Dr. Barclay with Something to Think About - SALT

 SALT

“You are the salt of the earth…” (Matthew 5:13). Did you ever really consider the possible reasons Jesus may have said this to His followers just after His reciting of the Beatitudes? After all, salt is just a simple compound made up of two components: sodium and chloride. Independently, both are toxic chemicals but together a simple compound used every day and certainly common in the time of Jesus. So when He called His followers “salt” what point was He really trying to convey?

Salt was, and still is, used as a preservative. Was Christ calling upon His followers to preserve His teachings, His words and instructions? It was, after all, just after He had finished one of His most noteworthy teachings and, preserving these, even in their memories, would be important. But passing such teachings on to others and to future generations could and would be paramount. Was Christ, in referring to His followers as “salt” expecting them to do just that? 

Salt is also used as flavouring. He makes this point in the following: “Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its flavour, how shall it be seasoned?” (Luke 14:34) Were His followers, including ourselves, being asked to send the flavour of His Message to everyone and thereby change the “flavour” or attitude of the rest of the world? If that was the intent, then we have not been very successful and it must be apparent that a considerable part of the flavour has been lost.

Salt was also a symbol of disobedience to God’s instruction and commandments. Perhaps He was giving a reminder to continually obey His instructions and commandments and for those listening not to be disobedient. If those listening were aware of the Old Testament scrolls, they would certainly be aware of the story regarding Lot’s wife in Genesis.  She was told: “…'Escape for your life! Do not look behind you or stay anywhere in the plain…’” (Genesis 19:17). Lot’s wife, however, did not obey this instruction and “…[she] looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt” (Genesis 19:26).

There is still yet another use for salt in that it causes one to be thirsty. We know that salt attracts water because it tends to clump when it becomes damp and anyone who has eaten salty food such as peanuts or chips understands how thirsty one can become. So perhaps He was indicating the means by which others would have a thirst. He did, after all, say to the Samaritan woman that He “…would have given [her] living water” (John 4:10) and that “…whoever drinks of [that] water that I shall give him will never thirst…” (John 4:14). Was Jesus implying that His followers and ourselves were to be that ingredient which would cause others to thirst for the “living water” of Christ so that we might never thirst again? 

Lastly, having salt implies having peace and compatibility with each other. We see this in Mark 9:50 and Colossians 4:6: “…Have salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another,” and “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.”

With little apparent peace in the world and so much disobedience to God, we must consider whether we, as salt, have truly lost much of our flavour and how we are not causing people to thirst for the “living water” as we ought.

It’s at least something to think about.