Matthew 5:13-20

Jesus begins His sermon with a stellar introduction.  He caught the people’s attention by turning their idea of reality on its head.  They thought their hardships in life meant that they were cursed by God.  But Jesus told them that even though they were poor, grieving, meek, hungry, or persecuted… they were blessed!  How could this be?!  It was because God loves every person, and He was bringing His redemptive plan for them into being through His Son.  From His words, we learn that our circumstances don’t determine our reality.  We may feel beset with problems, losses, sickness, or torment, but God knows us, He loves us, and He wants us.  That’s right!  God wants faulty and sinful human beings to work with Him to bring His goodness into this broken world.  He completes his introductory declaration by telling us so.

Jesus declares that those who follow Him are like salt for this world.  What in the world could that mean?  Well, salt was very useful in the ancient world, but also very scarce.  For us, salt is probably the most readily available seasoning we put on our food.  Other spices and flavorings, we keep in the kitchen cabinet, but salt is so plentiful we keep it in a shaker on the dinner table.  Most food in the ancient world was unsalted, though.  This was because salt was much harder to come by before modern mining methods could dig deeply enough into the ground to access pure veins of it.  Food flavored with salt was highly valued because of its more savory flavor.  It simply made the food taste better.  And Christians make the world around us better, too.  It’s Christians who invented hospitals.  It’s Christians who invented universities and public education.  It’s Christians who operate charities and orphanages.  It’s Christians who bring food, supplies, water wells, agriculture, education, and medical care to the neediest parts of the earth.  Can you imagine what a flavorless world it would be without God’s people here to inject His goodness into it?

Before refrigeration, salt was one of the most important ways to preserve food.  Salt-curing prohibits spoilage, mold, and decay.  And in the same way, God’s goodness through His people does the same on earth.  The world seems to think that they’ll attain Utopia when all the Christians are gone and no longer standing in the way of “progress.”  But Genesis 6:5-6 describes a world where there was practically no Godly influence at all.  It was a world where “every intention of the thoughts of [man’s] heart was only evil continually.  And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.”  In other words, a world without Godly influence descends into absolute wickedness and chaos.  The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah had descended into wicked chaos because there was no Godly witness there.  They were only fit to be destroyed by the Righteous Judge.  So the presence of Christians keeps this world from descending into chaos and destruction.

The world may hate God’s people, but without the presence of the Lord’s truth and goodness in this world it would all fall apart very quickly.

Jesus also tells His followers that they are like light in this darkened world.  Light is a help, and a comfort, and a guide to those who are in darkness.  It is a help because it allows us to see what may be going on around us.  Jesus says we are like a lamp in a dark room.  When it’s placed on a stand, it gives light to everyone present – both to the one who lit it, and to the others who happen to be in the room.  Everybody benefits from its glow.  In the same way, when we shine the light of the Lord’s truth, everybody benefits.  Believers are taught and encouraged; unbelievers are able to see the truth of their condition more clearly.  But if we hide our light, it benefits no one.  Light is also a comfort to those in darkness.  We often feel better when we have a night light glowing while we sleep.  Knowing we aren’t alone in the darkness makes us feel secure.  And light is also a guide to those trying to find their way in the dark.  Whether it’s the flashlight in your hand when the power goes out, or the great lighthouse guiding ships safely through the ocean’s channels, lights show the way of safety.  Without a shining light, it would be easy to trip over obstacles or crash our ship into the rocks.  The light of God’s truth, shined through the lives of the faithful, help us see more clearly who God is and how He would have us live.

After Jesus has assured us that we are blessed, and that we are important to God and this world, He closes His introduction by describing what He has come to do to help us find our purpose in God.  It turns out that the mission of Jesus’s life and ministry is to fulfill the Torah in a way we never can.  The what?  The Torah is often referred to as “The Law.”  This refers to the Law that God gave the Israelites through Moses when He freed them from slavery in Egypt and established them in the Promised Land.  There are 613 rules for living that God sets forth in the Torah.  10 of those rules are for everyone in the world to follow so they can live rightly.  We call them the 10 Commandments.  They are the most basic guidelines that God intends for mankind.  On top of that, there are 603 other rules for the nation of Israel.  This nation was special.  They were to be God’s special representatives out of all the peoples of the world.  God set them apart to be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation,” (Exodus 19:6).  These special rules were to make the Israelites an example of God’s holiness, goodness, justice, and power before the world.  Except Israel never really followed God’s plan, so they were never the powerful witness to the other nations that the Lord had wanted them to be.  They failed, but God did not.

In the Law, God lays out what a perfectly obedient person ought to act like… and what a perfectly obedient Israelite ought to act like… and what a perfectly obedient priest ought to act like… and what a perfectly obedient king ought to act like.  No one who held these positions was ever perfect… but Jesus was.  He completely fulfilled the Law.  He was the perfect man… the perfect Israelite… the perfect priest and king (even though He never held those earthly titles, He still fulfilled all the requirements).  And after doing everything right, Jesus gave up His reward to us and took the punishment for our sin upon Himself.  He fulfills the Law by becoming the perfect priest and the perfect sacrifice. 

As Jesus begins the body of His sermon, He quickly makes it clear that we are all lawbreakers.  We are murderers, adulterers, liars, and thieves.  We may keep parts of the Law by letter, but we fail miserably at keeping it in spirit.  And God desires that we love Him, not just that we keep a bunch of rules.  Now that we know who we are – blessed and important, but guilty and broken – we can begin to understand what God wants to do so we can join Him in His work.