Be Salt and Light

Several weeks ago, I found a trailer for my side-by-side on Facebook Marketplace. Matt graciously went with me to look at the trailer. Who could have guessed? Matt knew the owner! We'll call him "Jake".

We entered Jake's shop. I eventually texted Shelley, "I brought the right guy along. Matt knows Jake. They've been talking about race cars for the past 15 minutes." Jake had two race cars in his shop. Then we started moving outside to the trailer. Before we got there, we passed by Jake's very expensive snowmobile. I texted Shelley, "Now they've spent 5 minutes talking about snowmobiles."

The whole time, Jake is filling each sentence with four-letter words. And not the good kind. While we were by the snowmobile, Matt introduced me as his pastor. Do you know what Jake did? Matt and I discussed it later. It seemed like Jake's language got even worse! It was like he was showing off his extensive foul language repertoire in front of the Lutheran pastor!

Matt and I discussed the encounter later in my vehicle after I purchased the trailer. First, I had to stop my ears from bleeding after the assault with all those cuss words! We discussed how as Christians we try not to cuss, gossip, engage in course talk or crude jokes, and so on. We are called to be fine Christian salt in a world filled with course salty language. We are called to be Christian lights reflecting the light of Christ's purity in a world darkened by decadence and death.

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught, "You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its flavor, how will it become salty again? Then it is no good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled on by people. You are the light of the world. A city located on a hill cannot be hidden. People do not light a lamp and put it under a basket. No, they put it on a stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. In the same way let your light shine in people's presence, so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven."

Salt in Jesus' time was precious. Salt was used to preserve food since there was no refrigeration. Salt was used to disinfect wounds and was rubbed on the skin of newborn babies to protect them from various diseases. Sacrifices were sprinkled with salt to purify them before they were offered to the Lord. Salt was seen as killing the sinful decay and preserving life.

Salt is useful stuff. A little salt can be sprinkled on a dish to tickle the tastebuds. Salt is useful to remove the ice on your sidewalk and driveway ... if it ever gets cold enough to have snow and ice this winter.

Light shines and brightens dark places. It can be a small candle or a simple oil lamp bringing light to a dark room in Jesus' day. It can be the sun shining and chasing away the darkness of the night every morning. It can be children walking through the house and turning on lights in every room. Then dad is doing his fatherly duty of walking through the house and turning off all the lights.

Jesus says, "You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world." Notice that Jesus doesn't say, "You need to work on your saltiness" or "You need to become light." No, Jesus says that through your Baptism, through your conversion to Christianity, through your faith in him who is the true salt and bright light, now this is what you are. So be salt and light.

This world is rotten and corrupt and needs to be salted. The world is shrouded in the darkness of sin and death and needs to be lighted.

Where do you encounter this rot and feel this darkness in our culture? As salt and light Christians, we notice this rot and darkness as we are living and raising our children in an amoral culture. It used to be that we were living in a moral culture - one where people did wrong things, but they knew the difference between right and wrong. Today we are living in an amoral culture where people no longer believe in or care about right or wrong. They just do whatever comes naturally to them and feels good to them. And what is natural is evil and what feels good is sin.

We are living in a culture that relishes the rot and delights in the darkness. They don't know any better. They've tasted this world's tainted garbage so long that what is good, right, and healthy is a shock to their system. They've lived in the shadows so long the light hurts their eyes. Now they want us as Christians to not only tolerate their amoral behavior, but we must also accept it and promote it. They want to drag us into their decay and darkness. Then we are to join them in persecuting anyone who refuses to tolerate, accept, and promote their wickedness.

We fall victim to these scare tactics by Satan and his devilish followers. We're afraid of being called names, canceled, persecuted, prosecuted, classified as "unloving," "bigoted," or "hypocritical." We are tempted to fill up our shakers with sugar. We are in danger of losing our saltiness. We are tempted to cover our light under a bowl. We are in danger of letting our light go out.

The problem is that we don't like friction. We don't want people to think of us as offensive. We believe in the make-believe 11th commandment of "thou shalt be nice!" As Lutherans, we like to stay in the middle of the road. But on this issue, the world is on one side and Jesus is on the other side. We get hit by semis in the middle of the road. There are times when we need to be all the way to one side of the road - because that's where Jesus is.

