Lighten Up!
Posted on Feb 05, 2017 by David Whetter
If you remember, last week we began reading what we call Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. John had been arrested and Jesus had begun his ministry and started to call his disciples. He had begun traveling around Galilee, “teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people” (Matthew 4:23). And as he did this, Matthew tells us that “great crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan” (4:25). And then as we heard last week, Jesus needed a little break from the crowds, so he went up the mountain for some quiet time and there his disciples followed and he began to offer some teaching time to them by sharing with them who God blesses. And in many ways his teaching shocked them as he shared with them how God’s blessings and mercy were for everyone. And today, Jesus continues his teaching by saying to his disciples, “You are the salt of the earth…” (5:13) and “You are the light of the world…” (5:14).
Now before I go any further, I want to point something out here. Notice that Jesus is not saying “You have to be salt and light” or You need to be …” or you should be…” No, Jesus says in no uncertain terms “you are the salt of the earth.” “You are the light of the world…” We may not always know it, and we may not always act like it and at times, we may not even want to be these things, but Jesus says to those that are his followers, you are salt and light to the world. Jesus isn’t commanding us to be salt and light, he is promising us that we already are.
So, if we already are salt and light, the questions becomes, what does that mean for us? And that is what Jesus will begin to explain as we read through this “Sermon” for the next three weeks.
Let’s first take a look at what it might mean to be salt. Salt has many functions. Today, I think most of us only think of salt as a spice. We add it to food for flavor. But, salt has many other functions, as well. Salt is a preservative. It is also an antiseptic. Oh, it will hurt if you put it on a wound, but it will also prevent bacteria from growing, which brings me to another function of salt; it is an irritant. And lastly, salt is a substance that can penetrate. Have you ever added just a little bit of salt to a glass of water? In seconds, the water becomes salty. The salt dissolves and penetrates the entire amount. Salt does all these things and in so doing, salt changes the very thing that it is mixed with, or it touches. As disciples of Jesus we are those that spice things up, heal what, or, who is hurting, irritate the world around us to bring about God’s justice and peace, and we are those that penetrate through the surface level of the issues in this world, so that we might bring about real justice, God’s justice. That is what it means to be salt.
But Jesus didn’t stop there, he then said, “You are the light.” So what does that mean? As the light, we are the ones who points to the ways of Jesus and what I find to be so helpful is that we don’t have to be the shiniest light around to be the one who points to Jesus. It’s amazing what just a little bit of light will do in this darkened world.
With all this said, I think we need to jump to the end of our text, where Jesus says “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (5:20). Since he began this time of teaching, Jesus has been raising the heat a little bit. He seems to be saying to the disciples, I know you think you know what God expects of you, but I need you to look at things a little differently. You see, for the Jews, things seemed quite clear. If we follow the law, then all will be good. And that is true. The problem was that if we aren’t careful, following the law too closely can lead us to breaking the law. Let me explain what I mean. When asked to summarize the law, Jesus said the greatest of all the law could be summarized into one law, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind” (22:37) and then he said, “And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself'” (22:39). Following the law is about loving God and to love God, we are to love our neighbor, and that includes, as we will hear in a few weeks, those neighbors we might think of as enemies. Following the law is hard and not always as clear as we think and so what are we supposed to do.
Jesus says, that’s easy, follow me and let your righteousness exceed that of the Pharisees. Now, I know we Christians have sometimes caricatured the Pharisees as the villains in Jesus day, but for the most part, but they were good people. They knew the law and they attempted to follow it faithfully. They worshiped regularly and in the proper way. They didn’t do things like use the Lord’s name in vain or commit adultery because they knew the law was clear on such things. For the most part they lived generous lives, by both tithing and giving alms. That is, they knew that God commanded them to give a tithe, 10% to the temple and God commanded them to give to charity as well, so they did. They were a righteous people. That is they were people that attempted to live as God called them to live in every way. But the problem is we can’t live perfectly all the time, 24/7, can we? We make mistakes. We fail, we fall short of the law and there in lies our problem and that is what Jesus begins to teach in this sermon. He is saying it’s not enough to do all the right actions and avoid the wrong ones. We need to look at the law in a different way. If it only meant to tell us what to do and not to do, then eventually we will all come to see it as a set of back-breaking demands that will condemn us. But, when we follow Jesus, we are invited to come and see that in Jesus we have all the righteousness we need. Yes, we will fail at times to live up to the law, but when we follow Jesus and his ways, his righteousness is granted to us. In the waters of our baptism, we have been claimed by Christ and in so doing we are baptized into his life, death and resurrection. In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul said, “For we are the aroma of Christ to God..” (2:15). When God looks at us, God sees and smells his own son.
So, as we go about living in this broken world - a world where racism, sexism, nationalism, poverty, class wars, economic wars and so many other issues exist that are not part of God’s creation, Jesus says to us you are the salt that is to spice up and penetrate the issues that prevent God’s kingdom from being fulfilled. You are the salt that is to irritate the status quo and bring about healing in a world that so desperately needs it and as you do it, let your light shine so before the world that the world might see your good works, not for your glory, but for Gods glory. Let your light shine as you help with Pantry Pack, cook or serve at Children’s Memorial. Be the salt and light that serves as a Sunday School leader, and Oasis leader. Be the light that sits with a friend in need, or is a trustworthy co-worker. Be the salt and light that says to those who so many claim to be our enemies you are loved and welcome here. We are the salt and the light that can change the world and bring about God’s kingdom. All we need to do is lighten up, let go of our fears. Amen.