Matthew 5:13-20 NRSVUE
13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything but is thrown out and trampled under foot.\
14 “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. 15 People do not light a lamp and put it under the bushel basket; rather, they put it on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Last week we were reading the first half of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:1-12, where we realized that Jesus’ definition of Blessed does not mean that we are enjoying the good things in life. Jesus’ definition of Blessed is the counter-cultural call to be a blessing to others and God’s promise that Justice will eventually arrive.
There’s no change of venue, there’s no Jesus took a break and then started teaching again.
Jesus says, 11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
And then Jesus says
13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything but is thrown out and trampled under foot.
Being reviled and persecuted for speaking up like the prophets is the context for, “you are the salt of the earth.”
That changes it a little bit doesn’t it.
I admit that when I was taught these verses about salt and light, I was not about it in context!
I was taught that we are supposed to be noticeably Christian.
- I was taught that I was supposed to be wearing a cross all the time.
- Wearing Christian T-shirts
- Dress with modest femininity.
- I was taught that I shouldn’t smoke or chew or go with the boys that do.
- No cussing.
- I was taught that a good Christian girl is supposed to be meek and sweet and nice.
- I was taught to be unquestioningly obedient to those in authority.
- I was taught that I was supposed to initiate awkward conversations about Jesus… I think that’s the only one I’m still doing, no, wait, I still wear Christian T-shirts, but they’re a little different than the ones I used to wear!
I do bring Jesus up in conversation all the time.
And I confess that I can be a little salty about it.
Salty – as the young people use it these days – means to speak with passion, sarcasm, or bitterness, as a result of being angry or upset; or feeling out of place or under attack.
The Prophets were often salty.
When Amos said, in chapter 5:21-24
21 I hate, I despise your festivals,
and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
22 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them,
and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals
I will not look upon.
23 Take away from me the noise of your songs;
I will not listen to the melody of your harps.
24 But let justice roll down like water
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
That was salty.
Here’s some salt from Jeremiah 21:12
12 O house of David! Thus says the Lord:
Execute justice in the morning,
and deliver from the hand of the oppressor
anyone who has been robbed,
or else my wrath will go forth like fire
and burn, with no one to quench it,
because of their evil doings.
Have you ever noticed how salty Spirit gets in some of the Psalms?
Here’s Psalm 109:7-16
7 When he is tried, let him be found guilty;
let his prayer be counted as sin.
8 May his days be few;
may another seize his position.
9 May his children be orphans
and his wife a widow.
10 May his children wander about and beg;
may they be driven out of the ruins they inhabit.
11 May the creditor seize all that he has;
may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil.
12 May there be no one to do him a kindness
nor anyone to pity his orphaned children.
13 May his posterity be cut off;
may his name be blotted out in the second generation.
14 May the iniquity of his father be remembered before the Lord,
and do not let the sin of his mother be blotted out.
15 Let them be before the Lord continually,
and may his memory be cut off from the earth.
16 For he did not remember to show kindness
but pursued the poor and needy
and the brokenhearted to their death.
Whew! That’s not just salty – that’s spicy!
But many of us were taught that all that Old Testament stuff doesn’t matter anymore since Jesus came, so here’s Jesus being salty in Matthew 23:27
27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful but inside are full of corruption and rot.”
God – Creator, Christ and Spirit are salty when it comes to violations of God’s one simple rule of LOVE –
Moving on to verse 14 – still in the context of the sermon on the Mount, Jesus is calling us to be Lit.
Lit, according to the Urban dictionary means
lit
- A term used to describe something that is cool and exciting, or just generally something you would want to experience.
In verse 16 it reads, “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven”
The idea being that our light is the good news of God’s Love for ALL people, which should shine through our words and actions.
The Good News that Jesus taught is something cool and exciting, and just generally something you would want to experience, right?
Right??
Right???
I was taught that this meant that I was supposed to invite people to church… and I still think that’s a good idea…to invite people to church.
But I also think that Jesus is calling us to be lit everywhere we go.
That we are called to shine the light of compassion by serving at Family Promise.
That we are called to shine the light of love by building affordable housing.
That we are called to let it shine all around the neighborhood as we go about our lives by how we treat others and by what we are willing to stand up for.
Verses 17-20 are troubling to a lot of people, because they wonder what “not abolishing the law but fulfilling it” means.
The question being – did Jesus just say that we need to follow all the rules in Exodus, Deuteronomy, and Leviticus???
Including Leviticus 15:20 where it says that men are not supposed to sit in chairs where a menstruating woman has sat? Because if so, my husband and son are going to be doing a lot of standing because there’s 3 people with uteruses in my house!
No. I don’t think so.
Jesus already answered this question in Matthew 22:37-40
37 ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Love is the fulfillment of the law.
Love is the fulfillment of the law.
Because the Pharisees were actively trying to follow the letter of the law.
Every little rule and every big one.
They were honestly and sincerely trying.
But they got so caught up in the rules that they forgot that the purpose of the rules is love.
Later on in this same sermon, because in Matthew the sermon on the Mount goes on through chapter 7!
Right after this reading Jesus goes into a series of interpretations of the law that are all formatted, “You have heard it said…something something… but I say… something else”
In Matthew 5:43 Jesus directly address the law of Love
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.
I don’t hear Jesus telling us that we need to obey every single little Kosher law.
I hear Jesus telling us that to be truly Righteous, we need to practice neighbor-love from the inside out.
We need to pray for those who persecute us so that we can keep fighting FOR what we love, instead of fighting AGAINST what we hate.
We need to pray for those who persecute us so that we can keep fighting FOR what we LOVE, instead of fighting AGAINST what we hate.
We’re called to be Salty – to speak truth to power.
We’re called to be Lit – to shine the good news all around the neighborhood.
We’re called to be Righteous – to fight FOR what we LOVE. Not fight against what we hate.
