Devotion for the Week of October 22, 2007

“Pastor, I understand the idea of ‘You are the light of the world,’ but I’m not sure what Jesus means by being ‘the salt of the earth.’ This is how a conversation started after we had watch Godspell with the youth group some time ago.

I realized that in our twenty-first century culture many things from the Bible may not make sense to us. For us salt is a cheap condiment we find on almost every dinner table in America. But this was not the case 200 years ago.

In the ancient world salt was a valuable commodity. Workers were paid with salt. An interesting footnote is that the word "salary" is derived from the word, "salt." Many of the Roman soldiers were paid in salt. Some people wanting to buy something in the ancient world would often pay for it with salt, in the same way we use money today. People would treasure salt as we might value gold or silver. Even in Colonial America households usually keep salt locked up or hidden.

One reason salt was so valuable had to do with needing to have salt as part of ones diet when living in the heat of the Mediterranean world. Also, the value of being able to preserve food with it.

So, with this in mind, Jesus was calling them and their work valuable.

But there is more to it than that. The best way for me to explain the other part is with a story.

One evening a mother said to her son, "Put this salt in water and come back to me in the morning." The boy did as he was told, and the next day his mother said, "Please bring me the salt you put in the water yesterday." "I can't find it," replied the boy. "It has dissolved."

The wise woman told her son, "Taste the water from this side of the dish." Again the son did as he was told. "What taste does it have?" his father asked. "Salt," the son replied. “What about the other side of the dish,” the mother asked. Again, the boy answered, “Salt.”

Next, the woman told her son to pour the salty water onto the rocks. The boy did so only to discover that after the water had evaporated the salt reappeared.

Perhaps in calling his followers the "salt of the earth," Jesus meant that once people become his followers there is no turning back.

You are the salt of the earth. (Matthew 5:13)