The Parable of Salt and Light

The questions we wrestle with as Christians about who God is, how do we live out our faith, what is the Bible, what is the truth of the Bible, what are we supposed to believe? How are we supposed to live? There are really big, deep questions that we ask each other, that we ask God, that we wrestle with ourselves. And that's why the Cultivate podcast exists, to help us go deeper in our understanding of who God is, his word, and the way that he's called us to live. Everyone, welcome to the Cultivate Podcast with the Grove Church.

I'm Charlie Loften. I'm the lead pastor there. And we are here with

I like DJ Bagel. DJ Bagel? Uh-huh.

I was gonna I was gonna move I was gonna move away from pointing out the fact that you're wearing headphones.

Think you need to get headphones. You're actually gonna have to flag me if I'm talking not loud because I can just hear myself crystal clear. But I on top of my harmonica learning and piano learning. I have strongly considered a mixing board. Really?

That'd be so fun. Okay. We had a basketball tournament recently and one of our band guys brought out his DJ booth.

He does that professionally.

I know and I don't want to be that but just imagine do it do it. No, but just imagine like in an afternoon. I'm like, I need to pick me up.

And so you know, all said you

put you put you put you you yeah, seems fun.

What would be your go to genre of music?

90s jazz rap. Like where they had jazz where they had like samples that they would be pulling that was before like copywriting came in. Okay. And so it was easy to pull any samples from anything even like Walk This Way with Run DMC or whatever.

They did sing that with Aerosmithers. Right.

But that was like the start of like, okay, maybe we could make money off of people sampling our

music This and is, you know, I mean, I've said this before, and we could do our own podcast on this, I guess. But like to me, it is probably top three most historically important

million percent one million percent

one hundred years or whatever. I mean, I probably got a little Beatles song in there, maybe an Elvis song in there, But as far as like, just like the amount of impact that that particular song had, you know, from rapping with having hooks and and

they were at the height. They're huge Aerosmith.

No, not yet. They know they had that bring up had started to fade.

Oh, really? They had been really big. Okay.

They're on their way out. Them brought them back. Yeah.

So I'd definitely go for that. Like when Queen Latifah was still wrapping that little era. There's a bunch of like Detroit and New York movements happening.

They made a TV show with Queen Latifah where she's an action star. Sorry.

What What

show? I'm just I'm just saying what show it was it was a show back in the 80s and 90s called the equalizer. And then they made movies about it with Denzel Washington's and then they remade it as a TV show with Queen Latifah as I mean to me to me that that surpasses like I remember the first time I went to see a Bob Odenkirk action movie. I'm like really call Saul but it's actually really good about maybe Queen Latifah as action star TV.

The big thing. I wish you would go back into the rap career like that was when tribe was all the indie tribe. I just really love that era. So I would mix in all of those any of the jazz samples.

Well, we just have to make this happen now done.

Can you fund me getting my soundboard?

Want you playing the harmonica while you're doing it.

I'll get one of those like necklace things that hooks it

Matthew chapter five starting with verse 13. We are now back in the Sermon on the Mount to kind of put us where we are in Texas is very early. He's just done the beatitudes. So he's talking to a very poor talking to the masses, talking to a relatively poor group of people. Blessed are the poor in spirit.

Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are who hunger for righteousness. Blessed are merciful. Blessed are the pure.

Blessed are peacemakers. Blessed are those who are persecuted. He's starting by turning everything around, right? Blessed you. You said, who do you know that's really blessed?

And he just flips Who the would think most people would think

like the comfortable way.

Have a lot of something where they're they got a lot of money, they've got a lot of power. Oh, no, they're not the ones that are blessed. The ones that are the ones that are blessed are the ones who've got a great family. Even still, that's having something, right? I know that I'm blessed by the blessings that I have.

I have been given things and he's saying,

actually, a

characteristic blessed is being blessed is actually shown by adversity, lower status, have not having being persecuted, those sorts of things. And so then he's saying all of this to them, and then he ends with rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven. For in the same way, they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

What have they known about the prophets?

