ARE YOU SALTY? Matthew 5:13; Luke 14:34-35 October 16, 2016

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Kelley Copeland
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1 ARE YOU SALTY? Matthew 5:13; Luke 14:34-35 October 16, 2016 Nearly everyone acknowledges that Jesus of Nazareth was a master preacher. The graphic word pictures he painted, the arresting metaphors he employed, and the pithy proverbs he quoted were so apt, so profound, that people flocked to hear him speak. A prime example of his brilliant use of metaphor is found in what is called The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. 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. (Matt. 5:13) He commented further on that particular figure of speech in Luke 14: Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. (34-35) When you and I think of salt today, we tend to picture the granular white stuff in the shaker on the kitchen table that we use to season our food. But the long history and recognized value of this essential mineral scientists call sodium chloride is something about which most of us modern Americans have very little idea. The Value of Salt Some refer to salt as the fifth element because we re as dependent on it as air, earth, water and fire. Homer called it divine. Plato called it a "substance dear to the gods." In ancient Greece, slaves were purchased with salt prompting the phrase "...not worth his salt." Owning and controlling salt has always been a high priority in war. Thousands of Napoleon's troops died during his retreat from Moscow because their wounds wouldn't heal--their bodies lacked salt. Without enough salt in the human body, muscles won't contract, blood won't circulate, food won't digest and the heart won't beat. The prophet Ezekiel (16:4) mentioned the practice of rubbing new born babies with salt. They used it as a mild astringent to absorb amniotic fluid and placenta that remained on the newborn's skin. It also protected the skin from developing rashes. More wars have been fought over salt than over gold. Here in America, many of the Indian wars were fought over salt licks or salt springs. They were few and far between, and the Indians protected and defended them to the death. You may think of salt only when you shake it on your eggs at breakfast, but it has more than 14,000 uses. It s used in greater quantities and more applications than any other of earth s minerals. When Jesus sat down with his disciples there on the side of the mount, when he said "You are the salt of the earth" he wasn't just challenging them, he was commending them. But how could He say it with a straight face? These guys? Seriously? The disciples were deeply flawed,

2 shot through with selfishness, resentment, thick-headedness, whining like children, and running from danger. Yet Jesus looked into their eyes and boldly stated You are the salt of the earth. Why? How? What gave them such status? For the next 3 years those disciples had front row seats to Jesus miraculous ministry of healing, forgiving, restoring, saving. Yet for all the good he did, he was mocked and maligned, slandered and scorned. They witnessed his brutal execution and his heart-breaking burial. And they were stunned when he suddenly appeared, interrupting their Sunday morning pity party. They learned first-hand that He kept his promises. He said he d rise again and he did! He promised to send them His Spirit as Comforter, Counselor, and Teacher - and he did. He said they d testify to his sinless life, his atoning death, his victorious resurrection and they did! Because they were vitally linked to Jesus, this bunch turned the world upside down! As they fanned out to the nations with the gospel burning in their hearts and buzzing on their lips, what once seemed impossible now became a living reality. Empowered by the Spirit, these poor-in-spirit, pure-in-heart, peace-making, meek, merciful, mourning-over-sin, hungryfor-righteousness saints, despite intense persecution, and with undaunted courage, salted the earth with the Good News that Jesus lives, that he loves and that he saves! The Variety of Functions But what does this mean for you and me? Are we salt? If so, how are we salt? Some interpreters focus on the value of salt as a preservative. For thousands of years - until technology brought us refrigeration - salt was rubbed into meat or fish to slow decay. As salt, we Christians help slow the rotting of society, stemming the tide of moral decay in a fallen world. How do we accomplish this? By standing for truth without compromise, and living by grace. We achieve it in measure by loving God supremely, and loving others as Jesus loved. In July, 2011 New York Times editorialist Nicholas Kristof wrote a column praising the work of many evangelical Christians. Kristof begins by noting that at times evangelical leaders act hypocritically and don't reflect Christ. Still, he went on to write: But in reporting on poverty, disease and oppression, I've seen so many others. Evangelicals are disproportionately likely to donate 10 percent of their incomes to charities, mostly church-related. More important, go to the front lines, at home or abroad, in the battles against hunger, malaria, prison rape, obstetric fistula, human trafficking or genocide, and some of the bravest people you meet are evangelical Christians (or conservative Catholics, similar in many ways) who truly live their faith. I'm not particularly religious myself, but I stand in awe of those I've seen risking their lives in this way and it sickens me to see that faith mocked at New York cocktail parties. Nicholas D. Kristof, "Evangelicals Without Blowhards," The New York Times ( ) Can that be said of us? Are we at Horizon making a difference locally and globally?

