Matthew 5:13

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 underfoot.

This isn’t a bible passage that I’ve heard preached on recently. I don’t know if that is because it was preached on regularly in the 90’s, or coincidence (there is a lot of bible verses for sermons to be based on; 31,102 to be exact). But I saw this verse pop up this morning, and it actually caught me by surprise that I couldn’t, from the top of my head, translate what the bible verse is talking about. Time for some digging.

This verse comes from Jesus’ very famous ‘Sermon on the Mount’, where he taught a rapid-fire, wide-scoping sermon to crowds of followers on a mountain side. This sermon, which you can read more about in Matthew 5, contained topics such as murder, adultery,  the beatitudes, and v.13-16; the teaching of 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 underfoot. “You are the light of the world. A town built 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 others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Jesus explains the light metaphor very clearly in v.16 , but the salt metaphor is still in question. It would appear the explanation to this metaphor can go a number of ways, depending on what you use salt for, but they can all be summed up with ‘salt makes food better’. Some of the uses of salt are preserving foods and giving foods flavor. Christians, the church, and very specifically in the sermon, disciples, are the salt of the earth because they preserve God’s mission. Does this mean that if no Christian’s existed on earth that God’s mission would be stopped cold and ‘rot’ like unsalted food? I don’t think so. I think God’s power goes beyond that, and evidence for him can be seen around us in nature. But what if us, as Christians, begin to lose our saltiness? What if we, as Christians, begin to lose our keenness to actually be useful in God’s mission like salt is for food? What good use are we for then? Well, as Jesus said ‘You’re no longer good for anything, but to be trampled underfoot.” That’s a pretty brutal assessment if we fail to be useful.

The last question that v.13 asks is ‘But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?’ Salt doesn’t often lose its flavor, there are explanations for how salt from around Jesus’ area did lose its saltiness, but this metaphor wouldn’t really be applicable to the true Christian losing their Christianity, but could be applied, loosely, to the idea of the dilution of salt. Sea water is 3.5% salt. If you take sea water and add fresh water, the salt content decreases and becomes less prevalent. To continue the metaphor, if Christians are salt in a sea of fresh water, we’re hardly noticeable. Christians need to support other Christians. Christians need to work together to further God’s mission. It’s impossible to be on God’s mission without God. Us Christians need to work together to preserve this goodness in this rotting world; show non-Christians that their rottenness is not all there is, and there is amazing joy waiting for them, for which we can only get a hint of here on earth.

We are salt, we are light. Let’s shine for all to see and show them the goodness of God in everything we do.