Being The Salt Of The Earth

Matthew 5:13-20

The Gospel reading from this past Sunday continues Jesus’ teaching from the Sermon on the Mount.  I will focus this meditation on the first verse from our reading, verse 13.  As my family can attest, I like my salt!  Many meals will get a shake or two from “my” salt shaker.  Jesus has told His followers they are to be the salt of the earth.  What exactly did He mean by that?  To get an understanding, we need to look at what salt does, and how it helps us in life.

Before refrigeration, salt was one way to preserve food, particularly meat and fish.  Without using salt, meat very quickly started to rot.  One summer, several years ago, I found out in a smelly way how quickly meat can rot.  Somehow a package of meat, I believe luncheon meat, had fallen out of our grocery bags in my trunk, and went unnoticed.  Within a few short days of sitting in the hot trunk of my car, this started to stink, and it didn’t take me too long to find and toss that rotting meat.  Salt was then a means to keep meats safe to eat for longer periods of time, rather than having to eat it immediately after killing the animal.

Another thing that salt did in Jesus’ day, and still does today, is act as flavoring.  Most recipes call for a small amount of salt.  Without salt being added, the food is bland and flavorless.  Salt can also beneficial to health.  It was used in the days of ancient Greece and Rome to help in healing wounds, and today doctors use saline solutions and salt water for healing.

So how are we to “be” salt?  Our Christian conduct and influence can bring the flavor of Jesus to the life of the lost.  Our Christian testimony and lifestyle can have a preserving influence to the corruption of world society so fallen in sin.  Just look around - what do we see on the news?  Besides the murder toll, there are stories that make one cringe - child abuse, sex slavery of young girls, pornography, kidnapping and torture.  TV shows and movies have gone downhill with what is considered acceptable.  What would have shocked people several years ago is now not given a second thought.  Sin corrupts just like that rotting meat.

As Christians, we are to be a preservative to society.  We shouldn’t just sit back, shrugging our shoulders, saying nothing can be done.  Our speech, our conduct, should be both a preservative and a flavoring for the world to “taste” and see Jesus in and through us.

When we season something with salt, how do we do it?  Do we pour it on the food?  No, that would ruin the food.  We lightly sprinkle the salt on.  In the same way, we shouldn’t usually go to a lost person, grab him by the shoulders, and blast them with Bible verses.  Sprinkling lightly but consistently with the Gospel is a much more effective way to be that salt.  If we are not being that preservative and flavoring to a lost world, then Jesus says we, like impure salt, are good for nothing but to be cast out.  That doesn’t mean a loss of salvation, as one can never lose their salvation.  It does mean, though, that we are not doing what God wants us to be doing, and that is being both a preservative and flavoring to a lost world.  Let’s be that good strong salt to the lost in our neighborhoods.