Sermon for 5th Sunday after Epiphany – Matthew 5:13-20

Jesus says some pretty strange things, but today he says one of the strangest things of all. “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored?” Does that make sense? No. It’s a super stable compound. Salt can’t go stale. It can’t lose its taste. Not that Jesus wants to be a chemistry teacher or anything. So, what does he mean?

Well, let’s start with the context. Jesus is going all around Galilee, teaching and preaching and healing every sickness. He becomes famous, because it’s an epidemic of folks who need miracles. So they start coming out from everywhere. The crowds get bigger. It gets overwhelming, because Jesus never gets a moment to himself. We’d be overwhelmed too. So Jesus goes up a hill to get away. His disciples find him there. And so begins his sermon on the mount. Last week we heard – blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Now, this is a controversial sermon, because what Jesus is saying, is that the ones who will inherit the kingdom of God aren’t the rich or powerful, but the poor and powerless, and where does that leave us if we aren’t them?

It’s not a sermon we want to hear, because it accuses. No wonder the prosperity gospel is so popular. Live your best life now. Just be kind. Not that kindness isn’t vital, but good intentions don’t necessarily overthrow the social order either. Injustice, racism, homophobia, violence all still surround us. It’s a hard message to hear. No wonder Jesus tells the disciples, “Blessed are you not IF but WHEN people revile you and persecute you.” Now, I confess, I’ve been a disciple for years and what does it mean if I don’t feel reviled? Hard question. So you wonder how it must have been for these disciples to hear that. Jesus just called them. What a way to start the ball rolling! Who would sign up for that? Yet, Jesus ups the ante. “You are the salt of the earth.”

Now, to get at what Jesus is saying, let’s think about salt. It tastes good. It gives flavor. It’s a preservative, and that’s why it was so valuable in those days. Without it, there would have been a LOT of starvation. So, you could say maybe Jesus is trying to wax poetic about the disciples proclaiming a life-giving message.

Then again, I seem to know a lot of folks with low sodium diets, and shopping suddenly becomes a real challenge. So much salt in everything you least expected, and it starts to become more like a threat. Like when we talk about rubbing salt in someone’s wounds, and we don’t mean first aid. Or here’s a better one – when we salt the earth. This is the story they told back in the day, when the conquering army would spread salt on the ground so the defeated couldn’t grow anything anymore. Salting the earth was the ultimate defeat. Everyone knew that story. Surely Jesus could have recited the story from Judges, when Abimelech sowed the city of Shechem with salt after defeating the rebellion against him. So you have to wonder whether Jesus is talking more about preservation, or more about putting things to an end.

Jesus keeps going. “But if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored?” Now, what’s interesting is that this was also a euphemism for when wisdom becomes foolishness. Like Jesus is asking “if wisdom becomes foolishness, what will salt it?” Now, Jesus doesn’t quite come out and tell us what this foolishness entails, but St. Paul sure does. He tells the Corinthians, “I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom, for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” The situation in Corinth was a bunch of rival preachers holding a popularity contest. Who could get more followers. Who could preach the least controversial message because Corinth was pretty wealthy. You get a lot of money flowing around the city and the status quo seems pretty good. No one wants to rock the boat.

Sound familiar? Maybe more that we want to admit. We’re so busy just trying to survive, that we become numb to injustice and pray to make peace with the unfairness of the world. But still, there’s a certain guilt that gnaws at the back of our mind and just won’t go away. So with weakness and fear and trembling Paul brings a hard message for Corinth and for us. Christ crucified. Sacrifice and suffering and death that reveal the foolishness of the status quo that’s killing us. So Paul says “none of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” It’s a repulsive message, because it shows us our unrighteousness. Our failure. Our fear to say a word and face rejection. Yet, Jesus declares, “if salt has lost its taste, it is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.”

But thank God this is not the last word, for Corinth, or the disciples, or us. After cross and death, still Jesus is raised from the grave. Just as he promised. Yes, Jesus says “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets,” and don’t we know that! Yet, he says “I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” He becomes everything that we’re not, so that he can make us everything he is. And he does it with a word. I forgive you. Whether we want it or not, there it is, and there’s not a thing we can do about it but live in the reality of this grace given to us unconditionally. Paul says “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.”

You know, it didn’t make any more sense to Paul than to us. He confesses, “no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God.” Yet, we have the mind of Christ, who bears himself to the world through our words and actions and even in our foolishness. Because we don’t have all the answers. We still say the wrong thing. We still run headfirst into disaster. We’re still irritating, because salt is irritating. But others will see all this and know that by the grace of God there is redemption enough for them. We’re living proof. That’s why Jesus says “you are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid.”

Which doesn’t mean we don’t still want to hide under a bushel sometimes, but even this is a gift from God. Because it’s humility. And it truly gives us freedom to speak the truth. Freedom to give our lives away in serving our neighbors. The poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. They will be filled because Jesus has filled us. I know it may not seem like much, but then again, you are the salt of the earth, and a little bit goes a long way. Thanks be to God.