Jesus Salt

Do you know the word "sugar" never occurs in the Bible? In ancient times salt was the ultimate seasoning that gave taste to food.

We are called to be a flavorful people. “You are the salt of the earth,” Jesus says to the crowds.

Jesus wants us to be Salt that is bursting with Spiritual flavor.

Matthew 5:13

“You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost it’s flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.”

This morning, I would like for us to look at this verse that we find in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount as recorded by St. Matthew. In chapter five, Matthew begins by telling us that Jesus wanted some quality time alone with his disciples. So, Jesus leads them up on a high mountain to get away from all the hustle and bustle of the crowds. What Jesus has to say to them is/was of the highest importance and he did not want them to be distracted by a great deal of noise. Jesus was wanting them to understand what it meant to be a Christ follower.

But let’s focus our attention on Matthew 5:13.

Although if we were to include verses 14 – 16, our Lord uses two symbols to help us understand what it means to be His disciple. He uses these symbols to reveal a part of what He sees as their identity and character. Both of these symbols (salt and light) are very expressive and underneath them is the foundational thought that they never exist for themselves. Salt does not exist for itself and light does not exist for itself. Both of these symbols speak of reaching out and of being a service to others and to our world at large. Pliny the Elder, a great Roman scholar and writer around the time of Jesus said this, "For the whole body nothing is more beneficial than salt and sun." (Natural History 31:102). It is with that same attitude that Jesus wants us to see ourselves as His salt and light. He wants us to understand that in the Kingdom of God and its global mission we are necessary, indispensible and beneficial.

We looked at light a few weeks ago. Therefore let's direct our attention to the first symbol - SALT.

Let's ask the Holy Spirit to open up our hearts and minds this morning and share with us how we are the Salt of the Earth and what that exactly means today.

I. Like Salt we are to be Stable and Consistent

One of the primary problems that still affect the Body of Christ today is that of being stable and consistent. The Church has suffered from this problem all the way back Peter, Thomas and the rest of those early disciples.

I believe we could all testify that at times we suffer a roller coaster experience with Christ. We find ourselves being up and then being down. We get hot and then we get cold. We are all on fire for Jesus and then we find ourselves falling away. One day we are passionate about the Word, about prayer and worship and the next day we have to drag ourselves to worship, we haven't prayed or read our Bible for days, weeks and in some cases years.

Jesus understood this would happen. He understood that one of the things that His disciples needed to hear and understand was that as His Salt they could live a stable and consistent life as a disciple. That is exactly one of the main reasons Jesus used the symbol of salt, for there are very few things in our world that are as stable and consistent as Salt. Salt is salt and salt stays salt.

Salt is not manmade. It is not something that we humans invented or created in some chemical lab. Our Lord God made salt. When He created the heavens and the earth the LORD created salt. It was Our Lord God Almighty who put sodium chloride together, put in on our earth and called it Salt. In fact, He put a great deal of salt on our earth. There are trillions of tons of salt all over the earth. Salt is one of the most common minerals on our planet. And it is one of the most stable and consistent minerals on our planet. The only way you can truly change the properties of salt into something else is to make it go through a rather complicated process using electricity.

Salt not only stays salt it also stays salty. So, with that in mind then, what exactly is Jesus saying here when he refers to this idea of salt losing its flavor or saltiness in verse 13?

Actually, Jesus was having a rather good time with his disciples. And in doing so, He was abundantly assuring them that a life as Jesus salt can and should be a life of stability and consistency.

There is an old Jewish story around the time of Jesus that can help us understand what we read here in our passage. It involved a rabbi named Joshua ben Hainia. The story goes that Joshua found himself surrounded by some Greek philosophers that were doing their best to stump him. They asked him question after question after question only to discover that rabbi Joshua was well versed in all kinds of knowledge. Finally, one of them thought that they could trip him up with a question concerning salt - "When salt becomes unsavory, how can it be made salty again?"

