“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored?” (Matthew 5:13).
In nomine etc..
The Gospel reading last week was the Beatitudes, the opening section of chapter 5. If I understand that section correctly, Jesus is speaking to his disciples only; the Evangelist says “When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying,” and so on, with the Beatitudes. If Jesus is speaking to his disciples only, through the whole Sermon on the Mount, and not to a larger crowd that happens to include his disciples, then that fact gives the teachings a certain urgency, a sharpness even, which he may not have intended to apply to everyone in general. I’m not saying that this is the only way to understand the Sermon on the Mount, but it is possible, and what it may mean for the disciples is worth bringing out.
“You are the salt of the earth.” What an extraordinary thing to say! Salt, of course, is not just a flavoring, but is an essential mineral and especially, in an age before refrigeration, a preservative. So Jesus is telling the disciples that they are essential to the health and preservation of the world, a remarkable thing for them to hear, considering what a small, obscure group they are. Jesus is telling them that they are essential to the well-being of the larger group of his followers, and beyond them, to the world. They are the core group, the leadership, and their character, their “saltiness,” is very important to that well-being. And, lest this teaching go to their heads, Jesus follows it right away with the warning that their “saltiness” can be lost, with consequences for them and for others: “It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out!” This is a sharp reminder to the disciples not to take their situation for granted, and always to be attentive to their responsibility to their followers and to the world.
“You are the light of the world! A city built on a hill cannot be hid!” Jesus means that the light is in the city, and the disciples are that light. They are not to be shy about letting their light shine brightly so all can see by it. “No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand.” The disciples are to be the light, and the hill is the lampstand. They are to shine their light, so that others “may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” The purpose here is to give glory to the Father, not to the disciples. It is interesting that this teaching is in contrast to what Jesus says in chapter 6: “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them, for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.” I’m not going to talk about this contrast now, except to say that Jesus teaches his disciples not to be fooled by false piety, their own or anybody else’s. They are not to mistake religious behavior for being the light of the world.
Now Jesus turns to the Law and the Prophets. “I have come not to abolish but to fulfil.” He is talking about the expectation of the Messiah, which he claims to be. The Law and the Prophets point to him, and remain fully in force until he has accomplished the work he has come to do. “Heaven and earth pass away” in fulfilment of the Law, and he will fulfil it. “Heaven and earth pass away” through him, and he teaches his disciples to teach nothing less than this. Anything less than this is less than a full understanding of the kingdom of heaven. To teach anything less is to lower their place, as it were, in the kingdom. It is interesting that at this point, the worst that can happen is to become “least in the kingdom of heaven” but a few lines later, “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” This is a very stern warning, not to lose sight of the main teaching here, which is, that Jesus is the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets; the disciples must understand and accept this thoroughly, which is their role as the light of the world. They shine their light on the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets, and this gives glory to the Father. This is the vocation of the disciples, and Jesus is exhorting them not to depart from it.
If there is a unifying theme in today’s reading, it is this: the responsibility of the disciples to the world and to the other followers of Jesus, the crowd, as Scripture calls them in this chapter. It is the disciples’ job to be the salt of the world, that is, preservers of the world, and to be light in the world, enlightening others to the real nature of Jesus and his purpose. In the section on the Law and the Prophets, Jesus is emphatic in saying that any wavering in this teaching will have eternal consequences.
Up til now I’ve been saying that the Sermon on the Mount was/is a teaching for the disciples, who are separate from the crowds following Jesus, and for whom the disciples have a responsibility, to be salt for them, to be light. But of course, we don’t need to exclude ourselves from discipleship, to which Jesus is calling us as well. The world is very much in need of “salt”, that is, of preservation. And the world needs light, all the light that we can shed on it, in the challenging and dangerous time in which we live. So let us put ourselves in the place of the disciples, and hear Jesus as he speaks directly to us, and take up our vocation, to be the salt of the world, and the light of the world, and to fulfil the Law and the Prophets.
“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored?”
In nomine, etc.. (4.II.17 Adv. 5.II.17 TSP)
