Sermon on the Mount
Week 12 –Salt of the Earth
The Sermon on the Mount is the core of Jesus’ yoke and if we want to be true Jesus followers, then we need to understand how to live out his yoke. The main purpose of the Sermon on the Mount is to show how to live a life that God finds pious, that is, how to live out the righteousness of God here on Earth. We have spent the past couple of months looking at the “Principles of the Yoke,” the Beatitudes. These principles showed us that God values the heart of mankind. He wants us to stop worrying about seeking after what man holds honorable and to seek after that which he holds as honorable. He then tells us that what he values is humility, meekness, piety, mercy, peacemaking, etc.
If you still have your outline of the Sermon on the Mount and your “map” from week 2, you will see that we are now moving away from the “principles” and into what I called the “Purpose of the Yoke.” Jesus has spent his introduction telling the listeners what his yoke is about, now he is going to tell them why God wants them to take up this yoke.
In Hebrew study of the Torah, the first mention of word is its most important. This sets the context for how that word is used for the rest of the biblical narrative. The Hebrew word for salt is first used in conjunction with the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. According to ancient Jewish wisdom, one of the sins of Sodom was that the city hated hospitality (this is a direct antithesis God’s view that actively encourages His people to practice hospitality, e.g., Leviticus 25:35).
The Mishna teaches that they had made it illegal for any individual to assist another person. So, when Lot took in the visiting men (Genesis 19:1-26), he was breaking the law. The rabbis say that the city discovered Lot’s infraction when Lot’s wife went to the neighbor’s homes asking to borrow some salt because she was cooking extra meals for her husband’s guests. Under the Jewish principle that God responds to us “measure for measure,” her punishment for looking back was for him to repay her for the wrong she did with salt. Thus we learn that salt is tied to both hospitality and to destruction.
We see this idea reinforced with “the covenant of salt” (Numbers 18:19). This was God’s way of taking care of the priests. The meat of an animal sacrificed to God is a gift given to God. It is His. However, He practices that which He wants His people to do and tells Aaron that the priests may have the meat for themselves. They dine as guests at God’s table and He calls this an “everlasting covenant of salt.”
Another story that would have come to the mind of Jesus’ listeners would be when Elisha cleaned a tainted spring (2 Kings 2:19-21) for the city of Jericho. The prophet tossed salt into the spring, making the water wholesome, and preventing further death and miscarriage. Salt is used bring healing and hope to the community, to provide for it as we do for our guests.
We act very differently around guests, don’t we? When guests come, we break out the good china. We put extra effort into our cleaning. We put on our best behavior. When our guests at our how house, we put their needs above our own. We seek to accommodate them.
I think this is the imagery that Jesus’ audience would have been imagining when he speaks. When Jesus says, “You are the salt of the earth,” they would have understood that they are supposed to be acting as hosts for the Lord. They understand that, like salt, their influence is to bring healing and hope to the communities in which they live.
The second understanding of salt that Jewish tradition teaches is one of barrenness or desolation. Moses warns the Jewish people that if they turn away from Law of the Lord, then the “land will be a burning waste of salt and sulfur (Deuteronomy 29:23) .” When Abimelek destroys Shechem, he “scattered salt over it” (Judges 9:45) to make the destruction complete. Even the psalmists and the prophets echo the imagery of salt with destruction (Psalm 107, Jeremiah 17:6, Jeremiah 48:9, Zephaniah 2:9).
Jesus grabs both images of salt and uses them in a single metaphor to talk about His people. He reminds them of their purpose, to be a beacon of hope, healing, and hospitality to the world. Jesus starts this part by reminding the audience about the role God had intended for His people to play in the world all along. Since the time He set them apart (Genesis 12:3)[1], God has expected His people to act as a pointer to Him for the other nations of the Earth (Psalms 67, 96, 117 and Isaiah 42:1, 4, 6).
Jesus edifies his followers by assuring them that, like salt, their influence would bring healing and hope to those in the world around them. By the way they act at home, work, the grocery store, or wherever, those who follow his teachings will affect the lives of those they interact with. Jesus scatters his followers into their communities in order to make it wholesome.
I think we can safely assume that his listeners would have felt very affirmed by his statement. After all, salt is essential in every day life. In effect Jesus says, "Your lives and your good works will be essential for the well-being of the world.”
In the same breath, though, he warns them that if they need to be vigilant by drawing on the secondary imagery of salt.
"But beware", he implies, “because salt can dissolve and disappear without trace. When that happens all you are left with is the grit. Sure it can be used on footpaths to stop people slipping, but that is hardly its original purpose. Unless you guard very carefully all that I am passing on to you, it will slip through your fingers without a trace, and you will have nothing distinctive to offer. If that happens you will like the grit left after the salt has quietly disappeared.”
I do not think the message is any different for us. When we take it upon ourselves to live the values of the Beatitudes, we too become the “Salt of the Earth.”
Thought for Consideration: Is this passage more of a denunciation of what Israel had become? Is he saying, “Guys, you were God’s plan for hospitality to the world, but now you are useless and will be thrown out. I am going to replace you with a new covenant.”? If we reference his feelings for the Pharisees in Matthew 23, I think we can see where he is saying to them…You are the salt of the earth. But, you have lost your flavor and now you are being thrown out….
[1] This is God’s covenant with Abraham, which some scholars suggest could be considered a “Great Commission” of the OT.