Thinking they have finally found something to stump the rabbi. Finally, they have asked a question he could not answer. However, let's listen to the answer that rabbi Joshua gave them:

"Salt may be made salty again with the afterbirth of a mule."

Let's hear that again. "Salt may be made salty again with the afterbirth of a mule." Was the rabbi crazy? Quickly, the philosophers objected. "Does a mule have an afterbirth?" No, the philosophers knew that mules are born sterile, and therefore it is impossible for them to reproduce and as such they can never have an afterbirth.

Rabbi Joshua watching them struggle over his own question brings the truth home: "And can salt lose its saltiness?" He answered their question with a question. Just as a mule cannot have an afterbirth, the laws of chemistry make it impossible for salt to lose its saltiness." Salt doesn't lose its saltiness. Once salt always salt.

So, what was Jesus saying then?

Everyone sitting around him knew that salt would always remain salt. If you eat salt and then sweat you still can taste the salt in the sweat. If you dilute salt with water you may think that you have in some way gotten rid of it but you haven't. All you have to do is to allow that salt and water to sit in the sun and in a few days after the water has been evaporated you will once again have your salt.

The fact is, you can't make salt unsalty. Salt is salt. Jesus salt will stay Jesus salt. In other words, a disciple who is Jesus salt can and will stay Jesus salt as long as they stay pure and connected to Jesus. As long as we stay connected to Jesus we can enjoy a life of being consistent and stable.

In ancient times there were quite a few merchants who cheated people by mixing white sand into a bag of salt. They ruined the salt. They made it unusable. That is exactly what Jesus wants us to understand this morning as His Salt. As His salt there is no reason why we cannot live a stable and consistent life. He has purified us and has filled us with His Holy Spirit. All we have to do is to be true to our identity and character. All we have to do is merely be Jesus Salt. We are Jesus Salt - Therefore BE JESUS SALT.

Our only task is to stay connected to the LORD and remain pure. All we have to do is to not conform to the ways of the world. The Devil knows that we are Jesus salt. He knows that when we stay in Jesus our salt will always stay stable and consistent. We will not be tossed back and forth by sin, evil or the Evil One. The Devil knows that in Christ we are pure and holy and can stay pure and holy. So, he doesn't try to change our salt, instead, he tries to pollute our salt. He tries to put so much of the world around us that we get so mixed up in the ways of the world that our salt becomes impure and unusable for the Kingdom. When we allow our Jesus salt to become so polluted no one can see and taste Jesus because all they can see, taste, smell, touch and feel are the ways of the world.

And when we don't stay pure and allow the Devil to mix us up with his stuff - greed, hate, malice, pride, sensuality, lust and the list goes on and on - what happens is our salt gets lost in his sand. And then when we attempt to share a little of our salt with those in the world that needs us they are turned away because instead of pure salt they get Devil sand with a little of Jesus salt.

When people come to Church they expect the real deal. Not some imitation salt or not some mixed Jesus salt and Devil sand. They expect us to be stable and consistent in our love, our generosity and our mercy. They expect us to be the salt of Christ and not the sand of the world.

If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior and LORD then you are exactly what Jesus says you are in verse 13 - YOU ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH. You are His salt. And He has placed within you His Spirit - a spirit of consistency and stability. All He asks you to do is to be His. To be connected to Him. To live out your New Life through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. By doing so you will live a life of being the Salt of Jesus and not the mixed sand/salt of the world.

Our world today needs Christian salt. It needs the salt of Christ. Stable and consistent Jesus Salt.

You are as vital as the salt that is in your body right now. It is not a large amount. In fact, according to science the average person has about 7 ounces of salt in them right now. That 7 ounces doesn't sound like a great deal considering the trillions of tons of salt all over our planet. But without that seven ounces you and I would be dead.

So, too will our world be dead without the salt of Christ followers. Our world needs to hear, to feel, to see and to be touched by the salt of Jesus today. Salvation will not happen through Buddha or through Mohammed. It will only happen through followers of Jesus allowing the salt to be seen, to be felt and to be tasted all over our world.

