Salt and Light

Matthew 5:13-16

You are the salt of the earth.  But if the salt loses its saltiness how can it be made salty again?  It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.

You are the light of the world.  A city on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.  Instead they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

One of my favorite seasonings if not my favorite is salt.  Generally something has to be very salty in order for it to be too salty.  Usually I just use table salt, but there’s also kosher salt, sea salt, popcorn salt, black salt, and flake salt just to name a few.  Salt is an essential part of our diet.

Today salt has been maligned and has an evil name, but salt is a necessary part of our diet.  Salt has things like sodium and chloride which are essential to use.  Unfortunately it’s when salt is used in excess that we begin to have problems.  The average American daily consumes 2 to 3 times as much salt than is necessary.

Salt, small as it is, has played an important part in history.  Roads were built to help facilitate in the transport of salt.  Cities grew up along those routes.  Empires were built and destroyed because of salt.  Salt has played major parts in wars.  Many people realize that the word “salary” comes from salt, because Romans soldiers were paid in salt.  But even as recently as the War of 1812 soldiers were paid in salt.  So why is salt so powerful?

Today we have refrigeration and all kinds of modern preservatives.  But for most of human history there was no such thing as refrigeration and modern preservation methods.  Salting and smoking were the two primary methods in keeping meat from spoiling and going putrid.

Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth.”  Jesus isn’t saying that Christians should taste salty, but is telling something about the character of Christians.  So what does salt do?  It keeps food from going bad, it helps to preserve it.

We live in a world that could be described as putrid – rotten and smelly.  The state of the world has all kinds of evil in it.  Without Christ people are living in darkness.  In Romans Paul talks about how the world has a constant tendency to deteriorate.  It’s not that as Christian we can make the world better and look more appealing to God, but it’s that we can hinder the process of social decay.

Salt does no good if it isn’t added to the food.  That food will still go bad even if the salt is right next to it.  The salt has to be right in the midst of the food.  While preparing for this sermon I did a little science experiment.  Three weeks ago I took out two equal size pieces of meat.  One piece I put in a plastic container and left out on the cupboard.  The other piece I rubbed with salt, covered it with salt, and left it in a dry cool place for three weeks.  Take a look at the difference.

As Christians we aren’t to join a monastery and be separate from the world, but we are to live in the world.  We are distinct, but definitely having a positive influence.  Think of how many times when the conversation changes because a known Christian walks within ear range.  I can’t tell you how many times I hear people apologize for saying something or their language because they know I’m a pastor.  That’s just a small example.  A bigger example would be William Wilberforce, the instrumental person in England for getting slavery abolished.

Jesus continues and says that “if salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?  It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.”

Strictly speaking it is impossible for salt to lose its saltiness.  Sodium chloride is a very stable compound and doesn’t break up very easily.  However we can add things to salt in order to make it impure and useless, perhaps even dangerous.  In Israel most of the salt was gathered from the Dead Sea area.  It was a white powder that contained sodium chloride.  It also contained a lot of other minerals including just plain old dust. Of this mixture the sodium chloride was the most soluble and would wash out of the dust mixture the easiest.  The rest of the white powder looked like salt and was still called salt, but it neither tasted or acted like salt.  It was just dust and wasn’t good for anything.  When this happened the “salt” would be thrown out.

John Stott says “Christian saltiness is Christian character as depicted in the beatitudes, committed Christian discipleship exemplified in both deed and world.  For effectiveness the Christian must retain his Christlikeness, as salt must retain its saltiness.  If Christians become assimilated to non-Christians and contaminated by the impurities of the world, they lose their influence…  If we Christians are indistinguishable from non-Christians, we are useless.”

I wonder if this isn’t what Jesus is talking about in the letter to the church in Laodicea where the Christians there were called ‘luke-warm’.  The Christians weren’t distinguishable from everyone else.  Jesus said that he was about to spit them out of his mouth.

The second description of Christians is that they are called the light of the world.  An ancient saying is “Nil utilius sole et sale – There is nothing more useful than light and salt”.  Light is another thing that we need to live.  Light gives life to plants and animals.  Today houses are built with light in mind.  Big picture windows are put in on the south side in order to maximize light.

Every once in a while I drive to Fargo at night.  While Fargo wouldn’t be described as being on a hill, it is impossible to hide at night.  The lights from the city are visible from miles away.  On Friday coming back from the Mission Trip we made a stop at the South Dakota Badlands and camped overnight.  The day got a little long and we were driving to the campsite in the dark.  We were up on the hill driving down into a basin and when we took a turn I saw a far off speck of light and I figured that it was the camping site.  It turned out to be a Coleman Lantern – something similar to this that we were able to see from over five miles away. 

Think of a time where you’ve been out at night, perhaps camping and you’ve been miles away from civilization.  If it is a cloudy night things are black.  Even out on a farm there are always light around.  But imagine the complete darkness.  Even the light from an olive-oil lamp would be a wonderful thing.

The natural human condition is one where we live in complete and utter darkness.  There is absolutely no good or any natural light within us.  We are blind and grope around in the darkness to find our way around. 

But Christians are described as being the light of the world.  We are to bring light into the darkness.  If the power goes out and we need to light a candle, we don’t automatically snuff it out.  Rather it is placed in the center of the room so that we can see.

The light that we have as Christians is to be visible to all.  The light that we give off can be something small like giving a compliment to someone, encouraging them, holding a door open, etc.  Other people have been transformed by Jesus and their light included prison reform, medical care, abolition of slavery, abolition of child labor, establishment of hospitals and orphanages. 

Dr. Lloyd-Jones says “The true Christian cannot be hid, he cannot escape notice.  A man truly living and functioning as a Christian will stand out.  The true Christian does not even desire to hide his light.  He sees how ridiculous it is to claim to be a Christian and yet deliberately try to hide the fact.  A man who truly realizes what it means to be a Christian, who realizes all the grace of God has meant to him and done for him, and understand that, ultimately, God has done this in order that he may influence others, is a man who cannot conceal it.

Christians are the salt of the earth and light of the world.  These two things can teach us a couple of lessons.

1. There is a fundamental difference between Christians and non-Christians, between the church and the world.

1. We must see our Christian responsibility as twofold – to exert an influence by arresting the decay of the world and to exert a positive influence by bring light into darkness.  It is one thing to stop the spread of evil; it is another to promote the truth, beauty and goodness.

Through this we will be blessed, the world will best be served, and God will be glorified.

Any good deeds that we do are not to be for our glory and honor.  But “that people will see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”  The light that we give off is a reflection of the light of Jesus.  It isn’t from us and it gives glory to God.