February 5, 2023.
Texts: Isaiah 58:1-12; 1 Corinthians 2:1-16; Matthew 5:13-20.
You…are salt, you…are light.
When Jesus finished his beatitudes he went on with these familiar words: “You are the salt of the earth…you are the light of the world.” It wasn’t an invitation, you know. This was a clear statement of identity and, even more, of purpose. You are…You are.
Matthew’s gospel places this teaching of Jesus in the context of the Sermon on the Mount. There are actually two audiences. One is the disciples to whom Jesus was presumably speaking. The other is Matthew’s own faith community some seventy or so years later.
Jesus was just beginning to form his followers, inviting them to believe themselves worthy of following him. You are salt. Jesus believed his disciples were capable. Salt of the earth is a reference to using the mineral in a diversity of naturally occurring forms to bring fertility to soil.
These salts become useless when depleted of their essential minerals. This reference is more explicitly stated in Luke 14:34-35, “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored. It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile.” So Jesus’s point is made: You are salt. The earth needs your fertility, come follow and fertilize the seeds Jesus is planting.
You are salt. Matthew’s purpose was similar, telling the story of Jesus and inviting people to follow and help bring about the reign of God. Matthew was probably also challenging members of his community whose energies were not so much serving God anymore. Some were not bringing their best selves to their calling as disciples to nurture seeds of God’s reign.
You are light. Again this is a rich image; a more specific reference than we may realize. The Psalmist says that God’s law is a lamp to our feet and a light to the world. All who keep the law reveal God to the world. This was quite specifically God’s charge to Israel to begin with and was broadened by Jesus into a charge for all who follow in his way.
There is a lovely coherence to the gospel today. Here in Matthew’s gospel the teachings of Jesus on salt and light bring all our attention to the law. Specifically, to keeping God’s commandments.
God’s law as expressed in the Ten Commandments is not intended to be punitive, instead it is productive. When we observe the commandments we embody God’s justice and mercy, bringing forth the good that God has equipped us to accomplish. The essential work of the prophets is to publicize our failure to observe the commandments and call us to return to them.
This is why Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” In saying this, Jesus did not mean that the law and the prophets were no longer necessary. He meant that in his own life, he would fulfill every commandment, and in doing so would prophetically show God’s love for the whole world.
In fact, the word abolish means to dismiss. Which shows us why Jesus went on to say that the law has a divine coherence – the heart of the law – that is broken when it is subject to our manipulations. Dismissing any aspect of the law or word of the prophets is tantamount to unsalted salt, and dimly burning lights.
Dismissing God’s law is a crime against God’s good. It’s diabolical really. Because it seems so minor to dismiss a commandment that seems small, or insignificant. And Jesus uses the exact same word here – “Therefore, whoever dismisses one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.”
You see, there is shalom to God’s commandments. Together they bring about God’s good. But watered down, revised, or ignored, they can actually lead to the opposite result, even to the point of diminishing God’s good. Jesus seems to be saying that anyone who reduces God’s good will also be reduced in God’s reign.
Today we are a third audience, listening to Jesus along with his first followers, and Matthew’s community. We know that Jesus had a lot to say about the way the commandments were observed in his time. We cannot know in what ways Matthew despaired over his own communities, but we know that we are vulnerable to the same failures as all the faithful ones who have gone before us.
Jesus said. “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus didn’t say this to discourage anyone. He said this to encourage us. You are salt. You are light. We’ve got this!
Exceeding righteousness means taking the commandments to heart as the means of expressing God’s love. And then expanding the heart of the commandments into greater and greater acts of love in and for God’s creation. You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.
As it turns out, yes is the response the gospel asks us for today. It’s our hard yes to God. You do know what a hard yes is, right? If you know what a hard no is, then just apply the same intensity in the opposite direction.
The hard yes is the answer Jesus gave to God. And the hard yes is the reply Jesus always hoped for from his disciples and all his followers then, and to this very day. That hard yes is also the answer to the question of whether Jesus fulfilled the law and the prophets. Yes he did.
Yes is such a small word. The hard yes is just yes with absolute conviction. But that’s just it, right? The conviction part means that saying yes will cost you something one way or another. But the end result will be absolutely worth it. Jesus kept the commandments with exceeding righteousness, embodying God’s love through justice and mercy all the way to the cross. And then by God’s love, he was bodily raised up. And is he not called great in the reign of God?
The way Jesus put it, keeping the law, or not, begins with the heart. Do we heartily long for and seek to live God’s justice and mercy? So then what vision of God’s reign are we teaching people every day with our own lives? Are we salt and light? Amen.