GOSPEL PARABLES 1 SALT AND LIGHT We have mentioned that there was a turning point in the public ministry of Jesus where because of his influence and miracle working power, he had become Public Enemy Number One, posing a threat to the Jewish leadership and also to the Roman Empire. Up to this point we have been studying the major events of his ministry which was mostly in Galilee and after his baptism by John, and that period of time is believed to have taken a little over two years, up t...
GOSPEL PARABLES 1 SALT AND LIGHT
We have mentioned that there was a turning point in the public ministry of Jesus where because of his influence and miracle working power, he had become Public Enemy Number One, posing a threat to the Jewish leadership and also to the Roman Empire.
Up to this point we have been studying the major events of his ministry which was mostly in Galilee and after his baptism by John, and that period of time is believed to have taken a little over two years, up to when he appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration where he was visited by Moses and Elijah. The next period of a little over one year of his public ministry involves his setting his face to go to Jerusalem to be tried by the Jewish leaders and by Pilate and be sentenced to his death upon the cross.
Jesus taught a little more than forty parables over his entire ministry, with a handful being repeated in another Gospel with a different setting or time frame or emphasis. About half of the parables were taught in the two and a bit years before the time of his appearance on the Mount of Transfiguration. So, in order to keep the sequence of the Gospels narrative as tidy as possible I would like to now start discussing the first twenty or so parables that Jesus taught. He taught these in Galilee before the latter part of his journey from the Transfiguration through to his death and resurrection and ascension into Heaven. It is interesting to note that all the parables of Jesus are only taught in the three Gospels of Matthew and Mark and Luke, with John’s Gospel only telling one parable in Chapter Ten of the story of the Good Shepherd and of Jesus saying that he is the door through which we enter the sheepfold.
We have already discussed the first two parables of Jesus in the beginning of this series, which dealt with patching new cloth onto old garments and putting new wine into old wineskins, and the next two parables are the ones concerning our being as salt in the earth and being as a light to the world.
Matthew writes in Chapter Five (also referenced in Mark 9:50; and Luke 14:34,),
‘You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its flavour, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.’
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, and people do not light a lamp and put it under a bowl but they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house’. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see that light in all you do and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:13-16).
These parables come straight after Jesus had just been teaching the Beatitudes, in the Sermon on the Mount, about the Blessings of the Kingdom of God. In that sermon he was speaking to crowds of underprivileged people, the poor in spirit and those who mourned, and the pure in heart. He had been encouraging them to find within themselves the attitudes of faith and hope that would gain them entrance into the Kingdom of God that he had come to establish in the earth and that would be available after his resurrection and the sending of the Holy Spirit.
But now here in these parables he is not urging them to find entrance into the Kingdom, he is telling them what the outcome in their lives would be if they did choose to enter that kingdom. They would flavour the earth with the essence of God. Their lives would be a light in a dark place that could not be hidden from sight, which is what those poor people were at the moment - they were out of sight and out of mind. But things would change for them. There is always an opportunity in all of our lives for things to change. We might want to see things change on the outside in the world around us, but Jesus is saying that the change will come first on the inside.
These words from Jesus are an invitation for people to enter into discipleship and to release the kingdom of God from within them. Many people seriously think that entering the Kingdom of God is about going to Heaven after surviving a difficult journey of life on earth.
Discipleship is not trying to get out of the earth and into heaven – it is getting Heaven into the earth right where we are, right here and now. The people that he was talking to would never have dreamt such a thing.
The interesting thing about the effectiveness of salt and light is that they don’t have to make speeches or even say anything at all. Salt doesn’t have to say how tasty it is. And our spiritual salt just has to flavour the spiritual atmosphere with the essence of the nature of God – and people will taste and see that the Lord is good! Light does not have to make a sound; it just allows something to be seen for what it is, and it will speak volumes of unuttered truth.
When you flavour the atmosphere as salt you allow the nature of God that has been formed in your soul to permeate the atmosphere of peoples’ minds and hearts and cause them to absorb that atmosphere and have it bond to their inner spiritual life.
There is an interesting weather modification process that is used to get rain to fall in dry areas for agricultural purposes. It is called ‘salting or seeding the atmosphere’ and it allows particles of moisture to precipitate around certain salt compounds of sodium chloride and potassium and silver iodide that provokes showers of rain to fall upon the earth. The engineering challenge is to find the methods of getting the salts up into just the right atmospheric conditions to form the raindrops, and gravity does the rest, and the earth is blessed.
We can salt the Heavenly Spiritual atmosphere which it is already there waiting for us. By having our hearts prepared in prayer our faith finds that Heavenly atmosphere where we can seed it with the salt and savour of God’s nature and release the rain of the Holy Spirit to fall upon the earth (David’s prayer as incense (Ps141.2). We are at rest and the earth gets blessed and there is the good soil of people’s hearts ready to receive and believe and bring forth life. It would be a shame for the good salt of a person’s soul to not find that heavenly atmosphere and be left lying on the ground and get trodden underfoot by the atmosphere of this world.
Reading on in Matthew 5 we see Jesus using potent metaphors to convey a spiritual message to his followers about their role as his light in the world.
“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. And people do not light a lamp and put it under a bowl but they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see the light in you that is shining through in all you do and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14-16)
God says his people are a city on a hill that cannot be hidden. This is the city that is calling people home in these days, the wanderers and the weary. The Bible says that Abraham looked for a city whose builder and maker is God - a heavenly City, and this city of God’s people in the earth reflects the heavenly City. It is not a man made bustling busy city, but a God made city of peace and love. In the world people flock to big cities and get lost, but with God’s city people come to that place and are found, and they find themselves and they find God.
All over the world in the last few years many big cities from the Middle East and into Europe and throughout our Western civilization have become more and more places of violence and unexpected danger, and there exists now a phenomenon of what is called urban warfare with military strategies as never seen before - our cities are no longer a place of settled peace.
The city of God is his place of peace and refuge, and it can no longer be hidden. It is no longer a quaint fringe institution or a rowdy corporate event agency competing for relevance in the modern world. It is where there are communities of God that are grounded in faith and love.
Jesus goes on to speak about the people in that city, and the light of God that is within them. If light dwells within someone it will shine through on the outside without them having to endorse themselves – light endorses itself.
In 2 Corinthians Chapter Four Paul writes about Satan, the god of this world who is blinding the minds of those who don’t understand or believe and are unable to see the light of the Message of Jesus. He goes on to say. For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God in the presence (prosopon -presence or face) of Jesus Christ. We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile vessels of clay containing this treasure. (2Corinthians 4:6-7).
Darkness cannot penetrate anything - it can only hide or shroud truth. Only light can penetrate that darkness that blinds peoples’ minds and if it has shone into a person’s heart it will shine into the surrounding darkness. There are people in that city on the hill that shine a light into the world around them and it is not because they want recognition. Jesus said ‘In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see the light in you that is shining through in all you do and they will give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:13-16)
That light leads people out of darkness, and it will guide them forward on a pathway of light. Amen
