Message From Pastor Peggy   Oct 18, 2020
 
Jesus said, “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.”
                                                                                                Matthew 5:13 
 

You are the salt of the earth! The disciples! You! Me! Salt of the earth? To better understand ourselves as salt, it would first be wise to understand what salt is! 

We all know that salt is useful in flavouring food, both in Christ’s day and today. Try eating a bowl of popcorn without salt and see how you like that! Or have you ever made oatmeal without putting a pinch of salt in with the water and oatmeal? It’s awful! And if you forget to add it in the cooking process, you can’t add it to the finished product. That just doesn’t work! 

Salt brings out the flavour in food. Salt also preserves food. Before the days of refrigeration salt brine was used to preserve meat. Salt in scripture was also noted for its medicinal purposes. Did you know that newborn babies were washed, then rubbed with salt for antiseptic reasons and wrapped in cloths? (Ezekiel 16:4). Elisha throws a bowl of salt into a spring to heal the water (2 Kings 2:19-22). 

Salt was to be applied to grain offerings, the salt of the covenant with God (Lev. 2:13). God spoke of his covenant with the Israelites as a permanent covenant of salt, (2 Chronicles 13:5; Numbers 18:19), a binding agreement that couldn’t be broken. Salt was a symbol of that permanency, the preserving of the covenant, the promise, over time. Covenants were often made over the breaking and sharing of bread and the saying, “There is bread and salt between us,” affirmed such a covenantal meal had taken place. 

Salt also prevents yeast from working. Given that leaven is often symbolic of rebellion, hypocrisy, false teaching, (Jesus warned his disciples of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, Matthew 16:6, Mark 8:15), salt can be viewed as symbolic of putting a stop to rebellious behaviour.

Salt could also be used to destroy. Following Abimelech’s destruction of Shechem, the land was sown with salt, killing the vegetation and rendering the soil infertile (Judges 9:45).

So! We’re salt? Is Jesus giving us the privilege of becoming flavouring? Sharing the Good News of the Gospel in a way that it adds flavour in another’s life? Pointing others to Christ in a way that they see and taste His goodness?

How might we be salt that preserves? Are we telling the Good News of Christ in a way that our children, our grandchildren, our friends, can hear and believe? Or is the best way to preserve the Good News for generations to come heard, not in our words, but in our actions? Are we pointing people to Christ in both life and death? If we want to talk about preservation – is there any greater way than to talk about Christ’s provision for eternal life? Are we preserving and reflecting the attitudes and actions desired by God in His Word? Are we preserving His commandment to love God above all else and our neighbours as ourselves, in our daily walk in a way that we are transformed into Christ’s likeness over conforming to the ways of the world?

Are we salt that brings healing? Praying for others? Laying hands on the sick expecting God to heal as He promises? Are we the healing balm that envelopes the grieving, offering comfort and hope in the Name of Christ? Are we the salt that draws out the infection, the sin, by pointing others to Christ on the cross – the One who can permanently take away that sin? Or do we merely stand pointing at the infected area in judgment and condemnation?

And what about salt and offerings? Perhaps God is calling us to be the salt of the offering, the salt on the offering. Didn’t Jesus say He doesn’t want sacrifices, He wants us? Never mind the grain – just give Him the salt – give Him yourself. The Lord says, “I don’t want your sacrifices—I want your love; I don’t want your offerings—I want you to know me” (Hosea 6:6). Can we be that kind of salt?

And what about the permanent salt of the covenant? This was a covenant of the Old Testament made New in Christ Jesus when He broke the bread and lifted the cup and, after giving thanks, offered it to His disciples, to us, with the words, “Take Eat. Take Drink. This is my body broken for you. This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this in remembrance of me.” Jesus provides … no Jesus is … the Bread, The Bread of Life, … His body broken on the cross. A permanent promise that all who believe in Him will have eternal life. As the saying goes,“There is bread and salt between us.” He is the Bread of Life, He paid the price – we merely show up like beggars with outstretched hands. Yes we are merely the salt. Bread and salt. Eating at His Communion Table, entering into an everlasting covenant.

And in walking in that close and intimate relationship with Jesus can we be the salt that puts a stop to the yeast of hypocrisy, the yeast of false teaching, the yeast of rebelliousness? Can we reflect the love of Christ? Offer His grace? Share His joy? Show kindness, goodness, gentleness, be self-controlled? Can we be an example of what faith in Christ looks like? What patience looks like? What peace is? Can we be salt that renders infertile the soils of violence, abuse, cruelty, pride, prejudice, injustice, greed?

Oh that we might be salty! Just as He tells us we are.

Used in research:

The IVP Bible Background, Old Testament

NIV Bible Commentary, Old Testament

CSB Study Bible

Eerdman’s Bible Dictionary

https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/17232/what-is-a-covenant-of-salt