Matthew 5:13-16 Salt and Light

One of the great questions that we must answer as a church is what is our place in the society around us. How are Christians to engage with the larger culture? Should we take a path of standing against culture? There are certainly times when being a faithful Christian means we do stand against certain aspects of our culture. For instance, as Christians we must be honest about what the Bible says about marriage and sexuality. We must be honest about what the Bible says about protecting the lives of the unborn. There are certainly times when we have to stand on God’s word, regardless of how unpopular it is in our culture, but do we always have to stand against culture? Some would ask the opposite question: Should Christians accept the outside culture completely? There are times when we might want to do this. For instance, to be Christians, we don’t think that all our music has to be from the 17^th or 18^th centuries. Sometimes, we adapt to our culture in order to reach those around us with an unchanging Gospel. However, some would say we should do this about everything—that the Bible is wrapped in a cultural husk, and that we should try to get back to the spiritual kernel inside, and then communicate that spiritual truth through the culture of our day. Attempts at doing this have often failed. In this approach, it is often hard to know what is culture, and what is the enduring spiritual truth. Who is to judge that? How do we know that what we think is cultural isn’t really abiding truth? For reasons like this, I think it’s dangerous to take this approach. So what is the Christian relationship to culture? Jesus’ words to his disciples in this passage give us some direction as we think about this question. I believe what we see here is that Christians are to make our communities better places so that God gets the glory.

Let’s look at our text:

13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.

 14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 

15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 

16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Jesus uses three examples to make his point. He says that his disciples are salt, they are light, and they are a city on a hill.

But first, let’s back up. Who is he talking to? Now, we see at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, the text tells us that he sat down and began teaching his disciples, but at the end it tells us that there were crowds. I would suggest that because this is still close to the beginning, we should read this as pertaining to disciples. So, who is this speaking to today? Believers. We who have trusted in Christ are his living disciples. He is saying that we, if we are believers, are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. We don’t want to get this confused. Jesus is not saying that all human beings are the light of the world. He is saying that disciples—both those at the time, and today—contribute something to the world that it would not have apart from us.

Now let’s look at each comparison that he makes. First, Jesus says we are the salt of the earth. Why does he say this? Usually, people answer this in two ways. First, salt brings out flavor. You want your food to taste better, and you put a little salt on it to season it. So, one thing Jesus might mean by telling us that we are the salt of the earth is that we make the world a better place by our presence. We make everything taste better. The other way that this is often taken is that salt is a preservative. Of course, in the ancient world they didn’t have refrigerators. So, in order to keep meat and other things from spoiling they would use salt. So also, there is a sense in which believers are a preserving agent in society. Because of the fall, our world is broken, and it often seems like it’s getting more broken all the time. There is a general cultural decay in which people seem to be becoming more and more hostile to the things of God. By the presence of believers, there can be a preserving power. As believers engage culture, we speak out against injustices and it may have some effect at slowing cultural decay.

Which of these is right? Or are they both? I think both have merit, but I lean toward the first explanation. We make the world taste better. Here’s why. The first disciples were a small group with hardly any hope of making any impact on the larger culture. I don’t think the early church would have been preserving culture, but rather they would have been counter cultural. It wasn’t until later when Western culture had been so widely influenced by Christianity that we might say that Christianity preserves culture. So I’m inclined to say that Jesus’ disciples are to be a positive good in the world that makes the world and our communities a better place.

Next, Jesus says that his disciples are the light of the world. Now, here Jesus mixes two metaphors. He first says we are the light of the world, but before explaining it he says “a city set on a hill cannot be hidden.” As modern people it might puzzle us as to why he does this. But what do we notice when we are traveling at night. If you are driving a long distance at night through the country and you begin to get close to a city, what do you notice? The lights of the city begin to light everything up. So think of being on a long journey, and you are traveling at night, and off in the horizon you see the city you are heading for, up on a hill, and you are guided by the light. There is no way you can hide the light that comes from the city. Now, back then, they didn’t have electric street lights, but they had fires and lamps and torches which all gave light—not only to those immediately using them, but also the cumulative effect made the city give off light all around. Jesus says that disciples are like this kind of light that cannot be hidden. The world is in darkness, and we give light to those around us leading the way to Him.

Jesus continues the analogy of light. He says that you don’t cover a lamp with a basket. That would be silly, wouldn’t it? Especially in a day when you didn’t just flip a switch for a light to come on, but you actually had to light a candle or a torch or an oil lamp, why would anyone have lit a lamp, and then covered it up? The idea is absurd. No one would do that. Rather, Jesus says that when you light a lamp, you put it on a lamp stand. You lift it high so that it gives light to everyone in the house. Jesus says that we are light, and that as light, we are not to be hidden. Our light is to shine.