Yeah, these people would I mean, were they would have had a very minimum been culturally Jewish. And I don't know that at that point, there were very many people who weren't also at least somewhat religiously Jewish. So they would they would have had a decent amount of familiarity with this. Verse 13, you are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden, neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven.

It's not the ending I was expecting. All the other ones we've read have like do this. Or don't do this and you won't have life. I know that was a couple episodes ago, but a lot of them have like you better hear this, right? You better not miss what I just said.

Well, I mean, we're kind of we're kind of we're kind of doing this in chunks, right? And we've kind of got, you know, here's here's the beatitudes and then he says this and from here he's, you know, going to sorry, and he's gonna start talking about their relationship with with the law and the prophets and he's going to go in there to the thing that we talked about. We've been talking about like, it's not just it's not just murder, it's hate. It's not just it's not just adultery, it's lust. And so we're he's the Sermon on the Mount is not what we would call a just one cohesive kind of thread that when it's all connected, it makes sense.

Is really, really is more than anything's kind of broken down into these sections that are they have some relation to each other, but

not me of Proverbs.

Yeah, it's almost like long, like short nuggets. Yeah, but more instead of just one verse, you know, one to two verses, you know, four to eight verses, just kind of like here, here, here, here's an important thing, which is again, a lot of people think that this is really kind of a piece milled. Yeah, he's kind of pulling together when Jesus talked. These are the things that he said

last time, a stump, stump speech. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah.

I like that.

And so, you know, probably there were times when he would go into one of those more than the other. When Jesus spoke, this is what he talked about. And then one of them again, he is talking to a crowd of people and says to him and describes to them as salt of the earth,

on a hill or a house on a

hill, the light of the world, right?

A lamp that's not hidden.

Yeah. And so what is he talking about here?

I mean, it seems like being a representation to the world around them.

Yeah, it's interesting. I was sitting here thinking about this in this reread. If you were to describe somebody now, I mean, he's a salt of the earth kind of guy.

He's a really good time. I feel like like he's a really interesting guy.

I feel like it's like like a an easy hang versus a tough hang. I think it's also also has very blue collar implications down to earth. Yeah, just he just he just he just a guy. He just he just a he just a bro. Somebody you can actually talk to relate to salt salt.

Just a just a guy. He's not smart. He's not rich. He not good looking. He just does

a good old boy.

Good old boy. Is that the understanding you get just in the brief versus here?

Okay. What is mainly just in the fact that that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven. I guess mainly the glorify your father in heaven that it's talking about something that would make God proud or reflect him accurately.

Yeah. So what would salt have been used for?

The flavor

flavor was also used as a preservative but pre refrigeration.

Really? Doctor:

So your uncooked meat could last longer salted.

Okay.

Doctor: You couldn't put in the fridge even with salt on it. You can't live in like, put it in the freezer and forget about it for months, not that long, but you didn't have to cook it and eat it all at once. So salt was both a preservative and and and and a, give the spice some flavor, right? And so he says, so you are the salt of the earth.

So you're preserving something and you're animating it?

You are. You are giving life. You're giving life to it, whether it be spice or preserving it. You are giving it. You're giving you're giving life to the earth.

And if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?

Yeah, that's kind of confusing. Give it more salt. Do what? This is like, it more salt.

Well, mean, salt stops being salt, it's just something you that gives you know says no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot miss I guess from our sector man I guess you can you can melt ice with it.

That's okay. I mean like

you can put it down on the ground makes it easier to kind of walk. But it's not really doing what salt was should be doing do anymore, which is I mean, I get a I think in that moment, it's kind of like, yeah, I'm I'm like I'm like I'm like salt. I'm unlike salt.

So he's saying like don't let the salt run out. Yeah, because you do what

salt is supposed to do because if you stop being salt, you just become mean, it's not like you're completely useless, but you're not doing what you were most meant to do.

He says you are the salt of the earth. He's like thinking anyone who hears this and all the stuff up above. If you do these things, you are the salt of the earth.

Yeah. Okay. So let's let's let's let's get let's get our all the way through the metaphor. So now we go to the second one. You are the light of the world.

So what does light do?

Gives you good sight.

