Salt and Light

"You are the salt of the earth...You are the light of the world."
Matthew 5:13a, 14a

If you hang around Christian circles long enough, you may hear someone talking about the need for Christians to be “salt and light” in our culture. Or if you’ve been a Christian since early childhood you may remember singing, “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.” But what do these metaphors of salt and light actually mean? By identifying His disciples as the “salt and light” of the world, Jesus was saying some pretty strong things about the condition of the world and the Christian in the world.

The Condition of the World: Let’s start with salt. In many cultures, it’s an insult to ask your host for salt at the dinner table. Why? Because you’re implying that there's something wrong with the food that needs the "help" of salt. In a similar way, this seems to be what Jesus is implying about the condition of the world. Jesus knows that without the seasoning of God’s grace, our world is prone to bland moralism. And without the flavor of God’s truth, it’s prone to tasteless immorality. Furthermore, in Jesus’ day, salt was primarily used as a preservative. They didn’t have refrigeration, so they would rub salt all over the meat to help prevent it from decay and disintegration. Jesus seems to also be implying that the world’s various social, political and economic systems, left to themselves, are subject to go from bad to worse.  

Now, what about light? Well, why would the world need light if it were not in the dark? But what is the significance of darkness? Darkness is a place of confusion. The world is “in the dark” on the big questions of life: Where does morality come from? Where did we come from? What were we made for? How do we discover our "true" selves? Where are we going? You get the point. Darkness is also a place of hiding. All the way back to Adam and Eve, we see that sin causes us to try and hide the truth from each other and from God. Moreover, darkness is a symbol for hopelessness. In the midst of a broken world, many people live without a sense that there’s any light at the end of the tunnel.

By using these provocative metaphors, could it be that Jesus was on to something? Could it be that he knew our tendency as his followers would be to either live with a false optimism, believing that the world will be okay on its own, that it’s prone to more and more goodness and therefore it doesn’t need us. Or we might go to the other extreme of a false escapism, looking at the decay and darkness and just retreating into a holy huddle? The metaphors of salt and light call us away from these two extremes and into another way of living. They call us to a compassionate engagement with the world.

The Christian in the World: When Jesus calls Christians "salt and light," he actually calls them "salt and light;" he doesn't issue a challenge to become "salt and light." It’s on the basis of already being blessed and accepted (Matthew 5:3-12) that Jesus challenges His disciples to understand themselves as seasoning, preservatives, and lights. Jesus says in effect, “In the blessing of my acceptance and ways, you’ve now become agents of transformation in the various spheres of influence that you have.” Christians are called to be different, because in Christ, they already are different. But still, what does this practically look like?

Well, take Jan for example. Jan was a Christian lady who began working a very tiring job where the boss never encouraged the employees. So, each week Jan made a point to write a simple encouraging note or do a kind personal gesture for each of her coworkers. Jan did this for 13 years until she suddenly died in a car accident. As you might guess, Jan’s funeral was filled with people she had worked with, who stood up and shared how Jan had made their world a little bit brighter. And then one man got up and said, “I never shared this with anyone, but one morning before work, my wife told me that she was leaving me, and two days earlier I had been diagnosed with a terminally ill disease. My world was crumbling all around me. I told no one. I arrived at the office, and there on my desk was a little envelope. I opened it up. It was from Jan, and it read, ‘The Lord is near to the brokenhearted. He helps those who are weak, and to him who has no might, He increases strength. When you are weak, God is strong.’” And the man said, “That day, for the first time, I knew there was a God, and I began to turn to Him. I’m sure going to miss Jan.” Jan was missed because she lived out her identity in Christ as a preservative in a job that was prone to discouragement. Jan was missed because she was a seasoning that brought her office the flavor of God’s encouraging care.

Like Jan, in a world that’s subject to decay, Christians are called to press into the brokenness and seek to preserve it and season it with the character of God. In a world of confusion, Christians are called to bring the truth of Christ into every sphere of life. In a world of hiding, Christians are liberated in Christ to be open and honest about their weakness and struggles and to invite others to do the same. In a world of hopelessness, Christians are called to sacrificially give their lives to serve those around them. Because, like Jesus, they know their labor is not in vain and that there’s a better world coming.

Dear God, you have blessed me to be a blessing. You've lit me to shine my light, not like grand fireworks that bring attention to themselves, but like humble spotlights that bring attention to you. Lord, thank you for the encouraging reminder that like salt and light, I don’t need to do great things to change the world; I just need to be who you've called me to be, in the place you've called me to be. Empower me to bring your flavor and light into my world today. Amen.