What does Jesus mean by: “You are the Salt of the Earth”
Jesus tells his followers they are the salt of the earth.
Notice that Jesus does not tell us to act like salt. He doesn’t tell us to become like salt. Jesus tells us we are the salt of the earth. In fact, he says something even stronger. The implication of the Greek is that you and you only are the salt of the earth!
“In the ancient world, salt was used primarily as a preservative. Since they did not own deep-freeze refrigerators, the people used salt to preserve many foodstuffs.”
Salt was used as a preservative.
The assumption of the image is that when the world rejects the way of Jesus it goes bad.
It spoils.
It's original goodness becomes tarnished.
The world left to its own devices, cut off from God, has a tendency to spoil and go dark.
It is into this situation that Jesus wants to rub the salt of his followers. Jesus sprinkles us like salt into the world to prevent the erosion of kingdom values, to prevent the decay of society, to fight against the tide of inhumanity and oppression.
This is a scandalous statement that Jesus is making.
“The sheer daring of telling a group of ex-fisherman on a hillside in a remote corner of the world that they were to become the one hope of the world! That they would save it from moral dissolution and from moral darkness! It is breathtaking!”
The audacity of Jesus!
The faith of Jesus in his followers! It is amazing!
In light of scandals in the church today this can still be a tough teaching to swallow or take seriously, but we need to recognize that scandals and abuse in the church happen when people are not following Jesus and not submitting to his lordship in every area of their lives.
Jesus is saying that, when we actually follow him, we are the salt of the earth. In fact, this passage needs to be connected to the famous beatitudes that precede it, these statements of blessedness, these characteristics and qualities that God is producing in us. When we are poor in spirit, pure in heart, when we hunger and thirst for righteousness and seek to be peacemakers and show mercy, when we, in other words, follow the way of Jesus we are both blessed and the salt of the earth.
Sadly, it seems to me that Christians have been more than willing to point out areas of cultural decay but, at times, less willing to take responsibility for our lack of salt.
When meat goes bad left to itself, you don’t just blame the meat. When milk goes bad unrefrigerated you don’t just blame the milk. When the world goes bad left to itself, you don’t just blame the world, instead you ask, “Where was the salt?”
You are salt in the sciences and in education, you are salt in the business world, you are salt in the medical system, you are salt in the trades, in the tech and computer industry, you are salt in the court system, you are salt in the home, you are the salt of the world.
In the midst of the erosion of hope and peace, in the midst of a divided and combative culture, we are called to be salt, to act as a preservative, to slow down the erosion, to fly a flag for Gospel truth and to consistently plant acts of kindness, love, and sacrifice for the good of others — day after day, week after week, year after year slowing down the erosion.
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