I can make sure I can see. Guides. Is a

guide. Helps reveal helps uncover things when you

can't I think if you think about the opposite, think about darkness. I mean, there's there's hope, there's again, there's life there, it allows me to function, it allows me to really experience the room that I'm in, like I can enjoy what I'm doing.

Can see what I'm doing. I mean, not pulled up against thing. Life probably wouldn't happen unless there was light at that time, right? That like the the town probably really did shut down. Yeah, when there was no light on.

And so in the same way, like you don't want to you don't want to stop being salt. You know, and your light, you don't want to. You don't put light under a under a bowl, right? You you don't hide lights, well I've got this light, but I don't want it to get out there, so I'm going to cover it up. So it just doesn't do what light is supposed to do.

Now you put it on a, you put it high up and you put it out in the middle where everybody can There's see a benefit. Know, you put you and if you put it on a you put us a city that's got all these, you know, all these buildings in it and you've got candles and things going on all of them, you know, like I wonder where that city is now. Can say it there it is.

I always think that when I drive into the Fayetteville over the hill, you can see like the illuminating light at night

And this comes back to which got another good kids song.

This little light of mine. I'm gonna let it shine

Hide under a bushel. No. I'm gonna let it

shine. Right?

I mean, that's what it's gonna show.

We need to do more kids performances at our church. Okay.

You know what, Natalie would say if you said that to her.

You can do it.

Go right ahead, Congratulations. Are not doing if you're not out, if you're not doing the live stream anymore, you're looking for something to do. Come teach our kids songs. In the same way, Let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven.

Need you to break down that one a little bit more. Like the it seems funny that it would be to show off your good deeds.

Well, okay. So the idea is whoever he's talking to whether he's talking about who they currently are where he's manifesting something in them. He's kind of assuming the person who's hearing this is going to live it out. Right? I don't think he's sitting there talking to somebody who happens to be sitting there, hearing it and is skeptical.

If you happen to be within the sound of my voice right now, you are the light of the world. I think he's speaking about people who are there, but are really going to embrace his idea of kingdom living.

And

so you're bringing life to the earth, you're bringing flavor, you're bringing, you're preserving it. You're bringing light to dark places, which is a metaphor for hope and vision and all these sorts of things. You don't hide that you don't hide real light and you shouldn't hide who God has made you.

In

fact, you should live your life in such a way where people see who you are. Okay. Which is going to seem contradictory at sorts of some things that Jesus is going to say a little bit later.

You

know, when you when you give, don't be all clanky, clank, clank, clank, clank. And when you fast, don't make yourself look right.

Exactly what I was thinking about.

So he said, don't even let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, which is just a crazy little metaphor.

So is this, what is that?

He doesn't say, let your light shine before people in such a way. Well, they will see how impressive you are.

So am I putting like current cultural context to see their good deeds

to see your good deeds? So that what

glorify your father in heaven.

There you can hide your light. You can shine it in such a way where people will be impressed with you. Or you can shine it in such a way where people will be impressed with God. Okay. So think there are two different ways to shine.

You can shine bright in a way that draws attention to you, or you can shine in a way that draws attention to God. Okay. And so I think the question is not necessarily how do you make sense? How do you square that circle or whatever? It's like, I think I think the deeper question is how do you shine light in a way that makes people want to glorify God?

How do you shine light in a way that points people to God?

Are you asking me?

I think that's the question.

That's why

I might as well ask you. You're the only one here.

Me? Who said that?

Sleep doesn't talk.

Call back to something.

Call back around. That you didn't get to hear.

I mean, I guess it would be like unexplained kindness. Like whenever I'm thinking about the stuff that you were saying he listed earlier all of that would be like someone who's let's see Meek or shows Mercy or Peacemaker. Those are kind of an you'd be unexpecting not expecting to receive goodness from those kinds of things,

right?

And so maybe that would be like this kind of characters stand out and feels different.

Something about something about your character is different. You know, there's there's a difference between standing on top of a building and throwing money out there to crowds of people and quietly paying for someone's meal. I mean, there's just a way that's just kind of like, here's an act of kindness that I'm obviously I'm doing it publicly because I'm doing it to you. But I'm doing it in a way that does not draw attention to me,

but it probably always reflects those. And so those the be attitudes.

