Word Live: Delightfully Different
‘Jesus, light of the world, may my thoughts, my words, my actions honour you today. Amen.’
Bible passage
Matthew 5:13–16
Salt and light
13 ‘You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
14 ‘You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Explore
Having described the kind of person who is welcomed in God’s kingdom, Jesus now explains how these people bring God’s kingdom into the world. By using the analogies of salt and light (two everyday yet essential items), Jesus makes his point – spiritually poor, unremarkable, meek kingdom people will have a radical effect on society around them.
Galilean fishermen relied on salt to preserve their catch. Salt prevented rottenness and ensured their salted fish would survive the export journey to grace the tables of Rome. Jesus’ implication is that society, left to its own devices, will turn rotten. Our world needs kingdom people living out God’s values in order to preserve what is good and counter the decay. Similarly, Jesus’ light analogy implies that the world is a dark place. Without light we stumble, fall and are hurt. If we have light but hide it (v 15), we are doing everyone a disservice.
Just as salt is different from the food it preserves, and light is different from darkness, followers of Jesus will be different, distinctive and uncompromising. It won’t always be appreciated, but it is necessary.
Author
Penny Boshoff
Respond
Where do you see rottenness or darkness in your workplace, your community or in your network of friends and family? Ask the Holy Spirit to guide your words and direct what you do so that you might be 'salt' and 'light'.
Deeper Bible study
Pray that the true challenge of faith as witness within the world may come home to us.
The illustrations Jesus uses here are closely related to the beatitudes; it is when the qualities mentioned there become embedded within the lives of disciples that they, and the community to which they belong, become salt and light in a broken and dark world. The emphasis in these illustrations is on the presence of disciples within the world and the public visibility of their lives and actions. Jesus does not envisage his community as a withdrawn, sectarian group, making occasional attempts to preach to outsiders and expecting them to come to Christian gatherings to be converted. Salt must have contact with whatever it is intended to preserve, or it loses its purpose; light only fulfils its function when it exists in the darkness. How many models of the church and its mission in the world are challenged by these simple but powerful illustrations?
Notice too that the salt and light of the kingdom of God are clearly identified with ‘your good deeds’ (v 16), compelling observers to ‘glorify your Father in heaven’. The word ‘earth’ in verse 13 suggests that such deeds will have an impact on the created world; the gospel is not purely spiritual in character, but down to earth. The significance of this at a time when creation is under terrible threat is obvious. We are also called to be ‘the light of the world’ (v 14, italics added), a term which points toward the socio-political and cultural aspects of human existence. Jesus’ reference to ‘a city on a hill’ (see v 14) may relate to his memory, already mentioned, of growing up within sight of the new city of Sepphoris. Here he envisages his new community embodying an alternative vision of life together as they practise the values of the kingdom of God in continual sight of the watching world.
Reflect on the question raised above: which models of church and mission are challenged by Jesus’ words?
Author
David Smith
