March 1, 2023

Text – St. Matthew 5:13-16

“Salt: The Gift that Sweetens and Preserves.”

Isolation brought about by disease or illness may make many feel lonely, anxious, and depressed.  During the pandemic when most activities ceased most of us craved relief from it so that life could proceed and people could work, live, play, and gather. 

Salt is often referred to in the Bible as both a sweetening and preserving agent.  Old Testament sacrifices were often salted before being offered, and the prophet Elisha used salt to sweeten bad, undrinkable water for the people of Israel.  Later in the Bible, Jesus calls you, Christians, the salt of the earth, meaning that your life tastes like a different drink of water than others. You flavor and preserve life on this earth.  Through the Spirit of God, there is something unique, joyful, and wholesome in the way you speak, live, and act as St. Paul says in his epistle to the Colossians: “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” 

A noticeable attitude shift tempers how a Christian lives his life in relation Lent 2 Midweek

to this world and our fellow human beings. We go through life with a taste of hope in our daily activities, no matter how restricted our life might be, and that can’t help but overflow into or in some way affect the lives of those around us. 

Many of the baptismal rites of the Early Church included placing a tiny bit of salt on the lips of the baptized.  After renouncing the devil and his works – and confessing the Apostles’ Creed the candidate was given salt before being baptized. This is one of the reasons why Luther included the use of salt in his earliest writing on baptismal rites. Salt was a visible way (in fact, several senses are involved) …it was a way of reminding the baptized that their lives are now different and distinct from the world yet for its benefit.

Salt, according to Scripture, seasons and sweetens, yet it also purifies, preserves and keeps.  Salt was such a precious commodity in the lives of ancient people that they kept it everywhere in their homes.  In fact, the root of the word salary comes from the Latin word salarium, a root word based on “salt.” Soldiers may have even been paid with salt to preserve meat and food to help their families before modern refrigeration was invented. 

After the prophet Elisha succeeded Elijah, he was told that the water in Jericho was so bad and undrinkable that something had to be done.  It may have tasted something like well water, which contains lots of iron and minerals, but this was a matter more than just taste.  The water was causing illnesses, miscarriages, and death.  So, Elijah asked for some water in a bowl and placed some salt in it.  Then he threw the salt water into the spring, sweetening and refreshing all the water for the people to continue to use and drink and even the land became fruitful again. God, through His prophet, healed that dreadful water with salt.  Perhaps that helps us in our understanding of what Jesus says in His Sermon on the Mount: “You are the salt of the earth…” 

Though the world would never admit it, Christians are used by God to make things better as we walk in His ways, as our God-given gifts benefit our families and neighbors, as we proclaim a free Gospel of forgiveness and a word of absolution for all sins and the promise of everlasting life, and as this present age is continued and judgment postponed until the full number of the redeemed is gathered in.

What kind of pain are you enduring or suffering now? Is there anything sour, troubling, or unfruitful in your life? Is your personal health compromised?  Or are there some bitter or strained relationships with people? Is your employment situation stressful?  Amid life’s sour and bitter experiences, Jesus comes to sweeten, enliven, and refresh you through His healing Word.  You are God’s own dear child, baptized, washed, and salted in Christ to be the “salt of the earth.”  This seasonal pilgrimage reminds us that Jesus died on Calvary’s cross to heal us completely from sin and rescue us from eternal death and spare us hell’s brutal fires. God is not distant, but He promises to deliver you from all your troubles and to heal those things most broken in life. “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” 

Jesus comes to preserve you and keep you.  The ancient people of God often used salt to preserve meat and other food so that it would last much longer.  Even when the priests offered grain offerings and burnt offerings, they salted them. 

Even nowadays, jerky, a handy and hardy provision for cowboys, travelers, explorers, and soldiers is meat prepared as a snack and preserved by salt. 

In Minnesota, among the Scandinavians, the so-called delicacy of “lutefisk” originated as preserved cod, stored for the long term in salt, then in preparation for eating, usually around Christmastime the salted fish was reconstituted in a lye bath and then rinsed in plenty of clean water.  It was known for its distinct odor and flavor of which I never personally partook. 

I once asked a Swedish exchange student what she thought of lutefisk, and she told me with a bit of disdain for the transplanted Scandinavian custom that modern Sweden has refrigeration and does need to replace as a food supply nor for nostalgia’s sake to exchange fresh cod with salt-preserved aged cod.

Nevertheless, a similar – yet more important sort of preservation and keeping also took place when God saved you.  Yes, Jesus died as the sacrifice on the cross to reconcile Himself to you and to save you from your diseased life!  As your great High Priest and Lamb of God, He was salted and offered up for you, and now having been baptized into Him, death holds no power over you.  Your life is preserved under the shelter of His wings.  Even though this temporal life will end because we get sick and die, your hope is not in this life.  Since, on Easter, Jesus rose from the dead, your weak, mortal body is promised to be raised as a pure, eternal body.  That means you, even now, are really living a life that is truly preserved forever.  Present or temporal death is not eternal death, and that news sweetens life now with renewed joy and purpose.

Sadly, many people still live hopelessly with zero comfort when someone dies.  Therefore, Jesus warns us about losing saltiness.  Salt is not within us, but God gives salt to us just as Elisha placed the salt in the water to sweeten the spring for drinking.  When a Christian dies, he or she is promised to be with the Lord forever.  Because of that, we read words of comfort, dwell on God’s promise of life in Christ, and sing hymns with joy.  That is why St. Paul says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”  Your saltiness literally makes you hopeful, joyful, and appealing to anyone who sees or knows you.  Christ’s Word is the source of sweetening and seasoning in life.

Jesus Christ is with you now, seasoning and preserving all your life and those all around you.  He promises you rescue from eternal death and preserves you now and for eternity.  The only way salt is depleted or lost is when we fail to hear God’s Word or receive His Sacraments and build upon His words and promises.  Even though life is daily torn by sin, broken relationships, and faltering health, Jesus promises to preserve and keep you and to work all things for your good and for the good of the person next to you.  He will sweeten all things with renewed hope and purpose! By His resurrection from the dead, in Christ, you are now sweetening salt, wholesome salt, and preserving salt to all the world. 

Amen.