Have you ever noticed how many types of salt there are? There’s plain salt, garlic salt, rock salt, Kosher salt, pickling salt, iodized salt, sea salt, not to mention the certain region of the sea salt, like sea salt from France or Atlantic sea salt, Baltic sea salt, Mediterranean sea salt, etc. There is red salt, peppered salt, and, of course, seasoning salt (although that seems redundant to me). There is salt blended especially for seasoning fish, chicken or beef.
“They’re the salt of the earth,” you might hear someone say. Another saying is: “I’m going to salt this away for now.” Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt. The relationship between man and salt is ageless.
Salt not only comes in a lot of forms, but it is useful for a lot of things. This simple chemical compound is truly amazing. It can be an antiseptic, a preservative, or a spice. It melts snow and ice and is used in making homemade ice cream. The pickling process uses salt and vinegar, and in days gone by, it, along with smoking, was the primary method which was used in order to preserve meats. It is also used in the canning process.
We believers are called to be the salt of the earth. Christ says this in Matthew 5:13 – “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing, but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.” That last bit about being trampled underfoot my men, is a reference to the fact that in that time, salt was mixed with other ingredients and then exposed to the elements. The salt would thereby become “leached out.” Such salt would be used for coating pathways. That’s why it becomes good for nothing except being trampled underfoot by men. The first part of the verse, about rather or not it loses its flavor, asking “how will it be seasoned?” makes me always want to yell out “With garlic!” I’m guessing though that the invention of garlic salt did not blindside the Lord! He was talking to an audience which may or may not have had garlic salt. The point, of course, isn’t about re-seasoning salt with garlic, but rather the nature of the salt used by the people of this time. Their salt was impure and could lose its strength over a period of time, becoming useless. Jesus’ point was that the same is true of a “salt-less” disciple. He’s using the parable to encourage His followers to become “seasoned” with His truth and to keep that truth fresh and alive. One way to do so is to speak that truth and pass it on to others. In this manner, the truth (salt) will always stay fresh and ……well….Salty. That’s why the very next verse encourages us to be the light of the world. Blessings!
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