Category Archives: Light

Who, What, Where, When, Why and How?  I’m guessing anyone of “an age” learned those are questions to ask if you want to learn more.  I want to find the “moral” behind the simplicity of Jesus’s Words.

Who? You!
What? Salt
Where? Earth
When? Saltiness is lost
Why? To make it salty again.
How? Have salt in yourself

The Words Jesus spoke are clear and simple but there is that warning about salt losing its saltiness that’s curious.  Salt was more than a seasoning for food.  It was rubbed on newborns to cleanse them after birth. It was a means of cleansing and preserving all things.  Salt was required as part of every offering made to God.  It was included in the recipe of the Temple incense that was thrown onto the burnt offerings.  To share the “covenant of salt” in the Bible created a lasting obligation of a shared relationship.  All good, right?  

BUT there’s that warning about salt losing its saltiness.  The same salt that preserves and cleanses can lose its effectiveness when contaminated and actually become destructive.  Salt was sometimes sowed in the earth of a defeated city to contaminate it and insure it would always remain a barren place.  It seems like the moral of Jesus story is this: The external application of salt can lose its ability to preserve if contamination occurs.  You wouldn’t expect contaminated salt to preserve your food or make it taste better, or use it to cleanse a newborn or become a gift for God.  Jesus has an answer for the question about that tasteless salt — “how will you make it salty again?”  This time it’s His internal application of the “covenant of salt” that becomes the lasting obligation of His shared relationship with “you” to season and preserve your life: “Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”