Salt and Light: Easy Bake Oven or A Scorched Earth?
[13] “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.
[14] “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. [15] Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. [16] In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven Matthew 5:13–16
I often like to think about the context from which the stories of The Bible came. What made Jesus use the metaphors he used? What would have landed well with those that He was teaching in a way that doesn’t with us? Salt and light were a much bigger deal in the time of Jesus, because salt was a tool for preservation and flavoring, and electricity wasn’t invented yet.
Salt has many uses, from preserving food to cleaning and even tanning hides. It’s been a major economic staple for millennia and has been been a central hub for many cities to build around. It’s been a resource for the survival of our species since we’ve known about it.
Salt also works in flavoring food, enhancing the flavors of whatever it is added to. It works with the ingredients in the food to decrease the undesired flavors and bring out the more pleasing flavors.
Now, light on the other hand is much easier to understand. It’s what I hope for when I’m walking down the street, it’s what I use to search my fridge in the middle of the night, and it’s what makes visible that which needs to be seen.
So how are we, as Christians, supposed to be Salt and Light?
Often time we take one of two approaches, The Easy Bake Oven approach or the Scorched Earth approach.
When we live to “go along to get along”, think happy thoughts, and offer our prayers as empty gestures, we are employing our Easy Bake Oven approach to God’s commission.
On the other hand, when we shout people down for not believing and bringing fire and brimstone to their souls, we also misrepresent the intention Jesus had when speaking.
If our salt is so dull, using recycled platitudes, and a doormat way of living, we weaken the power and glory of Christ. We end up being easily looked over, forgotten, and relegating the gospel to being something that is meant to be kept to ourselves and for us to be seen as “nice people”. That doesn’t enhance anything and is easily overlooked.
If we don’t stand out, then we don’t let Jesus’s light shine either. Think Ned Flanders. He was a nice guy, easy to get what you want from, and never willing to take a stand. That light couldn’t cook a pizza bite if it were on for days. He was a good and faithful servant, no doubt, but did he ever cause a thirst for the gospel, or shed light on things that needed to be seen?
It’s scary to stand out, it’s uncomfortable to illuminate things hidden in the darkness. But nothing about following Christ is meant to be comfortable. His “yoke is easy, and His burden is light” (Matt. 11:30) but that’s because He’s there with us, and His path leads to truth. We’re still tasked with taking up our cross daily and that means getting uncomfortable, daily (Luke 9:23). If we’re not known as Christians by our works and our glorification of God; if those around us don’t know we’re Christian, then we need to think about ways to turn that up.
The other approach, though, is equally as dangerous.
We’re to be salt and light, something that enhances and aids. We’re not called to rub salt in the wound and shine a light in the eyes.
If our actions as Christians cause people to know us as bigots, violent, hateful, and mean, then we’ve completely missed the point and need to repent and read our Bible. Christ calls us to love our enemies, turn our cheeks, be generous and be holy. Now, does that mean don’t shed light on the darkness and reveal the danger lurking in the shadows? Absolutely not. Should we do so in the form of a Twitter firestorm or hateful sign during an protest? Also, probably not. Far too often we are swept up in our sin-nature, and emotional tendencies, that our pride and anger take over. We start to become self-righteous and hateful. This is not light, and it kills whatever hope we had.
We are already fighting an uphill battle by living out and standing by our Christian principles. We’re already slandered as bigots and hateful by people that don’t understand the character of God and the teachings of Jesus. Don’t give them more fuel for their fire by being as ignorant of our God as they are.
We are to be salt and light. We are to enhance what is around us, by working with what we are surrounded by. Not by becoming what we are surrounded by, but by distinguishing ourselves in a way that causes it to be better. We are to be a resource for people to lean on, help them, and guide them. We are to preserve God’s intent for His creation.
We are to be the light in the darkness, offering the direction that we all seek when night falls.
Imagine if we were able to show people the love that we feel from Jesus, by being that for them, even when they don’t deserve it, as we don’t deserve it. Imagine what it must have been like to be at the table with Jesus as a tax collector, or a prostitute, and not be condemned, or ridiculed. To be given a chance to have a relationship with God, and to feel that thirst for living water.
Be that for the world.
Cause them to seek, and they will follow.
[1] As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, my God.
[2] My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
