The Salt of the Earth

Matthew 5:13-15

It is a high compliment to say, “He or she is the salt of the earth!” However, there are only a few things more negative than, “He or she isn’t worth his or her salt!”

Right after Jesus finished with the Beatitudes, He declared those words to His disciples, “You are the salt of the earth.” What was He telling them?

The Beatitudes speak of: poverty of spirit; endurance of sorrow; yieldedness to God’s direction; a hunger and thirst for righteousness; mercy; purity of heart; peacemaking; and enduring persecution in the service of righteousness. Then Jesus said, “You are salt.” To have Jesus talking about salt here doesn’t seem to fit. What did Jesus mean? What did his audience understand Him to say?

William Barclay helps us by suggesting that in the time of Jesus, salt was connected in people’s minds with three special qualities.

Salt Was Connected with Purity.

It was a glistening white necessity of life. It was one of the earliest offerings to the gods, because it came from the purest of all things the sun and the sea.

In the Ancient World Salt Was the Most Common Preservative.

A preservative is the second quality Jesus was thinking of when He uttered those words. In those days, used salt was used to preserve perishable food, meat, and fish in particular.

The Most Common Quality of Salt Is its Ability to Flavor Food.

Food without salt is tasteless, boring, even sickening. Christ is to life, what salt is to food. He lends the flavor of joy to life. We need to rediscover the radiance of the Christian faith. Wherever we are, we must be dispensers of joy.

However, I believe there is a fourth, and an even more significant connection to what Jesus was trying to say.

Salt was Connected with God’s Covenant — “A Covenant of Salt.”

Many of the cultures in the Old Testament had the custom of sealing a covenant between two people, by sharing bread and salt. By so doing, they were binding themselves to one another in covenant.

This very covenantal idea is found in the Torah. We read in Num. 18:19, “Whatever is set aside from the holy offerings the Israelites present to the LORD… is an everlasting covenant of salt before the LORD for both you and your offspring.”

In the Cereal Offering – they were to add salt – Lev 2:13, “add salt to all your offerings.” Salt was to be a constant reminder to them of God’s Covenant.

Later in the Old Testament, after the death of Rehoboam, the King of the Southern kingdom, Jeroboam, king of the Northern kingdom, saw an opportunity to invade the South. He marched with 800,000 men against the army of King Abijah half that size.

In his defense, Abijah called out to Jeroboam in II Chron. 13:5, “Don’t you know that the LORD, the God of Israel, has given the kingship of Israel to David and his descendants forever by a covenant of salt? The “covenant of salt,” was Abijah’s legitimacy to the throne of David. Jeroboam’s army suffered 500,000 casualties, and was defeated.

Jesus also spoke of salt in a covenantal way in Mark 9:50, “…have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other.” By having salt in ourselves, we seal our mutual loyalty to each other, and to the covenantal relationship we have entered into with God.

“You are the salt of the earth,” is a metaphor of God’s New Covenant. We are to infiltrate our society, and remind people of God’s goodness by living out our purity, preserving power, and our joy.

CONCLUSION

Being salt includes both being and doing. However, for salt to have any impact at all, it has to come into contact with the target.

Jesus said, Luke 9:24, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” When salt is doing its job it melts; in a sense it loses its life. But in that process, it finds its true purpose. Being salt costs something. But we have the promise of Jesus Himself – if we give up ourselves in His service, we will find our true purpose. God is faithful.

Do not stay in the salt shaker. Allow God to shake you out onto our society, where you can become Christ for them. People will not want to have anything to do with Jesus, until they see Him in us. Salt also makes people thirsty. Soon some will be asking, “Please give me the living water only Jesus can give.”

How is your church being salt in our society?

How are you being the salt of the earth?