Articles
Salt of the Earth
"You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.” (Matthew 5:13)
This statement was made in the early part of the “Sermon on the Mount,” which takes up Matthew 5-7. The vast majority of the famous sermon deals with what it means to be a true disciple of the kingdom of God. After talking about the blessed role that people who suffer will have in the kingdom (Matt 5:1-12), Jesus then turns his attention to describing disciples as “salt” and “light.” But what does it mean to be the salt of the earth?
It helps to know that people in the ancient world used salt was a preservative. Since they had no refrigerators or freon or other ways of keeping meat cool, salt was the way that they (temporarily) preserved its flavor. Because of this feature, salt is sometimes used in Scripture as a symbol of the permanence of God’s covenant:
“Every grain offering of yours, moreover, you shall season with salt, so that the salt of
the covenant of your God shall not be lacking from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.” (Lev 2:13)
“All the offerings of the holy gifts, which the sons of Israel offer to the LORD, I have
given to you and your sons and your daughters with you, as a perpetual allotment. It is an
everlasting covenant of salt before the LORD to you and your descendants with you.” (Num 18:19)
Then Abijah stood on Mount Zemaraim, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, and said, “Listen to me, Jeroboam and all Israel: Do you not know that the LORD God of Israel gave the rule over Israel forever to David and his sons by a covenant of salt?” (2 Chr 13:4-5)
Both Mark and Luke’s parallel accounts indicate that salt is a good thing in this analogy (Mark
9:50; Luke 14:34). Being called the “salt of the earth” is a compliment. It is as if the disciples are the ones “preserving” the earth, possibly keeping the judgment of the kingdom at bay. Since salt has a permanent flavor, it also affects the flavor of whatever it seasons—even in small amounts! The tiny remnant of the righteous in this world are able to bring some measure of benefit to the whole.
At the same time however, there is a warning. If salt loses its flavor, it is essentially worthless. Job once said, “Can something tasteless be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white of an egg?” (Job 6:6) One of the points of salt is to give flavor to something tasteless and to preserve flavor in things becoming tasteless. If salt cannot do this, then it serves no function and is no different from common dirt.
Of course, the idea of salt “losing” its flavor is a funny one, because under normal circumstances that’s impossible! Chemically speaking, the only way for salt to lose its flavor is to be
transformed into something that is not salt! Jesus is effectively describing something that does not (or really should not) happen. The same is true of Christians. For us to transform ourselves into something that is not salt is to pervert reality itself.
The entire point of the “salt of the earth” analogy is not that people should literally eat us or literally use us to season their food. Rather, the point is that our relationship with God has implications for how we behave and interact with the rest of the world. The “light of the world” described in 5:14-16 provides a fitting analogy. Being the light of the world means that you must “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matt 5:16). In the same way, being the salt of the earth means that we must demonstrate kindness towards others, with the goal of bringing them to glorify the King of heaven. As we must give illumination to those in darkness, so we must give flavor to those whose existence is unpalatable.
In the same way, we must beware! If our “light” is hidden under a bushel basket, then it ceases to be good for anything. If our “salt” loses its flavor, it likewise ceases to be good for anything. And if a disciple of Jesus ceases to do good works for others, then he ceases to be distinct from the darkness and dirt of the world. May God help us never to lose our flavor!