Yeah, right. And so if I do something really kind for you, but I also do it in a way where it doesn't seem like I'm doing it for the attention or the glory that is going to be different. Yeah, there's people who are unkind. And then there's people who put on kind,

so that people can see how generous and philanthropic they are.

Then there's this. And I think he's describing something very different, and it seems like you either aren't nice, or you're attention seeking. He's saying, No, you don't want to withhold what it is that God has given you. You shine want with it, But you want to do it in a very particular sort of way. And so I think I think is like, let your light shine in such a way where people will see.

Then they will glorify God. I think that I think that all of that phrase describes the method by which you let your light shine. Okay.

So is he giving them a charge to like make sure this keeps happening? So the saltiness doesn't run out,

right?

Okay, I

think the idea is, if you if you stop being salty. Then you become useless. And so the metaphor is a little. It's like, mean, you can't. Doesn't stay salty by your use of

it. You

know, eventually you just consume the thing that you've salted. Right. It's not it's not it's not the world's most perfect metaphor.

But he's saying keep the saltiness active. You know, it's the way

it is. So the metaphor would be like, if you keep being salty, you'll be able to keep being salt.

Okay,

which again, the metaphor is not perfect. Jesus is perfect, but this metaphor is not perfect. But it's still it's still makes good And same way with light. It's just like, let your light be light. Light under a bucket doesn't make any sense.

So it seems like in a lot of the parables. It's been concept or something that's kind of like flipping it would have a lot of people at this time like they wouldn't have approached generosity and for like those reasons. Like where the beatitudes opposite from how obviously the beatitudes were of like who is blessed, but is he kind of flipping on its head what it looks like to make him known or spread the light?

I don't think that the people that he's talking to would have ever thought of themselves in that kind of term.

Okay.

But I don't think that's changed much. I mean, you can be an arrogant American and I can get up and preach this sermon, which I have many times and say, God has called you to be the light of the world to bring hope and life to people.

You say that almost every sermon.

And people are kind of like,

Me?

You must be talking about yourself. Only stage people with people with high levels of talent.

You

can't just be talking about me, regular person. Most people think again, you say you're the light of the world and you look behind you. Yeah. And so I think that's the thing that turns turns it up is like, we're, it's not the special people, not the educated people. It's not the smart people.

It's not the talented. It's not the rich. It's you. You are the light of the world. You are the salt of the earth.

And we will know this more by your character than your importance.

Well, it also seems to kind of shift that like someone in the audience hearing you preach and say that say those words, they're thinking well, oh, no saltiness is just the guy who speaks on stage, but he's kind of calling out not mundane and that they're not important, but pretty mundane things that actually he's describing. This is actually what brings saltiness to all of these things is being merciful is being compassionate is being the hands and feet of like, you don't have to be the guy up on stage,

which is where you can get where the etymology history of the word. And that's what etymology history of bugs.

Did that in college.

That's my history, the history of word usage. Okay, So salt of the earth meaning just a regular guy. Jesus is talking

about the regular

guy, regular people. Yeah, but being a regular person does not make you salt of the earth. He's telling regular people that you have the ability to be salt of the earth. You can be again, you can lose your saltiness. You can be a salt of the earth guy and not be quote the salt of the earth.

But he is talking to people that we would now call salt of the earth and telling them you can be what brings life to the world.

I

think the new usage of the phrase salt of the earth emphasizes the ordinariness of it as opposed to the the power that salt and light has on the world. Would have been he can't be talking about me. Where, you know, salt of the earth is you're, you're, you're, you're a good normal guy. But what he's saying here is you ordinary people are in fact, what brings life to the world. If you again, if you will, bookended by the parable we looked at two weeks ago, if you will hear all of this, yeah, listen and obey.

Yeah, then you're going to have something that the world desperately needs. And if you will take this thing that God has given you and this life that you now have, and you will put it out there, then people are going to look at that and be like, Yeah, wait a second. God is real and good. Yeah,

which I this may be zooming out the parable way too far, but it kind of feels like from every parable we've looked at thus far. Pharisees were not super concerned with outsiders or like any like they're just kind of like doing their religious practice and if you're an outsider like you're not even clean enough to be around but this feels very like go out and be like spread this let people see it.