Maybe we think of the old song, “This Little Light of Mine.” [Singing] This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine. This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine. This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.”

Jesus continues, and he tells us this is what we are to do. He says, “In the same way, let your light shine, so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” Just like you wouldn’t hide a lamp under a basket, so you don’t hide your light.

Now here’s a question that may occur to you: Doesn’t Jesus say in the next chapter to “beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them?” (6:1) Do these two things contradict? It seems like in chapter 5 Jesus is saying do good works before men that they may see your good works, but in chapter 6 he says to beware of it. These don’t seem to fit very well in our minds, but they are only a chapter a part. How can we reconcile these two thoughts? I believe it comes down to our heart motivation. Are we seeking our own glory or God’s? Jesus tells us to let our lights shine so that people will see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven. The warning in chapter 6 is against doing good works to bring glory to ourselves.

There is a fine line here, and often we can have mixed motives. As Jeremiah 17:9 warns us, the heart is deceitful above all things, who can know it. Maybe we have a good and godly desire that God would be glorified when we do some good work, but we also may have down deep a desire for others to think highly of us—that we would be glorified. And what I would suggest is that for most of us, we ALWAYS have these mixed motives. Since Jesus warns us of this ulterior motive, our response should be to recognize it, confess it, and mortify it within ourselves. Here’s one way we might recognize this tendency in us: Do we get upset when people fail to recognize us for our good works? Do we get upset when other’s are recognized for something that we have done as well?

With all of this said, Jesus still tells us that we are to let our lights shine so that others will see our good works and glorify God. It is a good thing to do good works in public view—so long as the glory we seek is for God.

Believers, we have to remember that this is what Jesus saved us for. Ephesians 2:10 says “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” We saw as we went through Titus that in 2:14 it says that Christ “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.”

God has planned that he will bring glory to himself by saving a people for himself who would do good works. So, how do these good works bring glory to God? God has called us to do good works that not just anyone would do. God has called us to be radical in our works of generosity and love. He has called us to do good works that people sit back and ask, “Why do they do this? What can motivate people to do something like this?” And when they ask, we are ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within us. We do this because we love Jesus. We do this because God has put love in our hearts for you. We are generous because Jesus became poor to give us the riches of heaven. We act with works of self-sacrifice because Jesus laid down his life for us. With works like that, when people ask why we do what we do, we reflect it back to our Father so he gets the glory.

What kind of works should we do? David Platt is now the president of the International Mission Board of the SBC, but when he pastored in Birmingham, AL, he recorded this story:

One day I called up the Department of Human Resources in Shelby County, Alabama, where our church is located, and asked, “How many families would you need in order to take care of all the foster and adoption needs that we have in our county?” The woman I was talking to laughed. I said, “No, really, if a miracle were to take place, how many families would be sufficient to cover all the different needs you have?” She replied, “It would be a miracle if we had 150 more families signed up to help with foster care. When I shared this conversation with our church, over 160 families signed up to help with foster care and adoption. We don’t want even one child in our county to be without a loving home. It’s not the way of the American Dream. It doesn’t add to our comfort, prosperity, or ease. But we are discovering the indescribable joy of sacrificial love for others, and along the way we are learning more about the inexpressible wonder of God’s sacrificial love for us.

What an amazing story! All the needs of the foster care system of an entire county were taken care of by one church that wanted to make a difference. Now, we are not a big church like that one, and maybe foster care isn’t the cause that fits the our church—or maybe it is? But the point is, God didn’t save us so we could sit back and be comfortable and entertain ourselves. He saved us to live lives of self-sacrificial love that brings glory to Him. God didn’t put Woburn Baptist Church here so we could just keep doing business as usual, meet here on Sundays, keep the doors open, and go home feeling like we did our church thing for the week. God has placed this church here, and called us all to be a part of it, so that he might be glorified in our self-sacrificial works.

Now there is another danger we can fall into. When we start talking about good works, and about churches doing things to alleviate poverty and other social ills, there is the danger of falling into what is called the social gospel. This is basically what happens when you divorce Jesus’ ethical teaching from his work on the cross. The danger is that we can reduce our faith to merely doing good works. We begin to think that doing these good works is what it means to be a Christian, and we begin to look at Christianity in a performance based legalism.

