Reflection on Matthew 5:13

"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.” Matthew 5:13

“Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another." Mark 9:50

"Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear." Luke 14:34,35

Reflecting on the recent sermon on Matthew 5:13  brought to mind questions about why the use of salt as an analogy in the Bible. Questions that might shed further insight could be “Scientifically can salt lose its saltiness and how?” or asking ourselves “What are the characteristics of salt that we can glean about being a good Christian”. This led me to think about this often used phrase – “Worth your weight in salt”. How did this phrase come about? Doing some Google searches yielded the following:

• The phrase means “To be effective and efficient; deserving of one's pay” or “that someone or something deserves respect and is worth its cost or has value”.
• Salt was considered essential for human life in that it was the primary method of preservation of food, therefore it was considered valuable.
• Interestingly, the word “salary” is derived from the Latin word “salarium” and “sal” is the Latin word for salt. The origin of the word “salarium” – it was the term given to the money (or ration) allowed to Roman soldiers for the purchase of salt.

So now we can see further evidence as to the importance of salt, or at least historically when the above few verses in the New Testament was written, a possible reason why salt was used in the analogy. The importance of salt as we see above is also very much linked to the use of salt. That is, the uses of salt for preservation or for enhancing the taste of food or even for healing purpose gave salt its value, resulting in its worth or importance.

This led me to this thought – that salt is never used on its own, but rather it is always mixed into something else and in so doing, it loses itself in the object in what it is mixed with. For example, when we put salt into our food  for cooking, it often doesn’t taste nice when we bite into salt crystals on its own, but when fully dissolved, the food becomes flavourful.

Now shouldn’t that be a picture of us as Christians as well in how we interact with the world? Allow me to quote from one of my favourite Christian authors, Timothy Keller, who writes in his book “Generous Justice”:

“In general, to “do justice” means to live in a way that generates a strong community where human beings can flourish. Specifically, however, to “do justice” means to go to places where the fabric of shalom has broken down, where the weaker members of societies are falling through the fabric, and to repair it. This happens when we concentrate on and meet the needs of the poor. How can we do that? The only way to reweave and strengthen the fabric is by weaving yourself into it”. (Pg 177, emphasis added)

That means to me, as we are the salt of the earth, we are to “mix” ourselves into our communities which may also mean we sacrifice and lose ourselves, but not in the sense that no one can’t tell we are there, but the complete opposite is true, that everyone can taste the saltiness. And in that process of mixing, the “flavour” of who we interact with is enhanced or I would like to say becomes more Christ-like! That also adds further weight (no pun intended here) to therefore what it means that if “salt has lost its taste”, it should be “thrown away” – what is the point of mixing salt with no saltiness into food!

I think about the many times now that our cell has gone to distribute bread to the needy in Chinatown. It reminds me of this “mixing” of ourselves with the community there. I am also certain that there are non-Christian groups also doing the same as us. The questions therefore comes to mind, “Have we been salt (or salty) to them?”, “Has our interaction with them caused them to become more flavourful?”. Now to be clear, these questions should not only be asked in this context, but also in our interaction at home with our neighbours and friends, at work with our colleagues, or in school with our classmates. What would the answers be and what can we do about it? What comes to mind is this, that the bible tells us that "You are the salt of the earth” – that is our identity. And to remember that “(Jesus is) the vine; (we) are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers ...” (John 15:5-6).

Therefore I see that what we need to do is to weave ourselves into the lives of those around us. This requires effort, sacrifice and intentionality. As we do so, we remember our identity – that we are salt of the earth. And finally we must go about it with Jesus, he is the one that makes us worth our weight in salt.