Jesus Christ, Story Teller: Reality Hidden in Plain Sight

People Who Are Salt and Light

Matthew 5:13-16

     Today, after three months of learning from Solomon in Ecclesiastes, we move to the Gospel of Matthew in order to learn directly from Jesus.  Even though the title of this series is “Jesus Christ, Storyteller”, we begin not so much with a story as with metaphors Jesus used early in his ministry.  I’ll start with those metaphors found in Mt 5:13-16 because they set the stage for all the stories we will be hearing from Jesus in the rest of Matthew.

     In today’s text, Jesus says the world is in need of salt and light.  In saying that, he was drawing upon an understanding of our world that we have been considering for these many weeks that we have been studying Ecclesiastes, i.e., that our world is in trouble and there is no hope if what is “under the sun” is all there is. With that in mind, let us stand for the reading of God’s Word found first in Eccl. 1:2,14 and then in Mt 5:13-16:

     Probably near the end of his life, in Ecclesiastes, Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 1:2,14:

“Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher.  “Utterly meaningless!  Everything is meaningless…” 

     I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

Near the beginning of his ministry, Jesus said in Matthew 5:13-16:

     You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

     You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

     I draw your attention to the subtitle of this new sermon series, i.e., Reality Hidden in Plain Sight.  The reality I will focus on today is what Jesus says about you and me.  Jesus, in these verses, declares that, although the world’ people may not see it with their physical eyes, if we are living in any way consistent with Jesus’ teaching, all Jesus-followers will be God’s salt and light in this world.

     How will that be?  Let me show you the main points of Jesus’ message in Mt 5:13-16:

#1:  The Condition:  This world “under the sun” is falling apart.

#2:  The Rescue Effort:  Jesus came to rescue a falling-apart world.

#3:  The Strategy:  Jesus does his rescuing work in and through his followers.

#4:  The Agents:  All Jesus-followers are sent into the world to bring together what is falling apart.

#1: The Condition:  This world “under the sun” is falling apart.

Salt of the earth… light of the world (Mt 5:13, 14).

     The two metaphors Jesus used shout out to us how Jesus sees a world in which people have walked away from God.  What he says is not different at all from what Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, i.e., that apart from God, everything in this world is deteriorating – that it needs salt.  It is in darkness and needs light. 

     The enormous import of Jesus’ words may be lost on us in our world because most of us live in a world with refrigeration and electric power.  But imagine how important salt was in a country where there was no refrigeration?  Salt was used for many things in the ancient world – but the main one was to keep food from rotting.  Salt must have had a value beyond anything we might imagine in the 21^st C world. 

     And can you imagine how important light is in a world with no streetlights or electrically generated illumination at all?  I was in a small village in India in 1976 when all the power went out and there was no light at all radiating from the stars on that overcast night.  I had never before been in a setting as dark as that village suddenly became.  Most places in our country – and especially in more urban areas like our own -- have headlights of cars, and streetlights, and floodlights...  But, that night in India, the neighborhood didn’t have any of those.  I could not see my hand three inches in front of my eyes.  I remember thinking, “It sure would be a great thing to have a candle or flashlight here!" Any light would have transformed that place.

     By use of these metaphors, Jesus is indicating how God sees our world.  He sees it as one that, left to itself, is deteriorating and cannot see its way out of the darkness.  In physics classes, we are taught the second law of thermodynamics, i.e., when it comes to energy there is a natural tendency of any isolated system to degenerate from a more ordered state into a more disordered state.  Energy doesn’t naturally go from disorder to order. 

     The same kind of deterioration seems to happen in many areas of our lives. As a student, I was often astounded at how much I had forgotten between the end of the spring semester and the beginning of the next fall.  Business people tell me about how they have to stay current with new developments of the business stagnates and soon becomes irrelevant and unproductive.  In our human relationships, we constantly see how, if we do not give the time and attention to the people in the relationships, things begin to fall apart.

     Jesus loves the world he made – and, although he loves it, he also says clearly that it is a world in need of salt and light. On its own, this world is not getting better and better.  “Under the sun”, things fall apart.

#2:  The Rescue Effort:  Jesus came to rescue a falling-apart world.

…shall not perish but… (Jn 3:16).