One way we must combat falling into this error is that we have to be motivated by the right things. We give generously because we have received from Jesus. We lay our lives down for others because he laid down his life for us. We don’t do good works to earn God’s favor. We do good works because though we could never earn God’s favor, he saved us by grace. He left the comforts and the riches of heaven and became poor and dejected, so that we might be rich and that we might have the comfort of the Holy Spirit and of knowing that our sins have been forgiven, that our consciences have been cleansed, and that we are kept by the power of Almighty God.

The Beatitudes: Matthew 5:1-12

Everyone wants to be happy. We all want to know how we can live a happy life. Some look for it in money; some look for it in fame and popularity; some look for it in sex, food, or other physical pleasures; and, some try to find happiness in living a life of good deeds. In our passage today, Jesus turns our typical visions of happiness on their heads and shows us how we can be truly blessed.

Today we will be back in the Gospel of Matthew. We spent most of last year going through Matthew from chapter 1 to chapter 18, but we skipped 5-7, to come back to it at a later time for a series on the Sermon on the Mount. When Jesus began his public ministry, after going out to be tempted in the wilderness, he began teaching and performing many miracles and signs. In the chapters we have already covered in Matthew, we have seen a great many of his miracles. In the Sermon on the Mount we will encounter a significant block of Jesus teaching. Let’s look at our text: Matthew 5:1-12

 1 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

 2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

 3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

 4 "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

 5 "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

 6 "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

 7 "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

 8 "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

 9 "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

 10 "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

 11 "Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Mat 5:1-12 ESV)

As Jesus went throughout the land, teaching and healing, he began to attract crowds. He couldn’t help it. The things that he said and the things that he did were so amazing that you couldn’t keep people away. He healed all kinds of diseases—he healed the lame, the blind, lepers, the deaf, he cast out demons, and he even raised the dead. People were coming from all over to see him.

So when he saw these large crowds he went up on a mountain. Now, in Hebrew, the word for mountain can also be a large hill. So we shouldn’t get the idea he went up into mountains like the Colorado Rockies, but he went up on a large hill. Why did he go up on a mountain? The text doesn’t seem to tell us here. In other places Jesus withdraws to get away from the crowds to recharge. We don’t know if that’s what he was doing here, or he may have been getting up to a higher place so the people could all see him as he taught.

Who was he speaking to? Well, in verse one, it tells us that the disciples came to him. So you might think that he was withdrawing to be alone and give private instruction to his disciples; however, when you look to the end of chapter 7 it says, “And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching.” So it appears there were crowds there to hear.

Who knows for sure? Maybe when he began to teach it was just the disciples, but the longer he taught there, the more people showed up, so that by the time he was finished speaking there was a large crowd.

            As I said earlier, in today’s passage, Jesus turns our conventional vision of how to be happy on its head. That’s much of what he does throughout the whole Sermon on the Mount. He shocks people when he says in a later passage, “you have heard that it was said . . . but I say to you . . . .”

Here, Jesus addresses happiness. In our text, Jesus gives a series of 8 statements on what it is to be happy. He introduces each one with “Blessed be….” While our original text was written in Greek, Jesus probably spoke Aramaic, and when he spoke he probably introduced each of these statements with the same words of Psalm 1: “How blessed is the man who . . . .” This word literally means “happy is . . . .” And in each case, Jesus shocks us. Let’s look at each one:

1^st, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” This catches us off guard, doesn’t it? We think of happiness as something that relates to riches, but Jesus says to be blessed is to be poor. What does it mean to be poor “in spirit?” I believe it means that we recognize our spiritual poverty. We cannot come to God to impress Him with how good we are. When we come to God, we come with empty hands. As the song Rock of Ages says, “Not the labors of my hands, can fulfill thy law’s demands; these for sin could not atone; Thou must save and thou alone: Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling.” So, do you want to be supremely happy? Jesus says you must recognize your poverty. Do not trust in your wealth, your family background, your good works, or your good looks. Come to Jesus with empty hands. Come to Jesus as a beggar with nothing to offer, and he will have mercy on you. Come to Jesus poor and needy and you will possess the kingdom of heaven.