II. Also, Jesus wants us to be Salt that is bursting with Flavor

Saltiness is one of the five primary basic tastes that our human tongues can detect. We can detect salt, bitterness, sourness, sweetness and umami ( (/uˈmɑːmi/) - savory - meaty taste). What we may not fully understand is that when the right amount of salt is added to a substance it can bring balance to that substance. It can reduce the amount of sweetness or sourness. It can make something taste just right.

Most of us associate salt with flavor. We may be aware of its other uses and its necessity for life but it is in regards to its ability to add flavor to food that we are most aware.

Salt is just a necessity when you cook. Salt can make a meal a success or a failure. Salt does more than just improve flavor. It intensifies it. It brings food to life. It makes what is good bursts with flavor. It helps bread to rise and it makes ice cream - ice cream. Salt is as vital to French fries as it is to steak and potatoes. Salt can make foods like broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, and cabbage editable. A little pinch of salt and suddenly those foods aren't so bad. All kinds of foods come alive when we add just the right amount of salt. If you have ever watched one of those cooking shows on TV? Every now and then you will see one of the judges give a thumbs down on a dish and say - "it could have used more salt."

I believe what our world needs is not only the stability of Salt Christians, but it is desperate for the wonderful flavor that Salt Christians can bring. Our schools, our work places, our homes and our communities will come alive as we share the Salt of Jesus.

You see, Jesus wants us to understand that we are to be the salt that brings His flavor to our world rather than our world bring its flavor into His Church and into His World.

Since the Resurrection, the Ascension and the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit we are called to be salt shakers for Jesus.

Salt sitting on a shelf may look good but that is not the purpose of salt. Salt is only good when it is being poured out into a life. The same is true of us as Christ followers. When we isolate ourselves or when we attempt to hide behind our walls we are like salt in salt shakers not being used.

One of the things that all of us notice when we eat something is if it has salt on it or not. If it has the right amount we enjoy the food to the last spoonful. If it has too much salt or not enough salt we notice that either the food taste bland or that all we can taste is the salt.

At times in our haste we have all poured too much salt into peoples lives. But more often than not we have been guilty of not being there and the world sees the Church as tasting bland and choosing something else to digest. We see the World looking over and grabbing another shaker. Sadly, those shakers have a perverse flavor, they lead to an addicting lifestyle, they lead to materialism or narcissism. The Devil is always out there to get the world to live on his imitation salt which rather than giving flavor and life, it gives chaos and death.

You see if we will not provide the right salt for the world then we need to understand that the Devil has a host of other seasonings that he will provide. Millions of people's lives have been ruined while we have kept our Jesus salt safe and dry over in the corner. At times we have been afraid of being rejected or being ridiculed or we have believed that it is none of our business. That when they believe that they need the Church they will come to us. That we are only good for Sunday Morning and not for Monday thru Saturday.

When we keep our salt from being poured out into the world, the world seeking some kind of flavor, will choose the wrong thing and that wrong thing will bring chaos, destruction and finally death.

As followers of Jesus, we are the salt of the earth. As His Salt, we are to be true to our Christ given nature - a nature of consistency and stability. He has no feet but our feet. He has no voice but our voice. He has no message unless we are willing to share it. And finally, we are to bring flavor and zest to life.

What kind of salt are we? Are we pure and holy or are we allowing the world to mix in its sand and pollute us?

Are we shaking for Jesus or merely sitting on a shelf. In order for salt to do its work it must be put into action. It must be digested, it must be out there working in the world. In like manner, the more people see, hear, feel, smell and taste Jesus the more it will fall in love with Him.

This morning as we close let us go to the LORD. Let us surrender our hearts, our minds and our souls over to Him. Let us be the Salt of the Earth that He has called us to be today, tomorrow and for the rest of our lives.