     This is 4^th of July weekend.  Let me do a brief American history lesson.  When you read US history you find people have swung back and forth between optimism and pessimism at different times in our nation.  There was a time, before the 2nd World War, when people in America generally said everything is getting better and better in our world.  President Franklin Roosevelt instituted his “New Deal” in which relief for the unemployed and poor, recovery of the economy to heighted levels, and reform of the financial and educational systems promised to eventually eradicate evils such as poverty, war and crime in our country.

     Optimism in human ability ran high those days.  Listen to the words of author HG Wells in 1937: 

Can we doubt that presently our race will more than realize our boldest imaginations, that it will achieve unity and peace, and that our children will live in a world made more splendid and lovely than any palace or garden that we know, going on from strength to strength in an ever-widening circle of achievement? What man has done… form but the prelude to the things that man has yet to do. (from A Short History of the World, 1937).

     Then came World War 2.  The kind of human cruelty that came to light was beyond anything anyone could imagine.  Then, Wells was no longer so optimistic and wrote this:

The cold-blooded massacres of the defenseless, the return of deliberate and organized torture, mental torment, and fear to a world from which such things had seemed well nigh banished—has come near to breaking my spirit altogether… “Homo sapiens,” as he has been pleased to call himself, is played out (from A Mind at the End of Its Tether, 1946).

     In this 2016 election year, I sometimes hear very pessimistic people saying how terrible things are and that we have to return to the greatness of our past if we will survive.  And, in the same country, I talk with other people, often who have come to our country from very difficult places, who are as optimistic as H.G. Wells was -- saying that here in the US, they and their children believe they can help build a great people and great nation.

     I find that the Bible helps us make sense out of a world in which we sometimes see people doing great things – and at other times see horrendous things. Bottom line:  The Bible points us to Jesus.  (You knew I would say that, didn’t you?)  The Bible says human beings were made in Christ’s image so we should not be surprised when human beings sometimes do rather amazing things.  At the same time, the Bible tells us that things are terribly wrong because, as the prophet Isaiah points out, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one of us — to his own way…” 

     So, our world is now a perishing, falling-apart world.  But, Jesus came into the world made through him to turn things around -- to forgive what we have done, to cleanse us from sin, and to remake us.  As Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life (Jn 8:12).”  As Jesus said in Jn 3:16-17, he came to the world on a mission: to rescue a perishing world!

#3:  The Strategy:  Jesus does his rescuing work in and through his followers.

You are the salt of the earth…  You are the light of the world (Mt 5:13,14).

     It’s clear to me that Jesus fully expects that we as his followers can make a positive difference in this world.  But, one of the most shocking aspects of Mt 5:13-16 is that Jesus clearly believed that those whose lives make the biggest difference in this world might be the least likely people (in the eyes of the world).  Why do I say that? -- because Jesus was talking to everyday, ordinary people when he said their lives could change the world. 

     To grasp the significance of Mt 5:13-16, you have to place yourself into the setting into which Jesus first spoke these words.  Try to imagine being one of those disciples who pulled away from the crowds one day to listen to Jesus deliver a sermon.  You must envision living in a little country dominated by an outside government. People would have thought that nothing significant could ever come out of this nation.

     Then, within this little oppressed country, you belong to a persecuted minority group.  People are suspicious of this Jesus you are following.  You do not have large church buildings. No Christian books or celebrities.

     This is the kind of person Jesus was.  The person, then, who changes the world is one who goes into the all kinds of situations and messes in this world and, while there, reflects the ways of Jesus.  When people see this, they see the difference that Jesus alone can make and, as v. 16 says, give praise to God.

     To help you develop those inner Christlike qualities, I strongly recommend that you find an adult community, a small group or an adult class, and there, by God’s grace, find a group of people who will walk with you and grow with you.  You might find a group like that online in our small group finder HERE.

     Jesus tells us today that his chosen way to change this world is to have people, even a few people, even “less than ordinary” people, to be people of Godly character living God's way wherever God has placed us in this world.  Jesus sends us into all walks of life to represent him – and we make a difference when we’re different kinds of people (Christ-like kinds of people) in those places.

            I want you all to leave this gathering this morning hearing the words of Jesus transcend the years and speaking directly to you:

You – you are the salt of the earth.  You – you are the light of the world.

            Go and touch lives.  Go and shine to his glory!

To His glory,

Dr. Greg Waybright
Senior Pastor