Yeah, there was an evangelistic component what we would call an evangelistic component to Pharisees.

There was

yeah, I mean, he talks about it like, hey, you'll you'll work really hard to get a convert. But at the same time, did have a really low view of low people. Yeah. And so if you were low, then you weren't worth there were people worthy of their message, but there were there was a significant amount of unworthy. And so I think Jesus is definitely flipping that to

where he's like, did give it to everyone

you can mostly considered to be the unworthiest ones are in fact, the most worthy, the hurt person that is first will be last the person that's last will be first. It's not it's not the it's not the people who are well that need a doctor. It's people who are sick that are need a doctor.

It kind of feels just like the cool thing about light is you can't really contain it. Right. And so

like You can, but it would be stupid.

There's And so like no boundary to who could see these good deeds. And whereas like it feels like the Pharisees would be like you may be cut off and not even have access to hear these things. This is like well the lights on someone's going to see it toward just feels like more open access to like know everybody needs to experience this everyone needs to be able to see like the light should be dispersed to everyone who can just come across it right more open ended and come all.

It's good. Yeah. And yeah, and so I think there is there's there's something powerful. He's talking to us. He's talking.

He's talking. This is not. This is not this is not an inspirational thing to give to the government to the to the wealthy to people who are on stage doing things. It's not it is as the more common that you are, the more that this reflects a view. It is it is true.

And there and there really is. I mean, there's an implied if to this. If you are someone who follows my teaching, that's the implied is if but other than that, there is no, hey, Abigail, if you work really hard and you do this and you do this and you do this, you can become the light of the world. If you are someone who is a follower of my teaching, You

are that

present tense, the light of the world and your choices are not whether or not you are not light. It is whether you are light under a bucket or on a table.

Yeah. Well, and also I feel like it's different in that you're not salt based on vocation your salt based on a posture that comes with being aligned with Jesus teaching.

Yeah. And again, it is not something that you aspire to. It is just a question of your relative effectiveness at this moment. Are you going to choose to be effective light and effective salt? Or are you going to be hidden light?

And well, mean, you're still salt, I mean, you can make the muddy road easier to walk on for the horses.

Did they use horses then or was it when the donkeys used?

I guess it would have been donkeys. Donkey. Yeah. Okay. It just felt right to say horses.

Sure.

Let's see how many episodes we can tie horses back into.

Don't say that. Now that's gonna anyways. Challenge accepted. Right. Well, thank you for for this.

And again, this is a really important if you've heard me preach at all, it's kind of like Abigail said, you know, this is really important to me. Just this idea that you who are listening to this, who are striving to be someone who is a follower of Jesus, this is this is a present reality for you. You have a light to give to the world that needs to shine. And I hope that you will come to genuinely believe that and you will live your life in such a way where people who are living in darkness, need a little bit of flavor and preserving can experience the love of God through you. It's very powerful, very powerful parable here.

And so glad you got to join with us. Sorry.

It's still it's still relevant. Think it's the interesting part that like they for sure needed salt and light, but it's still just as strong of a call today of what's needed to bring into the darkness

and all the wealth and the power and affluence has not changed it. It is the life and light and salt has not come through prosperity. We are infinitely more prosperous than they were and just as desperate for salt and light. So thanks. Thanks, Bagel.

I'm sorry. Thank you guys for joining us encourage you to join us back. We continue with our parables and over the next several weeks and we would love to connect with you any way that we can on a Sunday or online. Find us at thegrovechurch.org about our Sunday services, both streaming and in person. There's a form you can fill out where you we can get to know you.

If you have any questions, any ways that we can help you, you can let us know. We'd love for you to fill that out. And again, thank you for being with us, and we'll see you next asking big questions, and you're looking for answers. We hope that we can be a resource for you through our podcast and any other way that we can help you. You can find all our episodes anywhere that you can find podcasts, including YouTube.

And again, thank you so much for joining us.