This Sunday, the lectionary invites us to ponder Matthew 5:13-20. The English Standard Version supplies the heading “Salt and Light” to verses 13-16, and the heading “Christ Came to Fulfil the Law” to verses 17-20.
Last week, I discussed the earlier verses in today’s chapter, the first words in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Jesus began by labelling as blessings things which none of us want. I summarized my reflection in the title, “Salt, light, mercy: Jesus’ Blueprint for a New Society.”
I’ve titled today’s reflection “Did Jesus really say some people are fit only to be trampled upon?” because of the first verse in today’s reading:
“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.”
Jesus spoke those words. Spoke them to people who were ‘nobodies’ in their society. People who were poor. People who were often sick and hungry. People who, unlike the religious leaders of the day, were given no honour.
But did Jesus say anyone had become fit only to be trampled upon? If he did, whom did he mean? The poor, hungry, and oppressed, or the leaders of the day?
Let’s circle back. What does it mean to be salt of the earth? Jesus’ must’ve meant the salt we use in food, to preserve and to give taste.
I wouldn’t like it if I put a white powder into my food thinking it was salt, only to taste it and discover it was sugar. I wouldn’t like it if I rubbed salt on a fish to preserve it, then came back tomorrow to find the fish rotting and stinking because what I thought was salt was actually talcum powder.
Jesus was speaking to people whom he had healed, or freed from oppression by evil spirits. He was telling them that he was teaching them how to be like salt in society. He was saying that it was through their interactions with others that society would change for the better.
In a society which treated them like nobodies, Jesus went further.
Jesus said that they, from that time on, would be like lights, overcoming darkness, like him. Remember, we read in John’s Gospel that Jesus said “I am the light of the world.”[1]
What’s remarkable is that Jesus knew, and they knew, that they didn’t have access to the scriptures. There were no printing presses then, everything was hand-copied. And the few manuscripts there were, the few scrolls, were precious, were safely handled and guarded.
Jesus wasn’t telling them to go and do Bible study or pray. He was telling them that treating others right, establishing and practicing justice, is what matters. Jesus was telling them they were not nobodies.
Jesus was telling them they were not to be trampled upon. They were to be salt, to preserve and to add taste. Which includes experiencing pain, loss, imprisonment, and joy – as we saw last week.
But Jesus did say some people are fit only to be trampled upon.
He meant people who were held in honour at the time, the leaders, the Pharisees and the scribes, people who focused on learning every bit of the law and rigidly obeying it – like refusing to heal on holy days,[2] like giving “to God” ten percent of even the herbs they used.[3]
He said they were fit only to be trampled upon because they cared more about learning and obeying every one of God’s laws than they cared about serving their neighbours.
One writer, after meditating on today’s verses, wrote:
“God scatters salty Christians into the world as a way of judging evil, destroying wickedness, and preventing lust or greed or murder or injustice from taking root. The very existence of the church, preaching and living out the gospel, proclaims judgment against the enemies of God and serves as what Paul calls “a clear sign to them of their destruction” (Phil. 1:28).” [4]
Every one of us is called to live out the gospel. Every one of us is called to be salt. Every one of us is called to judge evil, to destroy wickedness, to prevent injustice from taking root. Not just to pray for these things.
How are we doing?
Lord, have mercy!
Peace be with you.
[1] See John 8:12.
[2] See Matthew 12:10-13, Luke 13:10-17, John 5:5-16.
[3] See Matthew 23:23, Luke 11:42.
[4] Andrew Wilson, writing in The Gospel Coalition website: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/salt-earth/.
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