This week we continue to hear from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel. The passage we have today follows right after the Beatitudes we have talked about last week, and next week we will continue reading from what follows right after this text. Now the lectionary tries to present us with Gospel lessons of equal length each Sunday, and it makes sense for the timing of the liturgy, but it can also make it more difficult to comment the passage when the different themes don’t really fit together, and it seems to me that we have an example of that today. The first part of our passage, about the salt of the earth and the light of the world, is really a conclusion to the Beatitudes, whereas the second part of the text introduces a new idea, and a major theme in Matthew’s Gospel, about the obedience to the law. This theme will be developed in next week’s reading. For this reason, I would like for us to focus today on the first part of the text, and we’ll talk about the second part next week alongside with the new reading.
And so this is what we hear today: Jesus say to the disciples“You are the salt of the earth“, “You are the light of the world“. It would be tempting, and I was tempted, to go down the rabbit hole of all the images and meanings we can associate with salt and light, and there are many. As you certainly know, light dissipates the darkness, light guides and gives warmth and grows everything on earth. As for salt, it preserves food and gives it its taste, salt also purifies and can heal too, and it has many other uses, like melting ice for example, not that we use it that much in this area! But you see the problem: there are so many things we could say that it makes it hard to find what was Jesus’s first intention using these two images.To find out what Jesus means, it seems much easier to have a look at what Jesus has just said and then we can better understand what kind of ideas he associates with these two images of salt and light. Our passage starts verse 13, and this is what we have just before, in verses 11 and 12: “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you“.
So I think Jesus is really talking about our testimony as Christians, when we give testimony about the Gospel. And Jesus says that, when we do that, we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. This past Thursday, I was watching the streaming of the “National Prayer Breakfast” that is held each year in Washington DC, the only day, said the reporter where “politics and faith come together”. I am not sure about that, but there is something that really hit home for me in what President Biden said. He told this story about his grandfather who always said goodbye to him by reminding him to “Keep the faith”. He always said “Joey, keep the faith“. And then President Biden said, each time his grandmother would add after his grandfather: “Spread the faith Joey, don’t just keep the faith. Spread the faith.” Well, I thought it was such a great understanding of today’s Gospel! Don’t just keep the faith, spread the faith. And to me, this is really what the images of salt and light are about. As Jesus noticing, the saltiness of the salt is lost on itself, the salt cannot salt itself. In the same way, we don’t put a lamp under a bushel because the light of the lamp is lost on itself. What is common to both salt and light is that they have no value in themselves, for themselves but they have an incredible value for everything that’s around them. The salt is barely a food, but it gives taste to everything it touches. We never see the light itself, but we see all things through the light. Both salt and light reveal everything that’s around them but as for themselves, their purpose is to disappear. In John’s Gospel (5:35), Jesus said of John the Baptist that he was for all the people “a light, consuming and revealing” – and indeed who has brought a greater testimony about Jesus than John the Baptist who first acknowledged him as “The Lamb of God”? (we have heard this passage recently).
And so, indeed, we have to spread the faith. Although Jesus is just starting teaching his disciples, he already wants to be clear with them that their faith isn’t for themselves. It certainly is good to have faith and to keep the faith, but it can also be a temptation we have to overcome when we wrap our faith around us like a blanket, a blanket meant to bring us comfort and reassurance and shield us from the suffering of the world and life’s uncertainties. Faith is not a means to an end, our protection, our well being, faith is first of all the knowledge and love of God, it is meant to bring us in relationship with God and therefore with one another.
So how do we do that?
Well, first of all, I think we need again to hear these words, “You are the salt of the earth”, “You are the light of the world” as a continuation of the Beatitudes, as a blessing. It is not a threat or even a commandment, but the acknowledgment of an ability we have. Even if we don’t feel like we can, Jesus reminds us that we already have a faith to share, a knowledge of God and that the world needs it, that we world would be tasteless or in darkness without it.We have something precious to share, not just a few among us, but all of us who have heard Jesus’s teaching. If anything, it’s an encouragement.
The second thing is that Jesus does not ask us to become exceedingly learned or wise. We see that, in the first Letter to the Corinthians, Paul reminds the first Christians that all they have to do is to bear testimony to the best of their ability. That’s what the disciples did, they shared in all simplicity what they had seen and what they had heard. Faith “does not rest on human wisdom but on the power of God” says Paul. Faith and conversion are the result of God’s power, they aren’t the result of the people’s testimony, although God will use their testimonies. The way we are called to share our faith is always in humility, because the Gospel itself is the story of God’s humility, God‘s self-sacrificing love. Paul says that the only way to share our faith is the message of the cross. It’s important to remember that in John’s Gospel, Jesus says about himself that he is “the light of the world” (8:12). We don’t shine our own light, but we let others perceive the light of Christ through our words and actions. Besides, Jesus does not address the disciples individually but he talks to all of them, in the same way Paul talks to all the community in Corinth. We bring our testimony as a church, as a group, we don’t have to rely on our own strength: we have God’s strength and we have each other.
Now, and that’s my last point, the consequence of that is that we don’t make our life about ourselves. Like Jesus who gave his life for us, we are called to be “salt” and “light” disappearing as we reveal, bringing taste as we dissolve, bringing warmth and light but never to be seen. In fact, by turning to others, before we say a word or do a thing, we are already testifying to the spirit of the beatitudes, testifying to the Gospel Jesus preached and embodied. Actually, I really love this quotation from the Dalai Lama: “The planet does not need more successful people. The planet desperately needs more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers and lovers of all kinds.” I think it is very true for us Christians. We can all find our own way to be salt and light, but it will always start with the giving away of self, and the giving away of what has been given to us. Maybe you’re a healer, or a peacemaker, or a storyteller. Maybe you’re a good listener. Maybe you just show up but everybody knows they can rely on you. But to all of us I think Jesus says: What you do matters and transforms the world around you. You already make a difference. I wonder what kind of transformation we could bring into the world if we truly believed those words, if we’d really receive this blessing in our hearts.