Salt of the earth Matt. 5:13
This week this term “salt of the
earth” seemed to have floated past my ears and past my vision so often that I
had to stop and listen or see if it was trying to say something to me. I looked it up.
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the
salt loses its taste, what can make it salty again? It is good for nothing and can only be thrown
out to be trampled under people’s feet.”
It seems that salt is so important that it
holds the earth or makes the earth better, but if it loses its flavour then it’s
useless and suitable for throwing out.
What does this mean?
Well to
start with, salt is a white sandy type of substance which is found both in sea
water and on land and is a substance which is required by both human species and
the animal species as part of their life and diet. For us
human people who cook and preserve we need salt to flavour and to preserve at
least olives, and peperoni and aubergines and sardines etc. Salt is a
preservative which prevents undesirable things happening to what we are trying
to preserve. flavour our food. Imagine trying to eat pasta and meatballs
without putting salt in the boiling water which cooks the pasta. Not an option!
And I am sure it has many other uses. So
Salt is naturally available and a very much needed substance.
So it must be important and Jesus must have known
this because he used a known and valuable substance in order to make a point. That
was his style. His parables clearly show this.
He used what his listeners understood, wheat, flour, vineyard, wine, fish,
bread, water, labour, so it should not come as a surprise that he used salt to
explain a very important point and it must have been a very important point
because salt was once considered more precious than gold. A golden lesson!!!
So what was Jesus saying and why was it speaking to
me “salt of the earth” this week?
The only thing that I can think of is that as a
believer in Him and a lover of Him I have to endure. I have to help make the
way of the other better. . I have to be
stable and not run after other voices. I have to “flavour” those who come into
or are in my life. I have to be that
“thing” which makes my life and the life of others in my care have “Taste”
good. And those who come into that life
know, experience, feel that taste. Otherwise if this is not I what I do then
all the words and works are tasteless and useless.
It’s a hard saying because we are all sinners.
