Salt of the Earth

In retirement, albeit a rather confined but gratifying retirement, I have set out to learn a few different skills. I achieve this learning through reading specific instructions and experimentation. Last week I put up 16 litres of dill pickles. Preserving pickles had been on my need to learn list for years, so last year I bought the proper equipment, an instruction book and a couple of baskets of pickling cucumbers. The resulting jars of dill pickles, once opened during winter days, disappeared quickly. This year Lozanne bought me six baskets that have now been processed, which, by the way, is the technical term for the canning process. This year I experimented with different amounts of dill seed and salt. As I measured out the coarse pickling salt, the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:13 came to me.

13 ¶ "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men

Just what does Jesus mean by this seemingly confusing statement? Who is the salt of the earth? How does salt lose its flavour?

Salt in the modern day is actually a chemical compound that, when it goes bad from age or some other factor, it simply disappears. In the first century, the salt was much more natural and coarse. It was mixed inadvertently with vegetable and other mineral matter. When it went bad, it turned into useless white pebbles that were actually used for other purposes such as building up and smoothing out pathways.

The “you” in the verse refers to Christians. It refers to those who have accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. Once they become Christians they are expected to maintain their saltiness lest other men trample their testimony under their feet. Their saltiness is quite simply their continued demonstration of being a Christian. If you are a Christian, indeed others, Christians and non-Christians should recognize that you are indeed a Christian.

I can think, as I sit here in the dawn’s early light, of no less than eleven uses for salt. There are two that specifically pertain to pickling and one universal truth about salt. Salt is added to the pickling jars as a preservative. Once we become a Christian, we are preserved by God for all of eternity in heaven. Salt is also added to the jars as a seasoning. Human kind loves the taste of salt. We all probably use too much of it. The Christian life should be a well seasoned and enjoyable life. It should be a life more abundant. It should be a well lived and interesting life. Of course one of the effects of salt is that it makes us retain water and indeed makes us thirsty.

Jesus referred to Himself as “living water”. Our saltiness should make us and others around us thirst for Him. We read in John 4:13-14:

13 Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again,
14 "but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."

I pray this morning that my saltiness is evident to all who read this blog and that others will thirst for the “living water” in order to be preserved for all of eternity.

(Comments, corrections, suggestions or rebuttals are welcome. My email link is contained in “About me: view my complete profile” to the right of this page or use the comment section below which requires that you have a Google account.)