Hope you had a Tasty Thanksgiving
By: Elliott Shin | Executive Director
Earlier this month marked our second pandemic Thanksgiving. Over the past 18 months, Covid 19 has forced us to change the way we live our lives. We all know someone who has been adversely impacted by Covid. At a time when many of us are weary and fatigued with pandemic protocols, we are challenged to find things in our lives that we are genuinely thankful for. As summer changes into fall, I do hope that you have much to be thankful for.
Recently I came across a passage in Matthew 5 that gave me pause to reflect. In verse 13, Jesus calls the disciples (and us) to be salt of the earth. After some contemplation and evaluation, this fall I am thankful for this simple and important reminder.
In elementary school science class, we learned about the 5 senses. Hearing, touch, smell, sight, and taste. These sensing organs associated with each sense send information to the brain to help us understand and perceive the world around us. Of the 5, taste has always been a dominant and prevailing sense for me.
There is no point in arguing about taste. What I like you may not like. I like spicy, you may not. I like meat, you may prefer fruits and vegetables. My pallet may be simple and yours may be more sophisticated. Although we have varying tastes, the one taste we have in common is our “saltiness.” We all tend to enjoy a little salt in the things we eat.
In Matthew 5: 13, we find the first lesson from Jesus after the beatitudes (right in the heart of the sermon on the mount). In this passage, Jesus comments about what might be described as “tasteful” Christianity. Here, he is not speaking about aesthetic differences but rather about the critical role that we play in the world around us. When Jesus’ describes the disciples as salt of the earth, is He saying that they make the world tastier?
Today when we refer to someone as the salt of the earth, we usually mean that he or she is a likeable person, perhaps a very good and honest person. But when Jesus used this phrase, he was not talking about personality, but rather about our moral character. This idea did not seem out of place to Jesus’ listeners because salt played such an important role in their daily existence.
The meaning of the expression salt of the earth had several uses in the ancient world. Allow me to share a couple of possibilities for the originally intended meaning of the salt metaphor:
1) Salt as preservative: The most important use of salt was as a preservative (of course no refrigeration then) and hence the most common interpretation of the metaphor is asserting our duty to preserve the purity of the world. Therefore, the correct assumption is that there is decay in the world and we/the church need to act as a preservative.
If the function of salt is to preserve that which is decaying, where will it (salt) be needed the most? With a quick internet search, I discovered that if meat is salted properly (cured), it will last from months to years. The things around us can decay like rotten fish or meat, but the church and believers can hinder its decay and lovingly preserve things.
In this statement Jesus was also warning his disciples to avoid an important error. He was saying that Christians must not forsake the world and go into monasteries or go into hiding and isolation. Why? Because salt will do no good to meat unless it is rubbed into it. Only then will it function as an antiseptic. So, we are to be in the world so that the world may benefit by our difference from the world.
2) Among the ancient Hebrews, salt was also used as seasoning for food. Salt is necessary for flavour. Without men and women of faith, and the Gospel we proclaim and practice, this world would be a complicated place. Things around us would lack flavour and taste. As salt gives zest to food, it is the assignment of the Christian to bring zest and joy to those around us. The church or an individual person can give flavour and joy to the world. As salt we are asked to give the world and those around us deeper and greater meaning. We are also asked to teach about forgiveness, reconciliation, and hope. As food is tasteless without salt, so is the world around us tasteless if there are not faithful individuals and churches who endeavour to bring the world flavour! The Gospel.
The effectiveness of salt is conditional. Salt must retain its saltiness. Salt itself, sodium chloride is extremely stable until it loses its effectiveness when it is contaminated with impurities (things of the world). If we allow the world to shape us, we will become like flavorless salt, useless to God. So once salt loses its saltiness, it has no flavor at all, and thus becomes nothing, Irrelevant! We must be careful to avoid this track.
Further, unless salt is shaken out of the shaker it remains essentially a table ornament. Thus, Christian salt takes effect when deeds and words begin. So do something, take action! Let people see your good works as we live our lives that is pleasing to God. So that unbelievers in our midst; friends, family and neighbor’s will see our good works as we are spurred on by the gift of being salt of the earth. In Ephesians 2:10 Paul says, "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." “Pouring salt” consists in doing good works as we are enabled by God. So that the unbelieving world may see something that is different.
So let us all strive to be the salt that Jesus shares about in Matthew 5. As salt of the earth, let us rub ourselves deeply in the lives of those around us. And in doing so, let us bring taste by sharing the good and powerful truth of the Gospel!
I hope this past Thanksgiving was not only be a time to share a feast with friends and family, but it was also be a time for deep meditation as we thanked God for allowing us to be salt to those around us!