Around the office I work we sometimes use the phrase, "You're being salty today." to describe someone being a little sarcastic, cynical, snide, etc. Obviously, it has a negative connotation, but in my reading today I see the positive of being "salty". Jesus was speaking to his disciples and to a crowd about what it means to truly follow God. He finished speaking about characteristics of a believer of being broken, humble, peacemakers, pure, mournful of sin, and thirst/hunger for righteousness. Now He brings all that to a practical point for His listeners: be salt in a saltless world.
Salt has multiple uses in the ancient world and I believe that Jesus was trying to bring to mind those uses as they relate to the believer's life. Before I get to one of those uses, something that is implicit in this verse is the fact that Jesus assumes the believer is out in the world. He is basically saying that we will practice the things from verses 3-12 of chapter 5 in the world. That is what makes us salt. However, many of us like to stay in the "salt shaker" and never actually get to our intended use...myself included.
Preservative
The most primary use of salt in the ancient world is to be a preservative; preventing decay and rottenness in food. Jesus illustrates two things for his hearers in this analogy. 1) The world is spiritually dead, decaying, rotten. Apart from God, there is nothing preserving it spiritually. 2) The disciples can actually be a part of the process of preserving the world as God acts and works in and through them. James Boice in his commentary on the Sermon on the Mount presents these principles in opposition to other ways of thinking that can creep into the Christian's mindset. The first is that the world is inherently good and with good Christian action it will get better. Instead, the world needs the supernatural power of Christ's work in the world. All of our social action is good and has a purpose, but it is powerless apart from the power of Jesus. The second is that Christians should pull away from the world for fear of being "dispensed, dissolved, getting dirty, or disappearing."After some reflection on the verse and Boice's thoughts, I see a very real issue for me and many other Christians. We love the idea of being salt, but we love the idea of being salt in our decorative "salt shakers". We have seen those salt shakers that people collect. They might use them occasionally as the situation calls for it, but mostly they are just nice to look at. However, God has placed believers wherever they are to be an active agent of change, of preservation to a spiritually decaying world. The fact is that sometimes the salt must dissolve, it must get in the "dirty" parts and even disappear in order for the flavor and preservation process to take effect. So, maybe God shakes the salt shaker to get the salt out in the world, maybe we have to dissolve our own interests or desires to be effective. It is time for us to get out of our "salt shaker" whether that be our homes, our churches, our cubicles, our classroom desk, or our phones. The time has come for our active change to be at the forefront of who we are. Afterall, Jesus ask what good is saltless salt? It's not. It's useless and only needs to be thrown out.
Boice ended his thoughts with something that greatly struck me. If the human body does not release salt in the natural process of perspiration the result is retention of water and it becomes bloated. The church is described as the body of Christ by Paul. So the natural connection Boice makes is clear, "In the same way, the Church will become bloated and desperately unhealthy if the salt is not dispersed in this work of preservation." May God shake us up to once again be the salt He called us to be.
No comments:
Post a Comment