Salt and light

Salt and Light

How often have we heard sermons about Salt and light without really understanding the meaning.
Jesus said in Mathew 5 : 13 - 16

Jesus makes 2 statements

You are the salt of the earth
You are the light of the world.
You are
A more accurate translation of this phrase would be
You are to be.
You will be salt and light

This describes who we are to be as Christians

Many times we are so busy looking at our weaknesses and failures that we fail to see ourselves as Jesus sees us.

I John 4 : 17

As Jesus is so are we
This is who we are

Because we don’t understand what Jesus means by saying we are salt and light, we live lives which are less than what he intended us to be.

Lets dig into this passage and discover what Jesus means by these statements
Mathew shares the passage with us, but Luke gives us a much better understanding of what Jesus meant.
Tonight will be part one of a two part series,
Tonight we will focus on Salt

Luke 14 : 34 - 35

Lets start with the end first.
He who has an ear to hear
As we know Jesus is not questioning us to find out if we have physical ears
He is encouraging those who hear spiritually to listen and gain understanding.
Most of us have been taught from the passage in Mathew about the salt which we use to flavour our food.
This salts scientific name is sodium Chloride

But the salt which Jesus is talking about here is not this kind of salt.
This salt is found in the dead sea which is known as the salt sea in Israel.

The salt coming from the dead sea
Has a very different chemical composition from sodium chloride

Jesus tells us what the purpose of this salt is in the passage from Luke.

Salt is good
And the salt which he is teaching about is good for two things
Cooking is not mentioned at all, so this salt has nothing to do with adding flavor to food

The purpose of this salt is good for the land and for the Dunghill.

When Jesus says it is for the Land
He is describing the first purpose of this kind of salt.

This salt is good for the land, because it was used by the farmers of the time as a fertilizer.
Fertilizer as we know is used by farmers to add nutrients to poor soil which stimulates crops like vegetables and fruit to grow.

Jesus is using this salt as an analogy helping us to understand the principle which he is teaching.
Jesus is once again teaching a spiritual principle using substance which most people relate to easily.
The spiritual context of this analogy is this is who we are to be

Jesus says that we are salt, we could say that we are the fertilizer

Our purpose is to add the nutrients needed in the lives of people whose hearts are poor are in need of new life.
That’s what we are
By be - ing salt
We add required nutrients into the spiritual soil of land which has become poor.
This could be your home, your family, your community, your country, our world.
Just by being, not by doing.
Being salt has to do with our lifestyle

The way we live, allowing our lives to speak.
A story from my past.
I spent a number of years in the South African Navy.
I was considered a weapons specialist in my particular field of engineering.
I was based in an East coast city in South Africa by the name of Durban.
I had been doing some work in the city of Cape Town and was on my way home.
I travelled by train and shared my compartment with 4 other Navy men who were going to Durban for training.
The journey took around 28 hours, and something funny happened, they regularly left our compartment and disappeared for some time come back and sleep, then disappear again.

When the train got to Durban, one of these men came and spoke to me.

He told me about the experience they had.
All of them had purchased many bottles of alcohol for the journey, but something stopped them from drinking the alcohol in our compartment.

So they went to the bar on the train to drink.
This man wanted to know if I could give him an answer.

What was it that stopped them drinking alcohol
I simply told him that I was a believer in Jesus.

This was such an amazing lesson for me
By be- ing and not saying or doing anything, the Holy Spirit on the inside
of me stopped them from drinking in our compartment.

This man told the story to many others.


The second purpose for this salt
Jesus says it is for the Dunghill

What a strange thing to say

But if we have ears to hear, we will understand Jesus meaning.
Jesus here was referring to human dung.

In the days of Jesus
People did not have flushing toilets or running water
They went to a private place, to the dunghill to do their business.

The thing about human dung which we all know
It is very smelly
It carries the impurities from the body in it

So imagine if you had a dunghill in your garden what would happen.
It would be a really smelly and disease infected place in your garden.
Attracting flies and insects

Once a person had finished their business at the dunghill
They would sprinkle this salt on it.
The marvelous thing about this
It took away the smell
It disinfected the dunghill.

How can we understand and apply this truth.

Often we encounter toxic situations in life which if not dealt with bring death and destruction.
These situations are is like the dunghill
Families being ripped apart by circumstances
Someone loosing a job unfairly

Adding salt, clears the air, and disinfects the toxic situation.

This happens through our presence and engagement in these situations.

For us to add nutrients to the soil, to clear the air of bad odors, and to disinfect toxic situations
We must engage with the world around us.

Being salt and light is not about doing

Its about our hearts and the presence of Jesus in us that adds nutrients to poor soil and brings about change in the hearts of others.

Through our love
John 13 ; 35
Love for all for mankind, including loving our enemies, loving those who disagree with us, loving others who are a disappointment to us, loving people from other cultures,
Through our speech,
the way we speak to other people
Colossians 4 : 6
In other words

Speak from a heart of humility, which has had salt worked through the soil of our hearts, which encourage and build up, instead of being critical, rude and condemning as is the habit of many.
John 6 : 63
Like Jesus our words bring life to others

Through our servant attitudes.
Mathew 24 v 25- 26
Serving instead of desiring to be served.
Serving our families, our homes, our spouses, our communities, cities.

Jesus says
If the salt should loose its savor
This word has been translated as saltiness,
But it is also not accurate
A more accurate translation would be
Effectiveness
The question is
Can salt loose its effectiveness?
The answer is no it cant
So what did Jesus mean.

The answer has two parts
Part one
Example
If we have the opportunity to influence someone else who is in a toxic situation and yet I do nothing,
Even though I am salt, I am not effective in this situation .
The salt has no savour

When salt is mixed with other elements it becomes contaminated, by the other elements and therefore also has no influence.
Example
If I had sat with the men on the train and got drunk with them,
I would have had no influence in their lives.

I am not condemning the drinking of alcohol, but to sit with unbelievers and get drunk with them contaminates the salt.

Dead sea Salt has Distinct properties and characteristics

We as believers are called to be distinct with the characteristics of Christ

These divine characteristics are developed in us
Mark 9:50 

The divine influence of grace working in our personal lives transforms us empowers us,and develops these characteristics in us so that we have salt in ourselves,

Enabling us to season the soil and the dunghill.