You are the salt

Matthew 5:13-20

There are times, when changing the way we look at one part of scripture, permanently changes the way we look at the rest of the passage. This is the case for me this week.

If the community of Matt. 4:23-25 is the discipleship crowd who is gathered before Jesus as the hearers of this sermon—those who are blessed/honored/recognized (Matt. 5:1-12), then these words in Matt. 5:13-20 are directed to these same people, the ones whom Howard Thurman claims as the “people with their backs against the wall—the poor, the disinherited, and the dispossessed”. The assembly is a community of the socially dead who have been raised up into the Jesus community of resurrection living.

These people are claimed by Jesus as honored/blessed: “the SALT of the earth”—the commodity that is essential for life. Jesus directs this statement to a group of people who have been beat-down, disregarded as being nothing, less than human, a burden on society, the people who have nothing to give, those shunned, and those relegated to begging for their existence.

The next words are important for us to consider, “On the other hand, when salt has become foolish/useless, how can one cause the salt to return? It no longer has force and value. It is cast out and treated with utmost disdain by humanity.” (my translation) These words are being spoken to people who know what it is to be considered as nothing—to be cast aside, declared unclean, treated with disdain and now have been offered/given the opportunity to reclaim their saltiness—to be valued, essential for the health and wellness of the world.

How do those who have lost their personhood in the world in which they live regain their vitality and value? They become followers of Jesus! They enter into the new beloved resurrection community.

Jesus continues to tell these same people, “You are the light of the world. A city/people of importance established on the hill cannot be hidden. No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it under a bushel basket, but on a lamp stand, and it lights all the house. In the same way, let your light before humanity shine so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father in heaven.”

These people who have been newly blessed, with their saltiness restored in the Jesus community, are now claimed as the light of the world. They are the foundation stones of a new community, created on the hill, that cannot be hidden. (Remember that it is the Sermon on the Mount.) Those who have lived under the bushel basket for so long, hidden away from the world, Jesus calls to the lamp stand, to give light to the whole house of Israel, those who wrestle with God. In the goodness of God’s own creation, these people are also called to let their light shine, let their valued place in the kingdom of heaven be witnessed by others so they too might know the glory of their father in heaven.

There will always be those who want the salt to lose its saltiness, who will always want to put the bushel basket over the light, but in this new Jesus community where those who have their backs against the wall are recognized as the new way forward, let us claim and listen to those who believe that Black Lives Matter, that people living with disabilities matter, that 2SLGBTQQIA+ people matter, and that the entire BIPOC communities matter. They are the light for today who can guide our feet into the new paths of righteousness and justice. Jesus makes it clear that Roman power has had it sway for much too long.

Yet let us not forget that Jesus has not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. Torah community created so many years before, with its promise of harmonious living, still holds true. God’s law of love and concern continues, but, in these verses, we are reminded that the plan for beloved harmonious communities is for all people, and we are commissioned to model that for the world.

When we recognize that we are all created in God’s image, that there is no one idealized body but the collective of all of us, then God’s personhood is perfectly revealed, then all of us have been given a share in God’s good creation. Because we all have gifts to bring to the table for the good work that needs to be done, we all can hear these words and shine.

“You are the salt of the earth! You are the light of the world!” Do not let the world trample you, beat you down, make you feel useless. Cast off those things that prevent you from shining. Claim your place in God’s good creation. Break the yoke of oppression and enter the kingdom of heaven—of freedom and the possibility of resurrection living—not with the violence received but as the peacemakers of the world.

I continue to hear Tyre Nichols’ mom, RowVaughn Wells, speak of prayer and peaceful protest. “How honored the peacemakers, they will be called the children of God.”