Matthew 5: 13-20

In a small church during the summer, a pastor was preaching with gusto. Due to the warmth of the evening, the windows were open, and bugs of all sizes were attracted to the sanctuary lights. As the pastor was making an energetic point, a large moth flew into his open mouth. The congregation was silent, awaiting some reply after the ingestion of the fluttering creature. After some coughing and throat clearing, he responded, “Ladies and gentlemen, with some difficulty, a moth has entered the ministry.”

The Sunday School teacher was describing how Lot’s wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt. A boy interrupted excitedly, “My mommy looked back once while she was driving. She turned into a telephone pole!”

In quick reference to the Beatitudes, the first 11 verses of Matthew, chapter five I read last week, Jesus spoke of those who lacked and suffered spiritually and materially in this world. Blessed are the lacking or suffering. They will be different. Blessed are those who bless others. Greater things will they see. Blessed are you who suffer persecution on account of Jesus. Rejoice for your reward is coming. They are blessed because their world was about to change because he had been revealed. Now, disciples; now, believers in the revelation of the kingdom of God in the person of Jesus Christ: you are now salt; you are now light. You are not urged to be salt and light. You are defined as being salt and light. Again, salt and light affect their environment. Salt preserves and seasons. Light brings illumination and exposes.

Sodium Chloride, which we know as table salt (When it rains it pours), is a compound incapable of degeneration. But salt in ancient Palestine was harvested in a form that contained other natural substances that could and did go bad, so that salt became useless. Worthless salt, Jesus said, is thrown out. There are physical benefits of natural salt. When consumed it helps us stay hydrated. Good sea salt helps promote vascular/heart health, helps balance electrolytes and prevents muscle cramping, helps support nervous system function, and improves sleep.

When you and I are light of the world as followers of Jesus we are conspicuous because we stand out, and we will be recognizable. Lest we forget, there are physical benefits of light for us. Exposure to natural light helps our bodies produce Vitamin D, improves our circadian rhythms and sleep patterns, helps us to focus, enables us to get more done, and even makes us happier. Ensuring we get enough of this vital resource is key to our physical and psychological wellbeing.

Being blessed beyond words, we follow him. When we do, we are salt, and we are light. We affect this environment. Now, the one we follow does not abolish the law and the prophets but, as he said, fulfills the law and the prophets. He doesn’t merely obey. He completes the law and the words of the prophets. We cannot know, understand, fully live out the revelation of God’s word and related commands of God without following, knowing, trusting Jesus. We do not abandon the revelation of God and God’s best for all of us and teach others to do the same. We do our best to live out the word of God (How?) by following Jesus. JESUS FULFILLS THE LAW. He is our example of salt and light!

The true benefits of salt and light, of preservation of that which benefits us and our world, of illumination of that which we see fully, both the hazards of body and spirit and the benefits we see by virtue of light, can only be known by following the One who fulfills the law and the prophets, the One, our Lord, Jesus Christ. On the Sermon on the Mount, he is teaching the disciples particularly what it means to follow him and do as he does. That’s what disciples, we who are blessed beyond words, do. We are called to do as he did.

Jesus is our example of salt and light. As salt, he sat at dinner with many tax collectors and sinners in Matthew, chapter nine. The Pharisees said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” He overheard this and said, “Those who are well have no need for a physician, but those who are sick.” He went on and said, “Go learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice'” (Matthew 9: 10-13). He referenced here a verse from the prophet Hosea: “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6: 6). One can say he sought to preserve the revelation of God’s will found in the prophets here and many other times when being confronted by the Pharisees particularly. The will of God as displayed by Jesus was for all to be hearers of God’s will and to be blessed like in the Beatitudes, blessed beyond what was capable in a Pharisaical Judaism where the sinners were banished and the righteous sat in the places of honor. Jesus remains our example of salt, preserving the call for all to repent and believe the good news of God – “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5: 3). We are called to do as he did.

George Buttrick, a preacher and New Testament scholar of another generation wrote years ago: “There is no logic to establish an axiom, for an axiom is the basis of all logic; and the soul of Jesus has axiomatic truth.” Buttrick concludes, “Jesus is light, and there is no proof for light except light itself.”

Jesus is our example of light. As light, Jesus was teaching in the temple in Jerusalem in John, chapter eight. The scribes and Pharisees brought to him a woman caught in adultery and tested him on how he would respond with the hope they could charge him with teaching against the law of Moses. He gave the classic response, “Let anyone who is without sin throw the first stone.” Starting in verse ten, “Jesus straightened up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, sir.’ And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you. Go your way and from now on do not sin again.’ Again, Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life'” (John 8: 1-12). Light illuminates and exposes. The perverted righteousness of the Pharisees was exposed, and the true righteousness in Jesus to not condemn and offer new life in him was illuminated. Again, we are called to do as he did.

It was a mountain one-room schoolhouse where severe discipline was used to keep the rowdyism of uninterested pupils in check. The noon recess ended, and the teacher was interrogating the class with regard to the theft of Sally Jane’s lunch. After a few minutes of verbal threats and demands, a sob was heard. It was Billy – a thin, undernourished child. His family was the poorest of the poor. He was asked by the teacher if he took Sally Jane’s lunch. Billy said he had. Amidst his tears, Billy said he did because he was hungry. Nevertheless, the teacher made it clear he had to be punished because it was wrong to steal. The teacher took the leather strap from its place on the wall and told Billy to come to the front of the room and remove his shirt. The teacher raised his arm holding the strap over the trembling little boy. “HOLD IT, TEACHER!” shouted a husky voice from the rear of the room. It was Big Jim striding down the aisle removing his shirt as he came. “Let me take his whipp’n,” he begged. The teacher was aghast, but knowing that justice must be demonstrated, he consented and laid the belt to the back of Big Jim with such force that even the stronger boy winced, and his eyes watered, but Billy never forgot the day Big Jim took his place. “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5: 20).

Nikolai Berdyaev, who abandoned Marxism for Christianity, insisted years ago that neither history nor theology nor the church brought him to the Christian faith, but a simple woman called only Mother Maria. He was present at a concentration camp when the Nazis were murdering Jews in gas chambers. One distraught mother refused to part with her baby. When Maria saw that the Nazi officer was only interested in numbers, without a word she pushed the mother aside and quickly took her place. This action revealed to Berdyaev the heart of Christianity and what it ultimately means. “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5: 16).

Our Lord is the one who has blessed us beyond measure, and we are now salt and light in this world, to show our world how good he truly is.

(Preached at St Mark UMC in Anniston, AL, February 5, 2023)