Isaiah 58.1-12; Matthew 5.13-20
“You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.” In two short phrases, Jesus describes both the identity of his followers and their purpose in the world. Like Abraham and Sarah in the Old Testament first blessed by God and then sent to be a blessing to others, Jesus first makes us who we are—salt, light—and then tells us how to live. “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”
Yet this God-given identity as salt and light, and the calling to be salt and light, tells another story, too. There’s a flip side to Jesus’ image. You don’t need light on a cheery, sunshiny day but when it’s dark and you need to find your way; and salt, at least in pre-refrigeration times, was used to stop food from getting rotten and decaying.
The images of salt and light tell us something about the world we live in: it’s dark, rotten. You don’t need me to tell you that, of course. Jesus already has through the unspoken reverse side of the images of salt and light. Jesus sends his followers to be his people in the very places where darkness and corruption threaten. The God-given compliment of who we are includes a God-given commission to live out God’s intended purpose for our lives—not withdrawing from the world but engaging in the places where the grace and gifts of God in Christ are needed most. Light exists for times of darkness, salt exists for food, and the people of God exist for the life of the world.
In today’s first reading, the prophet Isaiah offers practical ways to make this happen—to live as God’s people in the world. “If you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom shall be like the noonday.” People of faith are called to take up tangible, real works of love and Isaiah shows us what to do. If someone is hungry, feed them; down and out, don’t make their problems worse; living on the margins, don’t exploit them. And at the same time that we take something up, Isaiah says we also give something up. We give up hateful things like pointing the finger of blame or gossiping about others; no more wickedness, no more oppression, no more hiding from your own flesh and blood. Light exists for times of darkness, salt exists for food, and the people of God exist for the world.
Another prophet, Jeremiah, paints a picture of how God’s people are meant to live in the world around them. It’s in the 29th chapter of Jeremiah. This comes at a particularly dark time in the nation’s history. Jerusalem had been destroyed in battle; the few survivors that remained were exiled to Babylon; God’s own people were defeated, displaced, unsure about the future. This was a world of nothing but darkness and decay.
Now it’s easy to imagine them longing for better times—the stability of the life they once knew with its familiarity and predictability. But Jeremiah says, ‘There’s no going back. This is where your life is now, and the only way forward is forward.’ How do you live in times that are dark and decaying? Maybe you’ve asked that question, too. Jeremiah tells displaced, disoriented people that they are to live as people of faith in the present, not to withdraw from the world but to engage it at the places where the life of God is needed most. “Pursue the well-being of the city,” Jeremiah says.
And, like today’s reading from Isaiah, Jeremiah offers completely practical ways to do that: plant gardens, build houses, get married, settle in. Faith need not be lived out in grand gestures but can be expressed in small, everyday ways. For people in a place where they don’t want to be, at a time they would rather not to live in, God calls them to work for the peace and well-being of the world around them. This, Jeremiah says, will be their testimony to life in God and to the ways of God. This is what it means to be salt and light.
Jesus’ words today about light and salt come in the middle of his Sermon on the Mount. In that sermon, Jesus shows how the world gets set back on track with God because God is at work among us.
In his sermon, Jesus says the meek will inherit the earth, not the powerful or the pushy. God gives the world to the meek; look for the meek if you want to see a world on track and right with God.
In his sermon, Jesus says our words and speech matter. We’re not meant to hide meaning with double-speak and empty phrases. Integrity, honesty, and simplicity guide our speech. “Let your ‘yes’ mean ‘yes,’ and your ‘no’ mean ‘no.’ No grand gestures here, just small acts of daily faithfulness blessed by God.
In his sermon, Jesus says peacemaking and reconciliation, faithfulness in relationships, love for enemies and prayer for persecutors are all God’s way; and he has all sorts of warnings about checking our lusts, anger, and insults.
In his sermon, Jesus shows that there is a better way to be human, offers practical ways to follow him through good works that open a window on God, beautiful works that reveal God. “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”
And we can live for the glory of God in whatever circumstances we find ourselves in, even today.
John Dickson is an Australian Anglican and founder of the Centre for Public Christianity. He says that, from time to time, he worries about contemporary Christianity in some parts of the world: his own country, the United States, others. This is not because of persecution or resistance or even decline in numbers. He’s concerned that Christians have wrongly equated political and cultural power with gospel influence. Dickson says the problem for Christians begins with thinking that, when the life of the world around us doesn’t match the life that God intends, the truth of God is somehow lost. But, Dickson says, we shouldn’t link social structures with what it means to follow Jesus.
The first Christians knew this. They lived through the mismatch between their faith and the world. Like the displaced Jewish faithful that Jeremiah writes to, they didn’t have any power, didn’t choose the circumstances they faced. But that lack of public power didn’t stop their gospel influence. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, the meek, the merciful.” In their weakness, those first Christians found God’s strength; in their challenges, courage born of the Holy Spirit. They remained hopeful—not optimistic that things would turn out all right, because they often didn’t, as the martyrs show us in their lives. They were but hopeful because, even when things didn’t turn out well, they were focused on, and we held securely by, the enduring faithfulness of God. They proclaimed Christ in word and deed, not with grand gestures but daily faithfulness, not public power but gospel influence. And over time, they changed the world. So can you.
As you watch those early Christians preach Christ and live out the way of God in Christ from the pages of the New Testament on into the early Christian era, what happened through them is nothing short of miraculous. With no power, with no armies in the streets, while they were challenged for their faith and displaced in the places they called home, they changed the world through God at work in them. Their works born of grace and faith and love were light in dark times and salt in a world of decay and decline. And the same Spirit that gave them courage and hope now sustains you.
It’s when Christians live by faith and choose gospel influence over power—helping the poor and needy; coming alongside people going though dark times; speaking the truth in love; seeking and serving Christ in the stranger and welcoming Christ in the guise of strangers (for Jesus tells us that he is present in the stranger and will judge the nations by how strangers and foreigners are treated)—then Christian influence will be deeply felt. The God-given compliment of who you are as salt and light is also a God-given commission for your life—not withdrawing from the world but engaging in the very places where the life of God in Christ is needed.
Salt in a container even a centimeter away from food is useless; an unlit candle in a dark room is pointless; Christians not living for the well-being world outside themselves equally so. Light exists for times of darkness, salt exists for food, and Jesus’ followers exist for the world. “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”
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