You Are the Salt of the World

Pastor Steve Stolarczyk

LSB Lectionary, Series A • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

Isaiah 58:3–9

Matthew 5:13–20

Good Works

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You are the Salt of the World because he has salted you.

Notes

Transcript

“ 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.” ()

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.

There you have it. No clever analogies today. No quirky way of looking at it. No hidden meanings. There you have it: “ 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.” ()

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You know how rotten this world is, how corrupt and evil. As one commentator put it:

I don’t have any clever analogies today. No quirky way of looking at it. No hidden meanings.

“The remedy for this, says our Lord here, is the active presence of His disciples among their fellows. The character and principles of Christians, brought into close contact with it, are designed to arrest the festering corruption of humanity and season its insipidity. ... (Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, Matthew 5:13).

Yes, that is my new favorite word: ‘insipidity.’ ‘Insipidity’ is something that is ‘insipid’: flat, dull, uninteresting, tasteless, bland. It really is a perfect word. The world acts like its great rebellion against even basic morality is bold, exciting, creative, innovative. It’s really not. For example, they’re moving beyond what they call outdated ideas of gender being either male or female—as if rejecting that basic reality were new or original. Spoiler alert: this idea of gender as a spectrum that they’ve dreamed up is not new or original. It would be outright boring if it weren’t for all the real lives that are harmed by it— you can’t deny reality for long before it pushes back.

That’s true for all of it: the sexual immorality, impurity, passion, covetousness, anger, slander, obscene talk, greed, drunkenness. It’s not bold, innovative, progressive. It’s flat, dull, uninteresting, tasteless, bland. It’s held up as bold, exciting— as “progress” for us as a society. It’s actually just dredging up failed ideas from the ash heap of history. Thankfully the active presence of Christ’s disciples among non-believers— “the character and principles of Christians,” the simple insistence that there are certain things that are true and right while others are simply wrong— are designed to slow this festering corruption of humanity and season its insipidity.

That’s what Christians are, at our best.

The active presence of Christ’s disciples among non-believers are designed to slow this festering corruption of humanity and season its insipidity.

You are, aren’t you? Or are

That’s you. You are the salt of the earth. You are... aren’t you?

“ 5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.” (Colossians 3:6)

19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

You are the light of the world, aren’t you? They do see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven? Or do they see impurity, passion, covetousness, anger, slander, obscene talk, greed, drunkenness? Christ did not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets (). And yet you and I act as if faith means that we’re free from it, free from striving for good works. Faith is not license to engage in these things. Faith like that— Christians like that who justify their impurity, passion, covetousness, anger, slander, obscene talk, greed, and drunkenness are not good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. In fact, you will be thrown out when our Lord returns because this is not living, saving faith. The righteousness that Jesus is talking about exceeds even the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees! It must be greater than theirs in order to avoid being cast out and trampled underfoot!

5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible Chapter 5

The remedy for this, says our Lord here, is the active presence of His disciples among their fellows. The character and principles of Christians, brought into close contact with it, are designed to arrest the festering corruption of humanity and season its insipidity. But how, it may be asked, are Christians to do this office for their fellow men, if their righteousness only exasperate them, and recoil, in every form of persecution, upon themselves? The answer is: That is but the first and partial effect of their Christianity upon the world: though the great proportion would dislike and reject the truth, a small but noble band would receive and hold it fast; and in the struggle that would ensue, one and another even of the opposing party would come over to His ranks, and at length the Gospel would carry all before it.

Are you the salt of the earth?

Christ did not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets ().

“ 9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” (1 Cor. 6:9-10)

9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Christ did not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. He came to fulfill them. And that is precisely what He did. He came eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners— but He did it with all temperance and chastity, with charity and patience, with kindness and humility and diligence. He did not omit even the smallest point of anything that the 10 Commandments demanded.

