SERMON TEXT: Matthew 5:13
INTRO
If any of you have high-blood pressure, you know how important it is to monitor your daily salt intake. Now, I don’t have high blood pressure, but being on my diet, I’m trying to closely monitor my salt intake each day. And I have to tell ya, keeping my salt intake at the FDA’s daily recommended levels is not an easy thing to do. It seems like everything we put in our mouths — for the exception of water — contains salt. And I’m finding process foods are just loaded with this little mineral.
Now, here’s something interesting. A Fox News article published on January 31st titled: “New Dietary Guidelines Drastically Cut Salt Intake” started by stating: “For the first time, the U.S. government is advising that more than half of the American population needs to drastically cut their daily salt intake.” A little further down, the article reads:
The Agriculture and Health and Human Services departments issue the guidelines every five years, and recommends that [those who are not at risk] stick to the “teaspoon a day” guideline of 2,300 milligrams, which is about one-third less than the average person usually consumes.”
It’s really interesting isn’t it how valuable salt truly is to maintain our health. Too much salt can kills us. Ironically though, the lack there of can also kills us — in more ways than one.
Now, here’s some fun little facts: 40 million tons are required each year to fill our needs. Homer called it divine. Plato called it a "substance dear to the gods." It’s possible Leonard da Vinci wanted to send a subtle message about purity-lost when he painted "The last Supper." In that painting an overturned salt-seller is conspicuously placed before Judas.
In ancient Greece a far-flung trade involving the exchange of salt for slaves gave rise to the expression, "...not worth his salt." Special salt rations were given to Roman soldiers and known as "Solarium Argentums" the forerunner of the English word "salary." And lastly, thousands of Napoleon’s troops died during his retreat from Moscow because their wounds would not heal—their bodies lacked salt.
Now, if you haven’t guessed, this morning we’re going to divert away from “The Story” and revisit our Gospel message for this morning and see what Jesus says about the church being the salt of this earth, and what that means for our lives. With that, please open your bibles again to the Gospel according to Matthew, Chapter Five, verse 13. READ MATT 5:13.
BACKGROUND INTO THIS PASSAGE
As we dig into this passage, we should be mindful where Matthew recorded Jesus words —right near the beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Prior to Jesus telling the people they were the salt of the earth, he began his sermon by bestowing blessings in what we today call the Beatitudes.
Now simply put, the beatitudes are pronouncements that bestow blessing upon persons who are characterized by what they are — and do— for and with God. The blessings provide encouragement in times of difficulty, and let the hearers know “these are qualities Jesus seeks in his disciples.”
Today, we’re not going to focus on the beatitudes -- for those are nine sermons unto themselves. However, it’s a good for us to hear a few.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness’ for they shall be satisfied
Blessed are the merciful.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
Now, after Jesus spoke of the nine qualities of Godly discipleship, he continued by telling the people: “You are the salt of this of this earth.”
For us to understand what this means, we really need to get into the mind of the Hebrews and the Old Testament understanding of salt — and what that meant for them.
In the ancient world, salt had huge religious significance; it was sprinkled on or mixed into the sacrifices. Leviticus 2:13 says, “Season all your grain offerings with salt. Do not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offerings; add salt to all your offerings.”
Newborn children were rubbed with it; and lasting covenants were made by eating bread and salt, or salt alone. 2 Chronicles 13:5 states, “the Lord, the God of Israel, has given the kingship of Israel to David and his descendants forever by a covenant of salt.”
Still, in addition to these, God directed his people to incorporate salt into their diet much the same as we do today. God used salt as a healing and preserving agent; the people seasoned their food with it; and without a doubt, salt would have made people thirsty for the life-giving essence of water. Let’s take a look at all these
SALT HEALS
In the Bible, The men of the Jericho said to Elisha, “Look, our lord, this town is well situated, as you can see, but the water is bad and the land is unproductive.” Elisha then said, “Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him. Then he went out to the spring and threw the salt into it, saying, “This is what the Lord says: ‘I have healed this water. Never again will it cause death or make the land unproductive.’” 2 Kings 2:22 concludes by stating: “the water has remained wholesome to this day, according to the word Elisha had spoken.
According to one source I read, salt is as important to humans as water or air. In fact, our bodies contain anywhere from four to eight ounces of salt. Salt helps maintain the normal volume of blood in the body, and helps keep the correct balance of water in and around the cells and tissues. It’s necessary for the formation and proper function of nerve fibers, which carry impulses to and from the brain, and plays an important part in the digestion of food and is essential in making the heart beat correctly.