3 Covenant of Salt Salt was used as a means of sealing a covenant or a relationship between parties. Ought you not to know that the Lord God of Israel gave the kingship over Israel forever to David and his sons by a covenant of salt? (2 Chronicles 13:5) The ancient covenant of salt was a required element of grain offerings, and of every offering in fact (Lev. 2:13). It signified the responsibility individuals had to preserve the covenant. That s why it has been used as an enduring symbol in wedding ceremonies for thousands of years. Seasoning Salt is also used as seasoning, making everything taste better. Imagine your breakfast eggs without salt - or popcorn or corn on the cob! Much like salt, we kingdom people, by our very presence, in order to glorify God, enrich this world through our contributions in science and technology, the arts, industry, business, education, family life, government, etc. Fertilizer The text in Luke 14 about being no longer good for manure sheds light on what Jesus original listening audience and Luke's original reading would have known about salt. It acts as a fertilizer by helping maintain the nutrient rich properties of manure, preventing it from rotting. Salt was used in arid places to help soil retain moisture, destroy weeds, make stubborn soils easier to till, and make sour grass sweeter and more appealing to cattle. In some soils, salt keeps rust from wheat, and blight from potatoes. God hasn't left His people here on earth merely to season or preserve society from decay. Like fertilizer, He want us to stimulate growth in the parts of the world that are barren; He wants us to get mixed into the manure piles of the world so that God can use that fertilizer to bring new, abundant life. Our saltiness entails our bearing witness to the power of the gospel that brings the kingdom of God to the masses and messes of the world. If salt makes barren soil easier to plow; if it helps plants absorb vital nutrients; if it preserves and enhances the fertilizing capacity of manure - then Jesus is calling us to something extraordinary and countercultural. He's calling us to get messy and go where nothing grows. He's calling us to explore opportunities that probably won't make sense in the eyes of normal people. People say things like, She graduated from Duke with a degree in anthropology why is she teaching second grade in rural Kentucky? Or, He was an all-conference basketball player with enough talent to go pro. Why did he opt to go back home and support his single mom and two sisters? Or, They both have really good careers with lots of great potential; why do they spend so much time working with special needs adults in their community when they could be making a difference in the corporate world? Why? Because of the call to be salty. We're surrounded by manure piles - in the form of broken lives. In every small town, big city, and suburb in America are acres and acres of barren ground - people whose lives are on the