We don't want to scare anyone off or offend anyone or cause any problems. It's much easier to mind our own business, keep quiet, and keep to ourselves. It's much more convenient to compromise God's truth than to shake out Christ's salty judgment upon a corrupt world. We are more willing to offend God than offend our neighbor. It's more pleasant to hide in the shadows than to shine Christ's light into the darkness. It's a whole lot easier to go with the flow than to stand against the tide, standing on the solid rock of the cross of Christ.

When we do that, we are not being what Christ has made us to be - salt upon the earth and lights upon the world.

Jesus often told people difficult things - like he was the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy, or he told the rich man to sell everything to follow him, or that he was the Bread of Life. In every instance, people rejected that message and turned away from Jesus. He didn't worry about offending people or appearing as "not nice." Jesus told the truth. The people rejected that truth. Jesus told his disciples elsewhere that when people rejected the truth, to shake the dust off their feet and move on. We would do well to follow Jesus' example and words.

This means not everyone will like you. Jesus calls us to be salt. Not the sugar on top.

Jesus is the salt that preserves your soul by pointing out your sins against him. He is the salt that purifies you with his perfection. He is the salt that never loses its saltiness. He is the salt that heals your wounds - physical, mental, and spiritual. He is the salt that prepares your body for death and life beyond death. He seasons your speech with salt (Colossians 4:6).

At creation, God did not leave the earth wrapped in darkness. He said, "Let there be light," and there was light that pushed against the darkness (Genesis 1:3). Nor did God abandon his children to sin's darkness, either. Since the darkness is not disappearing, our Savior Jesus stepped into the darkness. "[God] has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins" (Colossians 1:13,14). Now that we have been rescued from this darkness and brought into the Light of Christ, we need to keep following the Light. Jesus teaches, "I am the Light of the World. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (John 8:12).

Jesus calls you salt because you are precious. You serve a purpose. You are baptized to be the salt of the earth. You are baptized to be the light of the world. Jesus calls you salt not because of how much you can do, but because of how much he has done. He loves you. He declares you forgiven of your sin. He has spared you from hell. He chases the devil away from you. He has rescued you from death. He has made you his own. He sets you apart from the rest of the world for his purpose.

That purpose is to simply tell others what Jesus has done for you. Your privilege is to talk about all the wonderful things Jesus did out of love. This is your purpose as the salt of the earth. This is your purpose as his lights in the world. As Jesus has confronted your sins, now you are to confront the sins of those around you. As Jesus has shined the light of his grace upon your life, now you are to shine the light of Jesus' grace upon others. As Jesus has forgiven your sins, now you are given the opportunity to forgive the sins of the repentant around you.

Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Professor August Pieper makes it very clear: "[T]here is no excuse for those who think it unnecessary to tell unbelievers about their sins right to their face and to condemn their ways with the written law, since the gospel alone is God's power for salvation, and so it is enough to make these tidings known to the world. This opinion is not based on Scripture, but on their own wisdom. It is born of their fear of men and of the curse of the cross... Wanting to be silent about sin and win the impenitent only with the sweetness of the gospel amounts to denying God's zeal and holiness and suppressing his threats. It amounts to hypocrisy, practicing spiritual quackery. It means leading the poor people to fleshly security instead of to faith and casting pearls before the swine. Under all circumstances the impenitent need the law, and only next, afterwards, the gospel." (August Pieper, Wauwatosa Theology, Vol 2, pg. 60)

We take on the difficult task of being salt in an unsalty world. Even if people don't listen, we have done our duty. Then we have honored what God has made us to be. However, if we do not do our duty, then we will stand before the Lord on Judgment Day and we will observe those on Jesus' left pointing at us and accusing: "They never told me!" Then we will hear Jesus' sentence of judgment: "It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men."

As Christian parents, Christian citizens, and members of the Christian Church, we are called to be a part of a counterculture which works hard to shine the light of Christ into the shadowy corners of the world and the dark recesses of people's souls. You are light, shining the light of Christ. You are the moon, reflecting the greater light of the Son.

The Bible says, "You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, the people who are God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9). You have been called out, set apart, chosen for a purpose. Wherever God has shaken you out - in your home, your school, your work, your community - there you are salt, seasoning your little corner of the world. Wherever God places you in the shadows, there you are light, shining the light of Christ into the darkness that threatens to envelop those you love.

This is your identity. This is your calling. No one else has this calling - only children of God in Christ Jesus. May we be such salts and lights that when others experience our saltiness and witness our shining lights, that they may praise our Father in heaven. We pray that we are what Christ has made us to be - salt and light. Amen.