan culture. We are allowed to exist as long as we stay in our buildings.

If we were salt like the disciples were salt, if we ventured as boldly into the public square as Paul did in the early church, we would experience jail and beatings and persecutions. We have been taught to keep the salt in the saltshaker, where it will do no harm. Despite the resistance of a decaying culture, that same culture is kept from self-destruction by the influence of Christ and His people. We are not called to wring our hands and groan about how bad things are becoming; we are called to preserve what is worth preserving in the world around us.

Salt provokes thirst. We are to provoke thirst in those who watch us, that they might be thirsty to drink of the waters from which we have drunk. Jesus said, "but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?" (v.13b). This is a rhetorical question. Some critics might point out that sodium chloride, what we call 'salt' never loses its saltiness. Why does Jesus speak about salt in this way?

It is important to remind ourselves of the context of passages of Scripture; with our human tendency to be nothing but self-centered to the point that we misunderstand historical, literary, and cultural context. Jesus was speaking to the people that lived in first century Palestine, and the main source of salt for them came from the Dead Sea. This salt did not share the purity of sodium chloride, it was not fully pure; there were other minerals mixed within it. Jesus is telling His people that they are the salt of the earth and they must not be destroyed by contaminating minerals. If we are not salt of the earth, it would likely be that we have allowed the world to contaminate us.

If our lives are no different than our secular friends, then we should reassess whether we are truly Christian or whatever Christianity we thought we had has been contaminated. If so, then the salt has lost its flavor, its tang, its purpose; and it is worthy of being trampled underfoot by men. "You are the light of the world." (v.14a). This is strange for Jesus to say as He called Himself the light of the world in John 8:12, which is alluded to in John 3.

It is Jesus who came into the darkness, and it could not overcome Him. This title, "The Light of the World" transfers to His disciples. Jesus has brought the light to the world and it originates in Himself, whereas our light is borrowed. Our light is a reflection of Christ's light. But if we has His light in us, it must be made manifest; it cannot be hidden.

Just as salt preserves against decay, so light brings truth to bear and rescues people out of darkness. Christ came into a world that was utterly engulfed by darkness. He said to His people, "A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 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." (vv.14b-15). No one in the ancient world would be so foolish as to take his lantern or candle and put a basket overtop it. It would have been no value, and covering flame is not a safe action. Candles were put onto a stand so that the house would be well-lit. We are to let our light shine that way rather than conceal it.

"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." (v.16). In this same sermon Jesus is sharply critical of the Pharisees, who paraded their piety for all to see, prayed on the street rather than in their closets, and did not anoint their heads when they fasted but glowered and showed their self-denial.

The light that Jesus puts in His is designed to be seen by all. When His light shines through, people people see our contribution to a dying world. They will see our mercy to the widow, to the orphan, the imprisoned, to the sick, and to the dying; not so that we will received applause of men but so God may be glorified. The reason for our Christian lives is to glorify God. That is our chief end, to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Johann Sebastian Bach understood this well as he wrote at the end of his compositions, "Soli Deo Gloria" (Glory to God Alone). Bach offered his musical works as a praise to the glory of God.

Likewise, whatever we do, whatever we achieve, is to be done for His glory to manifest His light. We do so by being the salt of the earth and the light of the world, so that in that celebratory setting of our success and work we say, "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20).