2^nd, “Blessed are those who mourn.” Now that really doesn’t make sense to us, does it? Mourning is something you do when you are sad. Mourning is something you do when you lose a friend or a loved one. How can Jesus say that to be happy, you have to be sad? Isn’t he contradicting himself? I believe what Jesus means for us to see here is that to be truly and supremely happy, we must mourn over our sin. We must mourn over broken condition of this world. Last week, what I kept saying is that this world is not the way it is supposed to be. We live in a world that is tainted by sin, sadness, grief, pain, disease, and death. The way to happiness is not to live in a state of denial. The way to happiness is not to entertain ourselves to forget about it all. The way to happiness is not to drown our sorrows in drugs and alcohol. The way to happiness is to mourn. To truly acknowledge this broken world for what it is and to trust that Jesus will one day make all things right. Why is it that true happiness comes from mourning? Because those who mourn over what breaks the heart of God will be comforted. One day Jesus is coming again and he will wipe away every tear. He will take away all our sickness, pain, disease, and death. And those of us who mourn over our own sin, he will change us. We will one day be glorified with him and we will no longer sin. We can take great comfort even now in knowing that what Jesus has begun in us, he will complete.

3^rd, “Blessed are the meek.” This also challenges the conventional wisdom of our day. In the ancient world, meekness or humility would never have been on any secular writer’s list of virtues. The virtues that were praised were thought of as the opposite of meek. Being self confident, assertive, and bold was the virtue that was valued. But Jesus challenges this. It is not pushing others around. It is not demanding your rights and putting yourself first that makes you happy. It is meekness and humility that brings blessing. Jesus says that the meek shall inherit the earth. One who is meek and humble can sit back, trust God, and not demand his own rights—because he knows that in the end God will vindicate him, and the meek shall inherit the earth.

4^th, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst.” Again, Jesus knocks our idea of happiness over. We usually think that to be happy is to have all we want. To have plenty of food and water, and to be satisfied with comfort. Jesus tells us to be happy we need to be hungry and thirsty. Specifically, we must hunger and thirst for righteousness. There are two ways we can hunger and thirst for righteousness:

One is external. We long for righteousness in the world. This world is broken and sinful. It is not the way it is supposed to be. Day after day, people sin and commit great atrocities. The man or woman who hungers and thirsts for righteousness is feeling pains like hunger because of this broken world. He or she sees the injustices and they long for the day when justice will be done.

However, this hunger and thirst is also internal. Just as we come to Jesus as poor with nothing in our hands, we come to him as sinners in need of forgiveness. It is not only the world outside of ourselves that is broken, it is us. The one who hungers and thirsts for righteousness recognizes that they are sinful, that they are broken, and they long to be changed. They long to become more like Jesus. They want this so badly that it feels like hunger pains, and it feels like they are dying of thirst. The one who hungers and thirsts for righteousness, Jesus says, will be satisfied.

When a person places their faith in Jesus Christ, they repent of their sins. They agree with God that they are sinners and they have a new set of desires for living righteously. We believers experience this partially in this world through what the Bible calls sanctification. We are being made more and more into the image of Jesus Christ. Now while we live in this world, we will never reach perfection—we are meant to hunger and thirst in this life—at the return of Christ we will be changed and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness now, will be fully satisfied.

5^th, “Blessed are the merciful.” Again, this goes against the grain of our flesh. Our flesh, our nature apart from Christ, demands justice on others, but wants mercy when it comes to us. If someone truly wrongs us, our flesh would want them to suffer. Our flesh would want to get revenge. But that is not where happiness lies. To withhold forgiveness from another person only hurts you. Often, the other person doesn’t even know you are mad at them, so you hold anxiety, and a weight of anger at a person for what they have done to you, and all you are doing is hurting yourself. To be merciful, is to forgive. If someone has wronged you, do not hold it over their head as a weapon. Do not plan revenge, or harbor hatred. Forgive.

Remember, Jesus tells the story in Matthew 18 of the Unforgiving Servant. We looked at this text the week before Thanksgiving last year. A servant owed an impossible amount to his master—the equivalent of 2 billion dollars. The master was going to throw the servant into debtor’s prison, but the servant pleaded and the master had mercy. But when the servant left he found someone else that owed him a day’s wages. He shook him down and because his fellow servant couldn’t pay him he had him thrown into debtor’s prison. When the master found out he was furious because though the servant had been shown mercy he would not show it to others. So the master took the unforgiving servant and through him into prison never to be released until he had paid it all.

Do you want to be forgiven? Do you want to receive mercy from God? You must forgive others. If you refuse to forgive other’s, you have no idea how much you have been forgiven, or how great of a debtor you are to God because of your sin.