The sodium found in salt is an essential nutrient. Sodium, together with calcium, magnesium and potassium, helps regulate the body's metabolism. In combination with potassium, it is necessary for proper muscle functioning. When we don't get enough salt, we experience muscle cramps, dizziness, exhaustion and, in extreme cases, convulsions and death. In short, salt is essential to our health.
Spiritually speaking, Jesus is calling us to be the salt of earth as those who are essential for the wellbeing of all people. God desires to use us to help rid the world of the poisons and toxins found in society — to be a regulating agent for the world’s fallen, spiritual state.
Now, we cannot take away the sins of others — only Jesus can do that. However, we can help others heal from the wounds inflicted on them by society —by forgiving others, being a source of healing, and comforting others in their distress. Paul wrote:
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. (2 Corinthians 1:3-7)
The manner in which we do this is by serving as those who are seasoned with the essence of God on our lives — like those who are rubbed and preserved by God’s covenant of love.
SALT PRESERVES
Now, truthfully, I haven’t found anywhere in the bible where God commanded his children to preserve their food with salt. However, until modern refrigeration existed — or unless the people lived in REALLY cold environments —most people throughout the world preserved their food by rubbing or soaking it with salt and then air drying their food for later consumption.
And with this allusion, In Old Testament times, parents would often rub salt on their newborn children as a symbolic measure — a covenant if you will — with the pledge the child would be preserved in God’s love. Ezekiel 16:4 makes reference to this.
In like manner, God desires we become like those — as Jesus recorded in Mark 9:50 — that have salt in ourselves, and who are at peace with one another.” Essentially, Jesus was saying Christians have been preserved by God — that we have been seasoned by God into the deepest fabric of our being when he rubbed us with — not Emeril’s Original Essence
SALT FLAVORS AND SEASONS
As we do today, the folks living in the Ancient Near East seasoned their food with salt to give it flavor and a bit of zest. Job replied to his friends: “Is tasteless food eaten without salt, or is there flavor in the white of an egg?” (Job 6:6).
Paul, likewise, wrote to the Colossians church, chapter 4 verse 6: “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”
Paul, like Jesus was saying to us: “You have already been healed and preserved by God with the essence of his Son Jesus Christ. Be ones who are salty and flavor your words with the essence of Jesus in all that you do and say.”
However, if we take the follow the guidelines of the world and minimize our daily, spiritual salt intake — like that the FDA is recommending for our physical lives — we will become as Jesus stated “no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.”
Martin Luther said: “we must keep up our salting, be on our guard, and leave no room for the scandals of the church to come back or to sneak in secretly. This is just what will happen if the ministry of salting is neglected, as it used to be in Christendom, when the rotten doctrine of men was in complete charge and ruined everything; this would not have happened if the salt had remained. There would have been no shortage of sound doctrine; for by the grace of God the Scriptures, the Gospel, the Sacrament, and the pulpit had remained in the church, if only the bishops and preachers had done what they should to use these means for salting whatever belonged to the old Adam.” End quote.
Luther was referring to the to those who had the power in the church that became corrupted by the pleasures of this world. Much the same today is happening within many of Christendom’s mainline denominations. Many, such as our former denomination, have done a disservice to the world by watering down the seasoning of God which is nothing short than the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And when the saltiness of the gospel is taken away, so too does the thirst for the things and ways of God.
BE SALTY
You know, salt things makes us thirsty. The salt of the Gospel of Jesus Christ should want to make us thirst for God. ‘The more we are rubbed with him and take in his essence, the more we thirst for all things God. Jesus said —as we heard earlier — “blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. He also said, whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
As a people called by God, rubbed and preserved by him, and seasoned with Jesus’ original essence, we need to continue to thirst for God. Friends, we can thirst for Jesus by keeping his essence within us. However, if we fail to remain salty, we fail as Christians.
We know this well, it is a dark time in our nation, state, and in our valley — and lest I say, our world. We must be salty Christians who heal and comfort those in distress. We must be as those who are rubbed and seasoned with the essence of God to preserve the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And we must be those who thirst for God, so that we can lead our friends and family to the water of life — the living well which is Jesus Christ our Lord.
My questions for you today — and I will end with these — who’s got the salt and, are we making anyone thirsty for Jesus? Let us depart from this place today and be the salt of this earth; for if we lose our saltiness, we will surely be meaningless to the people of our valley and region, and fail as men and women who gather each Sunday in nothing but a member’s only club. Let us be salty Christians — rubbed with the essence of Jesus who make others thirst for God. Amen, let us pray.