As He submitted Himself to well-intentioned, but fallible human parents, His trust and obedience to them and to the Father were perfect and absolute. As He fasted for 40 days, His trust and obedience to the Father remained perfect and absolute. As He served the Father’s will, teaching and healing, to the point of exhaustion, His trust and obedience to the Father remained perfect and absolute.

As He allowed Himself to be betrayed into the hands of sinful men, His trust and obedience to the Father remained perfect. As He was mocked, beaten, and hung on the cross, His trust and obedience to the Father were perfect. And when He bled and died and allowed Himself to be placed into the tomb, it was the final action in a life of perfect righteousness

There is only one whose righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees— who truly was and is salt and light in the world. Jesus Christ. And, thankfully, just like the rest of His life and His ministry, His righteousness is for you.

Thus, before the flood (, ); after the flood (); in the days of David (, ); in the days of Isaiah (, ); and in the days of Paul (; see also ; ; compared with ; , ). The remedy for this, says our Lord here, is the active presence of His disciples among their fellows. The character and principles of Christians, brought into close contact with it, are designed to arrest the festering corruption of humanity and season its insipidity. But how, it may be asked, are Christians to do this office for their fellow men, if their righteousness only exasperate them, and recoil, in every form of persecution, upon themselves? The answer is: That is but the first and partial effect of their Christianity upon the world: though the great proportion would dislike and reject the truth, a small but noble band would receive and hold it fast; and in the struggle that would ensue, one and another even of the opposing party would come over to His ranks, and at length the Gospel would carry all before it.

And, thankfully, just like the rest of His life and His ministry, His righteousness is for you.

“How shall your saltiness be restored?” How do you make salt salty again? An illustration might be helpful here. How does salt become un-salty? It becomes un-salty, it loses its flavor, when impurities are mixed in.

The question facing you and me today really is: “How shall your saltiness be restored?”

“ 1 It is also taught among us that such faith should produce good fruits and good works and that we must do all such good works as God has commanded, but we should do them for God’s sake and not place our trust in them as if thereby to merit favor before God. (Augsburg Confession, Article

1 It is also taught among us that such faith should produce good fruits and good works and that we must do all such good works as God has commanded, but we should do them for God’s sake and not place our trust in them as if thereby to merit favor before God.

How do you make salt salty again? An illustration might be helpful here. How does salt become un-salty? It becomes un-salty, it loses its flavor, when impurities are mixed in.

A couple of years ago I came across a really interesting discussion of salt. It was talking about how salt was made. Salt, of course, isn’t actually “made”— at least not in the sense of a factory mixing together other ingredients. It’s gathered from the sea or it’s mined. It’s really something to see, especially gathering it from the sea. They carefully set up huge, but very shallow pools of sea water, then they allow the water, itself, to evaporate, leaving behind a layer of salt that they collect. Before they can package it and sell it, however, they have to get rid of the dirt and impurities that are in it. In other words, they have to wash it. Now, I’m still not entirely sure how that works, but the really interesting part to me was what they use to wash it. They use water. But how do you use water to wash something like salt that dissolves in water? They don’t use pure water. They use water that is already saturated with salt. It already has salt in it, so it can’t hold any more. That’s what makes it possible to use it to wash the salt.

That’s also how you are made the salt of the earth. How do you become salty again? By being washed clean. How does that work? With water, of course. I can’t explain the mechanics of it, but here’s the important part: The water that we used when you were washed in baptism wasn’t regular water. It was saturated with Jesus Christ, with His righteousness. In that water, you were truly washed clean and made the salt of the earth.

Or, to use another image that the scriptures use, sin once reigned in your mortal bodies, to make you obey its passions. But, through baptism, you are now dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. “ 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace” (Roman 6:13-14).

“13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Pick your image: You have been brought from death to life, so present your members as instruments of righteousness; Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven; Your righteousness does exceed even that of the scribes and Pharisees— you have been given the righteousness of Christ. Whichever you prefer, let there be no insipidity in this church. You are the salt of the earth in Jesus Christ.