In the Sermon on the Mount . . .

In the Sermon on the Mount, immediately following the Beatitudes, Jesus issues two emphatic statements.  “You are the salt of the earth” and “You are the light of the world.”  Both statements contain an implied imperative, almost as if Jesus was commanding us, “Be salt.  Be light.  Be who you have been called to be; and indeed, who you are more than capable of being, through the grace and power of God!”

But of these two, it’s the first one that I find the most intriguing.  What exactly does Jesus mean by “the salt of the earth”?  Is he referring to salt’s ability to add flavor?  Is he reminding us of how salt can be used to preserve food (and of course, in Jesus’ day, this would have been absolutely essential, since there was no refrigeration)?  Is he pointing out that salt has various medicinal attributes and is necessary for one’s overall health and well-being?  Or is it “all of the above”?

Evidently, until about a hundred years ago, salt was rather scarce.  So scarce, in fact, that at different points in history, wars have been fought over who controlled the stores of salt.  It was even used as currency.  Hence, the expression “worth one’s salt.”  Our word “salary” has its Latin roots in the sense that a worker was paid in order to be able to purchase salt.

According to Mark Kurlansky’s book Salt: A World History, there are literally thousands of practical uses for salt.  Moreover, it is very stable, non-reactive compound.  This is why scholars have been somewhat puzzled over Jesus’ question, “But if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored?”—because, technically speaking, salt can never actually lose its saltiness.

However, salt can become diluted with water, and this may have been what Jesus had in mind.  Notice that Jesus’ statement “You are the salt of the earth” comes directly on the heels of his exhortation that we are to rejoice when people revile us, and persecute us, and utter all kinds of evil against us.  In other words, Jesus may have been cautioning us, as disciples, not to lose our ardor—not to have our passion diluted—when the world mocks, maligns, or mistreats us.

Regardless of what exactly Jesus meant when he called us “salt,” one thing is clear.  Our influence is supposed to be broad rather than narrow.  We are not asked merely to be a shaker of salt for our next-door neighbor or the local community.  Jesus is asking us to flavor, preserve, and ensure the well-being of the whole wide world—to be “the salt of the earth.”