6^th, “Blessed are the pure in heart.” Now, this one may not come as much as a shock as many of the others. We would expect that having a pure heart, and a clean conscience, would lead to happiness. However, our problem is none of us have one. Jeremiah 17:9 says that “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” Our hearts often deceive us. None of our hearts are perfectly pure. So, if it is the one with a pure heart that sees God, how can any of us see Him if we are all desperately sick? Answer: God must give us a new heart. Ezekiel 36 tells of how God promised that one day he would cleanse his people, and he would remove their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. If you want to see God, you need a new heart. When you trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins, he washes you clean from all sin, and he regenerates you—that is, you are born again. The old person you used to be has died—you have been crucified with Christ. If you have been born again, he puts a new heart within you that is pure—not on the basis of your being a good person, but on the basis of Jesus sinless life and his death on your behalf. Only those who have a new heart have a pure heart—and only those will see God.

7^th, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” Again, this one does not seem all that radical, but maybe the reason for that is we don’t have the right idea of peace. Since at least the 1960’s we often get the idea that peacemaking has to do with hippies and pacifism, yet that is not the only form of making peace. If you do a search on google for “peacemaker” you may be surprised to find the “peacemaker gun,” AKA, the Colt 45. The idea is that if people are armed so that they can protect themselves, it will make people think twice before committing any crime against them. In other words, an armed public is a safe public. Yet, this may also not be the idea of peace Jesus has in mind. In Jesus’ own work on the cross, he made peace between God and men. Jesus was the ultimate peacemaker, and he accomplished this by a violent and humiliating death. By dying the death we deserve, he has reconciled us to God so that we can go from being his enemies to being God’s children. Yet, was Jesus happy in this world. The Bible says he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. The peace he made cost his precious blood.

How can we be peacemakers? We carry the message of the Gospel. As 1 Corinthians tells us, we have been given a ministry of reconciliation. We are peacemakers in that we go with the gospel and we plead with men to turn from their sins and turn to Jesus. Is this a way to be happy? Yes! Supremely so! However, we will also face many trials as we do so. People will reject us and persecute us—which brings us to the last of the beatitudes.

8^th, “Blessed are those who are persecuted.” This one is probably the most radical of all. In fact, it is so radical that he doesn’t stop there. He continues in the next first to say, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.” Here again, Jesus turns our conventional understanding of what it takes to be happy on its head. No one wants to be persecuted. No one wants people to spread rumors and lies about them to hurt their reputation. No one wants to be called names and slandered. But Jesus says that when people do this to us “for righteousness sake” we are blessed—we will be happy.

This concept is nearly incomprehensible to the natural man; however, to those who have trusted in Christ, we by our new nature understand. When people call us bigots for believing what the Bible says about marriage and sexuality, and when Christians are taken to court and fined with oppressive and unreasonable fines because they refuse to violate their conscience, we can still be happy because we are identifying with Jesus.

As Jesus said in verse 12, “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” This goes for Isaiah, Jeremiah, Elijah, and Elisha, and the other prophets who were rejected by many in their day, but it also goes for Jesus himself. A servant is not greater than his master. If people mistreated Jesus, they will mistreat us as well. So, when you experience persecution or slander because of your faith in Christ, remember, this is part of the proof that you really belong to Jesus. This is part of the proof that your faith is real and that you will inherit heaven. Think of it this way. When Jesus told the story of the soils. How seeds were sown on the path, on rocky soil, on thorny soil, and upon good soil, the rocky soil represented those who responded to the word quickly with great joy but when persecution came because of the word they fell away. When you face persecution and you can still look in faith to Jesus, stand firm, and trust in his goodness—it confirms that you are really a true believer. It is through trials and persecution that God strengthens our assurance and gives us confidence that we have truly been born again. It is when we face the deepest difficulties and pains of our lives, yet we still cling to Christ.

In all of these 8 statements of Jesus, He turns our vision of happiness on its head. He shows us that the way to be happy, is not to trust in riches, but to admit our poverty. To experience the satisfaction we long for, we must hunger and thirst. And when we face people who hate us and mistreat us and we can still look to Jesus in faith—we are blessed.

Now my final question is this. Do you buy it? Can you buy into the way that Jesus says that we can be happy, or are you clinging to what the world says you need in order to be happy? I plead with you today, do not settle for the temporary pleasures that this world calls happiness. It is fleeting and it will not last. Instead, seek the greatest happiness and blessing you could ever have. Come to Jesus in your poverty, for he became poor for our sake.

We Are Listening!

How much effort do we put toward listening to God's word? Are there things that keep us from hearing? Do we have bitterness or sin that makes the word go right past us? Are we more interested in listening to the world than in listening to Jesus? Let him who has ears hear what Jesus says to us all.