So, we’re picking up where we left off last post. This passage also comes from Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount. In the last post we looked at those opening lines: Blessed are the poor in spirit for they will inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled, Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God, and so on. Those opening lines aren’t commands, and they’re not a method for how to be blessed. So, what is Jesus doing? In a sense, he is pulling back the curtain so his followers can see that they are blessed.
If someone is his follower and living according to the God’s Kingdom in this world, then in spite of how things seem now, they are blessed. And they are blessed because the promises God has made will be fulfilled for them. So, if they mourn now because of the sorrow and injustice and violence they see in the world, they are blessed now not because of what they see, but because they will be comforted. If they hunger and thirst now for what is right, they are blessed now not because they hunger and thirst for what is right, but because they will see things made right by God. If they are peacemakers, working to bring together what has been torn apart, they are blessed and will be called the children of God because they are acting as the Father in Heaven does. And, so on.
But, again, he’s not giving a recipe for how to be blessed. Instead, he’s pulling back the curtain so that his followers will know how things stand. In this passage, he does something very similar. Notice, he doesn’t say, you should work really hard to be the salt of the earth. Or, he doesn’t say, you should make every effort to be the light of the world. No, he simply says, this is how things stand. You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. Again, he’s simply declaring how things are. Those who are his followers and living according to his Kingdom in this world, they are salt and light. And why are his followers salt and light? Because, as he puts it at the end of our passage, they have a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees. We’ll come back to that. First, let’s talk about salt and light.
Up until the last century or so, those who heard these sayings of Jesus about salt and light would have known exactly what he meant. And what they would have known is that salt and light make things better. For most of human history, life was hard enough. But, life without salt and light would have made things exponentially worse.
We know that humans have been using salt for over 6,000 years. What is thought to be the first city in Europe, from around 4500 BC, is a city by the name of Solnitsata, in Bulgaria. Solnitsata was a city founded on a salt mine. In fact, the very name of the city, Solnitsata, means “salt works.” And, it makes sense that people would settle at a salt mine. Salt for ancient people was of great value. It was one of the world’s most traded commodities. If you were looking to trade, and had some salt you could spare, you would find someone to trade with you. And why was salt so important? Well, partly because it was one of the main ways to preserve food, especially meat. But, besides that, it was used to flavor food.
Think about it this way, we have five taste sensations in the palate of our mouths: sweetness-no mystery there, bitterness-think of coffee or tea, savoriness-think of a good piece of grilled meat, sourness, and saltiness. We were created with the ability to taste salt. Enjoying delicious food is one of the great pleasures of life. Ancient people didn’t want bland food any more than we do. Salt made food better. Salt made life better.
And, the same is true for light. It’s easy in our day to take light for granted, but we get a sense of how much we depend on it whenever the power goes out. For ancient people, without light they would literally spend a good bit of their time in the dark. And, at the risk of stating the obvious, there’s just not a lot you can do when you can’t see. So, salt and light made life better. In this passage, Jesus is saying, if you are my follower and you live according to the Kingdom in this world, you make this world better.
Notice, he’s not saying that his followers make their own lives better. These images of salt and light are not really about his followers. Besides, he’s already established in no uncertain terms that his followers are blessed, no matter what is happening. Here, he’s saying not only are his followers blessed, but they are a blessing to others. Go back to salt, for a minute.
If you put a hot ear of sweet corn in front of me, I only know of one way to eat that sweet corn and that’s with melted butter and salt. If there’s no butter and salt, I’ll eat it because that’s what my mother taught me to do, but it’s not my “rathers.” I’d rather have it with salt and butter. Now, I have to give credit to the Presbyterian minister Timothy Keller for pointing this out: When I finish that sweet corn, do I say, “Man, that sure was some good salt”? No. I say, “Man, that sure was some good sweet corn.” But what made it so good? The butter and salt.
The same is true for light. When we turn on the light, we don’t stare at the light. No, we look at what the light illuminates. Jesus is saying his followers are like salt and light, they make things better. But, really, this passage is not about salt and light. It’s about what they do. This passage is about being salty and being bright. This passage is about what the followers of Christ do in the world. Jesus says, “No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” What is it about the followers of Christ that makes them salty and bright? It is the good works they do, the good that they bring into a dark world.
Or, to put it another way, what is it about the followers of Jesus that makes them salty and bright? It is the fact that their righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees. Now you can imagine when he says that their righteousness should exceed that of the Pharisees, those who first heard him say that must have said to themselves, “What in the world is he talking about? Who is more righteous than the scribes and Pharisees?” So, what does he mean by that?
Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfil.” That’s an odd statement for him to make. Why is he saying that? Has someone accused him of trying to abolish the law? Well, at this point in Matthew’s gospel, no. But as time goes on, he will do things and the religious will interpret what he’s doing as just that, he’s trying to abolish the law.
The most obvious example that will come up over and over again is the Sabbath law. You were not supposed to work on the Sabbath. Jesus will do things, like heal on the Sabbath. Or he will allow things, like his disciples gleaning grain to eat on the Sabbath because they were hungry, and the religious leaders will see this as him trying to undo the law. In their minds, he’s breaking the law and teaching his disciples to do likewise. And, as you know, his response is essentially, humans were not made to benefit the law, the law was made for the benefit of humans. So, no, Jesus did not come to abolish the law, but he did come to teach the spirit of the law.
One of the things that Jesus will point about the religious leaders is that they were very good at keeping the letter of the law and at the same time missing the spirit of the law. In Matthew 23, Jesus is once again teaching his disciples and the crowds and he says to them, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to (help)…Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees…For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith.” In short, he’s saying look, keeping the law without love is as good as not keeping at all. The spirit of keeping the law is to be obedient, not simply out of sense of duty, but out of love for God and neighbor.
The idea is that the love of the Father flows through the Son. His followers, being filled with the Holy Spirit, extend this love that flows through them and out into the world. The good works they do is not simply a matter of checking off the things one must do to be righteous, but they flow out of a genuine concern for the plight and struggles of others. Jesus said we are to let our light shine before others so that they will see our good works. And in turn, those who see our good works will glorify God. The followers of Jesus Christ are salty and bright because they make the world a better place by reflecting the love and concern, the faith and hope that Christ brings into the world. And in doing that, others turn to God.
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