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2017-02-05 Matthew 5:13-20 – Lightly Salted Pharisee
Grace and peace dear friends from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
The gospel message is divided into three parts. Salt and Light, in which Jesus refers to attributes of us, and the Law where Jesus makes reference to the Pharisees. To combine these three images would be to title this message, “A Lightly Salted Pharisee.”
As Lutherans, we understand the meaning of Law and Gospel; both are revealed in the gospel text. And still, to fully see what Jesus is saying to the people of His time, some additional knowledge or context is helpful.
The ending sentence of tonight’s scripture reading is; “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” This is not an ah-ha moment…this is an uh-oh time.
In Matthew’s gospel the Pharisees and Sadducees are first mentioned prior to the baptism of Jesus. John’s Gospel refers to the Pharisees as a “brood of vipers”, (the same words Jesus will later use to address them.) The Pharisees are immediately presented in a negative connotation. But to understand the Pharisee, we go back to the time of Israel’s Exile after the fall of the Northern and Southern Kingdoms.
The word Pharisee in Hebrew means separatist or separated one. Their beginnings were of the most respectable nature as they chose to separate themselves from the heathens, and the heathenizing forces that constantly threatened their identity. The Pharisees completely dedicated their lives to the ‘knowledge of’ and ‘obedience to’ the law. They did this because Israel had time-and time-again failed to be obedient, which led to their demise and destruction.
Pharisees wanted to restore life to what it was like under King David and they faithfully waited for the Messiah. They were so confident in their understanding of the Law, when the Messiah did appear to them, they were unable to recognize or accept Him. Sadducees were very similar to the Pharisees, except they represented the priesthood; of which you had to be born into.
Next, the context of Salt: “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled underfoot.” Another uh-oh.
I find little to watch on television and my family often resorts to watching the Food Network. When you observe the popular cooking shows, many chefs have a bowl of salt close by. Furthermore, they mention and reference salt more than any other ingredient. But, salt has a history that goes far beyond the Food Network and can help us understand its reference in the gospel.
At the time of Christ, Roman soldiers were often paid in salt for their wages. This is where the word 'salary' comes from and the phrase “He/she is worth their salt”. Salt is an important substance…and likely something we take for granted today. But consider the importance of salt in history:
In 1492, when Columbus sailed the ocean blue; King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella sent him off with strict orders to bring home boatloads of salt.
What eventually defeated Napoleon was salt: Without enough salt in their diets to sustain them, thousands of his troops perished when retreating from the Russian front.
Venice was a rich city that made its fortune on its spice trade, and the spice traded more than any other was salt.
Finally, salt is necessary for our body to balance fluids, and, is they key element for all communications to and from the brain. The human body has a salt concentration of .4% of our weight; the equivalent of the concentration of salt in the world’s seas and oceans.
Even our tears have a connection to salt but consider this. Tears produced to moisten the eye and wash away a foreign object contain the same .4% salinity. However, only a tear produced by emotions has double the salinity, which could be symbolic that God is present with us in times of joy and sorrow.
Salt is essential for life and as Christians we are essential for life together. Because we are the salt of the earth, our Lord uses us as the means to communicate His Word, His story, and His plans for the world. God uses us to communicate the Gospel and the Good News of what He has done for all humanity through His Son Jesus Christ.
It is us who tells the world the generous blessing, the countless mercies, and the eternal love that God has for each of us through Jesus Christ our Lord. And when we tell this to others in the fullness of our faith and with love in our hearts, then God is present and participates in our conversation to bring others to the same faith and understanding.
Can we lose our saltiness? When we no longer reveal the light of Christ in our lives and when we no longer share the Good News of Jesus Christ, then we risk losing the saltiness we have been blessed with. However, a chemist by the name of Peter Stotereau concluded that salt is so stable that is will not lose its saltiness even after being stored for many years.
Once we have been given (and receive) the Holy Spirit in baptism, we have the promise of God that we will not be abandoned or left alone again. We may walk away from God, we may fall victim to self destruction, we may even cause others to sin or walk away, but God will not sever a loving relationship with us and we will never lose our saltiness.
Finally, we arrive at light…a message and image that needs little explanation or translation. Light is the ah-ha of the gospel! Jesus Christ came into the world as the Light of the World and Epiphany – God shining on us through Jesus Christ. Because of our relationship to God through Jesus Christ, we are also a light in the world and we let our light shine. Letting our light shine is not the same as ‘shining our light’. To ‘shine our light’ would be works-righteousness; but to ‘let our light shine’ is to allow God to shine on others through us. When we let our light shine, others see our good works and give thanks to God.
The message in the gospel text today is a continuation of Jesus’s ‘Sermon on the Mount’ and the revelation of God’s pure and complete love for us all. Christ fulfills the law for us so our light can shine and our salt can proclaim the gospel. We are free from the destruction of sin and strengthened to serve. In other words, we are the Lightly Salted Pharisees who have accepted the gift of the gospel. We can never be less than what God has created us to be and nothing will separate us from the love of God; whose peace passes all understanding and keeps our hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.