Salt

Salt. Sodium Chloride. White crystal. Flavors the ocean. Some claim 14,000 distinct uses for it. Found in the Dead Sea. Keeps you floating in the Salt Lake.

Some claim it can't lose its flavor. It might not pour when moist. It becomes hard as a rock if it gets wet enough. We use it to melt ice in the winter and keep water from freezing to make homemade ice cream.

Can you imagine a world without it? Why did Jesus speak of it in the Sermon on the Mount:

Salt and Light

^{Matthew 5:13-16 The Message}"Let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.

¹⁴"Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. ¹⁵If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. ¹⁶Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand--shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.

Very simply, Jesus spoke with everyday images. He related. He spent 30 years observing before he started his ministry. He wasn't in a hurry until the time was ripe.

He was salty. He was light. I can't say for sure, but I can speculate: I suspect no one met Jesus and left unchanged. Either the person's heart was softened or it was hardened...it was not the same.

Billy Graham always opens his sermons by telling those listening, "The Bible says that God loves YOU." Jesus' life, death, and resurrection is the proof-text for that claim. Some will say that it's no big deal for God to resurrect...after all he is the giver of life.

I don't buy that. Jesus' sweat mixed with blood before it fell to the ground in the Garden of Gethsemane (geth sem uh knee). I don't know about you, but I've never sweat blood. But when I sweat, I sweat out my salt.

Jesus sweated out his salt mixed with blood before spilling ALL of his blood dying on the cross. I wonder if that has some meaning that we've missed?

How can you and I apply this? Be salt. Be light. Don't be a commoner...you're a child of the King. Don't be a hidden light, get up on the hill and shine. You'll suffer if you're boldly proclaiming Christ Jesus as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And you might even sweat a little. But you won't suffer OR sweat like he did.