“How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”
(Psalm 119:103 NIV)
There was a tradition, that on the first day of school at the Synagogue, Jewish boys were given honey on a tablet with Hebrew letters on it to lick off. It was apparently based on Psalm 119, and was supposed to symbolise that learning is sweet and to be sought out.
The reality is that eating while learning is a neural trick that aids memory generation through brain stimulation (chewing) Olfactory and Taste connections (Hippocampus memory trigger) and stress reduction.
Either the teachers in the Synagogue was really smart or accidentally lucky!
Anyhoo…
Have you every wondered…
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
(Matthew 28:19-20 NIIV)
And
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”
(Acts 2:42 NIV)
I have… I wondered why it took them soo long?
Love God, Love you Neighbour, Love yourself…
(…and take care of windows and orphans…!)
Isn’t that what Jesus said is more or less it? The whole law and the Prophets (Matt 22:40), wrapped up nice with a bow on top.
If that was true though… we wouldn’t have needed a whole Bible… maybe only a leaflet?
Matthew and Luke does a good Job of recalling one of Jesus’s sermons that covered quite a bit of his frequent teachings. We can make the assumption that He, that is: Jesus, re-used some of His material because between the gospel writers, parts of the Sermon on the Mount pops up in different places in the timeline. Chances are pretty good that at least some of it was repeated. Jesus did travel a lot and the internet and Youtube only arrived after Jesus.
I want to dive into the stuff Jesus taught… because it is really cool!
Jesus starts off with a bunch of statements:
Blessed are the merciful, Blessed are the pure of heart, Blessed are the peacemakers. Statements that would, at that time, fly against everything the Roman and Greek culture lived for.
It was a good introduction to catch people’s attention. I would like to focus on one small part:
“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
(Matthew 5:11-12 NIV)
Do not be surprised when it happens… Jesus did warn us. (Actually He said “Rejoice and be Glad”….so….)… but I digress…
And then He starts!
Practical Theology 101
“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.
(Matthew 5:13-16 NIV)
You…. Are the Salt of the Earth!
What was salt good for?
Salt had value. That is where we get the word “Salary” from (Latin Sal, for Salt) – If a roman soldier did a lousy job, his pay was cut… “Not worth his Sal[t]”
Jesus starts of with: You are valuable!
But there is more… Slaves are valuable, animals are valuable…
Jesus brings out more… He asks his audience to think about Salt. What do you lose if you lose the essence of salt… its… Saltiness? what do you think…? If you HAVE TO think about Salt?
Flavour – Salt makes bland food better!
Jesus says that not only are we valuable, we must make the world around us better. We must give it our distinct flavour
But also…
Salt is a Preservative (sorry… biltong and bokkoms is not an Afrikaner Invention… Mesopotamia, circa 4,000bc)
Jesus wants us to be the preservative. We must preserve the people around us. We must stop the rot from setting in, we must keep the decay at bay. Jesus is already giving a precursor of what is expected of us in time to come.
But even if Salt is not good for consumption, if nothing else you can still throw it down on icy paths in the winter and stop people and animals from slipping! (This too was a Roman trick)
Jesus says that even when it looks like there is no value in it, just good to be trampled underfoot… we still have value. We still have a place and an impact. A role to play… I might look like dirt, but I can still save you from a fall… There was a time in my life where I lost the plot. I really just lost Jesus, but Jesus didn’t let go of me, and even though I saw myself lower than dirt, God didn’t.
God took my broken life, and still used it to his glory. He doesn’t need me perfect to be usable! I couldn’t function as a wonderful flavour, and I made everything dirty that I touched, but he still used me for good. And for that I am grateful!
The Philippians were persecuted. The city pulled together against Paul, and the new “Christians” so Paul says to them:
“Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.”(Philippians 2:14-15 NIV
What is Paul telling them other than to be Salt!?!
Do you know where that verse comes from? Paul Quotes the Song of Betrayal in Deut 32.
Right before Joshua took over, God told Moses to write down a song and teach it to the Israelites, so that _when_ they betray God, when they turn to other gods, when they have forgotten about Him… they will remember this song when calamity hits, and it will testify against them.
”Now write down this song and teach it to the Israelites and have them sing it, so that it may be a witness for me against them.”
(Deuteronomy. 31:19 NIV)
Moses was their _salt_, then Joshua, then the Judges, then the Prophets. Preserving and preserving and preserving until Jesus came. Bringing them back, time and again.
When you have your eyes open, you will find the “salt” all over the Bible!
Now it is our turn to be the salt.
Our job is not simply to keep ourselves pure and good and blameless, or to simply protect and care for the spirituality of our families. We are also called to influence society as a whole. Will you let a neighbour hurt themselves if you love them like God tells us to?
…Be Salt.