4 brink of ruin. Financial disasters, addictions, injustice, foolish choices, ignorance, or outright rejection of the gospel are all too common - resulting in a vast spiritual wasteland. The call of the salty is the call to move toward the broken so that they may hear the message that God loves them and Jesus died for them - to be set free from the destructive power and dreadful penalty of sin. As salt, we're to bring life and renewal to barren soil where nothing grows. The good news is - we don t have to go far to find opportunity to be salt. (This section on salt as fertilizer is drawn from Anthony B. Bradley's provocative article "You are Manure" in Christianity Today, October 2016) Jesus calls us to be salt. How salty are you? I saw this question the other day: "On a scale of pretzel to the Dead Sea, how salty are you?" What do salty people look like? They're right-side-up people in an upside-down world; they're the redeemed, regenerated, transformed people of God; they are people who worship Him, walk with him, work for Him, and welcome His Spirit to invade their lives and lead them. As they declare the gospel, and practice compassion and kindness, people will glorify our Father in heaven. Yes, salty people can change the world! Jesus statement in both passages has stirred quite a bit of discussion and debate over the years: but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? Here's the rub: sodium chloride is a stable compound. So, technically, salt cannot lose its saltiness. Some say that Jesus referred to rock formations containing deposits of salt. People would take meat and fish and pack them in the rocks to preserve and season them. But in time, the salt would leach out and the rocks would lose their saltiness. In that case, the rocks lost their salt, the salt didn't lose its taste. Regardless, the rocks were then worthless. Others say that Jesus was talking about salt that had been collected from the Dead Sea. There s very little visible difference between the salt and the sand on the shore. When collected, the grains of sand and granules of salt sometimes got mixed together, with a lot more sand than salt so the combination was ineffective. Again, the salt hadn t really lost its saltiness, there just wasn t enough in the mix. In both cases, the salt had not really lost its saltiness. So what did Jesus mean? Perhaps a quotation from a well known rabbi around 90 A.D. will shed some light. In typical rabbinical fashion, Rabbi Joshua ben Haninia responded to a question with another question: Can salt lose its flavor? He then offered a parallel question: Can a mule bear young? (A mule is a cross between a horse and a donkey. The chromosomes between the parents don t match, so the offspring is sterile.) Just as a mule can t bear young, salt can t lose its saltiness. So Jesus wasn't wrong about salt losing its saltiness. He was merely using a known proverbial saying on impossibilities to describe an equally impossible trait of his disciples. As His followers

5 venture out into the world as salt, what they profess to believe is proven by the way they live. Genuine disciples can t lose what made them disciples in the first place, because they ve been made new, they ve been born again. (Michael J. Wilkins, Matthew, NIV Application Commentary, p. 214) But imposters who reveal only an external flavoring of salt, will be exposed. The pretender can t be salted again because he/she never had the kingdom life in the first place! *The bottom line: if you're really salt, you can t help but be salty! I'm reminded of a subplot in the old Seinfeld TV series. Jerry's friend Kramer had received a small part in a Woody Allen movie that was shooting in Manhattan. Kramer's one line in the movie was supposed to be "These pretzels are making me thirsty!" I wonder if we are even as salty as pretzels? Do we, by our words and deeds, help make people thirsty for the gospel? Then this salty statement really starts to sting: It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. How will the world respond to the salt-less phony? The world will reject and judge them. If they're no different from the world, they've got nothing to offer. They divorce as often, suffer the same addictions, alienate their children just as much, tell lies regularly, and make dirty deals like everyone else. The world will turn on them for their duplicity. (Wilkins, p. 214) What is our challenge today - we who profess Jesus as our Savior and Lord? Is it not to examine our lives and confess honestly whether or not we have been truly born again - transformed by the Spirit of God? Much of this transformation will be seen - not in dramatic ways - but in the ordinariness of daily life. "Everyday people" in everyday routines will, in everyday activities, will see our transformed lives and glorify our Father in heaven. "Everyday people" who lie when they don t want to, drive like maniacs, scream at their kids, cheat to get ahead, tell dirty jokes, hurt the ones they love most, fornicate with impunity and cuss without conscience will see a big difference in us. Yes, we must declare the gospel how that Jesus Christ died on the cross to deliver us from our bondage to sin, from our twisted passions, from our destructive obsessions to rescue us from all this messy business. People can t change until they ve heard the good news. But in our telling we must remember: actions speak as least as loud as our words - probably more. Why are you the salt of the earth? (connected to Jesus by faith) Do you see how valuable you are to God? (Salt is precious, indispensable) Do you understand why you are here? (to fertilize with gospel, preserve, season) We can never get away from the simple truth that Jesus loves us. He died to show it! He rose again to prove all the promises were true and that he really is God! We respond with gratitude and faith - thanking God again for transforming us into valuable salt, and asking Him to enable us by His grace to live out who we are - for our own good, and for His glory!

YE ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH MATTHEW 5:13

YE ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH MATTHEW 5:13 Text: Matthew 5:13 Matthew 5:13 13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for