Tasty Christians

Being occupied this week at a conference, I asked my brother Sam Thiessen to do a guest post to keep things moving forward here at the Lamp Post.  He has not disappointed.  If you enjoy it, click on his name above for more.

Although I might be running the risk of stepping on the toes of my gracious host here, I'm going to talk about something from the Sermon on the Mount. Something I even learned from Tom, although I have since added my own little Levitical spin on things.

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus tells his followers that they are the salt of the earth. For a long time I heard this explained in terms of the preserving qualities of salt, especially in the days before refrigeration. Christians were to be a preserving element in an otherwise decaying world (certainly true, but is that the focus of the text?). Under this view, Christians are a sort of righteous Lot and his family, preventing the judgment of God from descending on a world in rebellion against Him. It was Tom who first pointed out to me that this view fails to see what is right there in the same verse: “...but if salt loses its flavor, how shall it [the earth] be seasoned? It is good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.”

So the important salt-characteristic in the text is not its preserving quality; but its flavor, its ability to season an otherwise bland meal. And so I was satisfied, the text is not about preservation, but about flavor, and I went on my merry way. But there were more questions to be answered: who is concerned with the flavor of the world, who is tasting the earth, and either enjoying it or spitting it out? 

I think the answer is found in Leviticus 2:13: “...with all your offerings you shall offer salt,” and also in Ezekiel 43:24: “when you offer them [consecration sacrifices] before the LORD, the priests shall throw salt on them, and they will offer them up as a burnt offering to the LORD.” (see also Rev. 3:16) The sacrifices laid out in Leviticus are full of meal language, of killing, separating, burning (cooking?), and eating. The sacrifices are a pleasing aroma to God, but under the Old Covenant, the meals that men could bring to God were very limited and specific.

But with the coming of Jesus, in the New Covenant and New Creation, God lays claim to the whole world as His, as a meal for Him to enjoy. And Christians are what makes the food flavorful and savory in His mouth. This idea brings the interpretation of Christians-as-flavorful-salt around full circle to the idea of Christians-as-preserving-salt, the Christian brings flavor to the earth so that it may be acceptable to God as a sacrifice. Both function to save an otherwise dying and decaying world (of course, only through the death of being eaten and the resurrection thereafter).

The Christian, like Jesus, is engaged in making all things new, in redeeming the world from the curse of the fall. It is a continuation of the idea of becoming like that which you worship and serve. We, as followers of Jesus, are made little conquerors of death, small bringers of new life, and agents of the restoration of all things. We, as Christ's disciples, are to be the flavorful salt of the covenant (Lev. 2:13a), bringing the earth and everything in it to our God for his pleasure.

“Have salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another.” (Mark 9:50)