Salt and Light

So when Jesus told them that they were the salt of the earth and that they could lose their salty taste, they understood because from their experience salt could lose its taste. Some have accused Jesus of making an error when they remind us that from a scientific viewpoint pure sodium chloride cannot lose its saltiness. In response, we must remember that Jesus was not giving a lecture in science. He used an illustration of something that was familiar to them in order to teach them a spiritual truth.

When their salt became tasteless, they could not make it salty again. “It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.” Tasteless salt was good for nothing. Historians tell us that one could walk down a street and find salt that had been thrown into the street because it was not “good for anything.” So they tossed it into the street. It was useless in cooking. It was useless as a preservative, for sanitization, or for flavoring in food. Tasteless salt is worthless. As a result those who walked by would “trample” on it.

Dear follower of Jesus, are you tasteless? Do you make a difference in the world? Jesus said that His followers are the salt of the earth. Are you “good for something”?

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. (NASB) Matt. 5:14-15

He begins with the world, moves to a city, and concludes with a room in a house. He starts large and ends up in something smaller. He started this illustration by saying that His followers are the light of the world. How many people consider the followers of Jesus to be the light of anything? Today some are saying that Christians caused the so called Dark Ages. But the Encyclopedia Britannia makes this comment about the “Dark Ages,”

Specifically, the term refers to the time (476–800) when there was no Roman (or Holy Roman) emperor in the West; or, more generally, to the period between about 500 and 1000, which was marked by frequent warfare and a virtual disappearance of urban life. It is now rarely used by historians because of the value judgment it implies. Though sometimes taken to derive its meaning from the fact that little was then known about the period, the term’s more usual and pejorative sense is of a period of intellectual darkness and barbarity. (Encyclopedia Britannia 2005).