5th Sunday in Ordinary Time
In my preparation for this morning, I read a commentary that took the first part of our Scripture lesson to mean that we are to strive to be the salt of the earth; that we are to strive to be, in our daily living, the light of the world; and that’s how I’ve always tended to read this passage. But when I read it in this commentary this week, it occurred to me: that’s not what the text actually says. I know it’s a small distinction, but Jesus doesn’t tell us to try to do anything here; he says you are the salt of the earth; he says you are the light of the world.
Now clearly, when Jesus calls us salt and light, it’s a parable. And like any parable, it can have a variety of meanings: for example, both salt and light are both valuable to other human beings and even essential for keeping us alive. But similarly, like any parable, there are limits to how many meanings you can take from this metaphor as well: for example, even though too much salt and too much light will also kill you, I don’t think that was what Jesus was getting at.
No, it seems the most obvious meaning is that we’re to draw from this parable is that you are important to God; you were made for a purpose. And unlike actual salt and light, you have a choice: you can choose not to be the people you were created to be. You can deny your saltiness, if you want to; you can hide away your light. But why would you want to? That’s not who you are. You are salt and you are light; so go and be the salty lamps you were made to be. Okay, it sounds weird when you put it like that, but I think you get the point: Jesus isn’t calling us to be anyone other than who we were created to be. You are made to show the goodness of God, so let us learn to be ourselves.
Our lesson today is an excerpt from the Sermon on the Mount. In fact, it’s rather early-on in the sermon: Jesus has only just finished the Beatitudes; he has merely set the tone of the sermon by turning common-sense on its head. He began by telling his disciples and this great crowd of people that – in the kingdom of heaven – those that they would regard as “cursed” are actually “blessed” by God. “Blessed are the poor in spirit;” “Blessed are those who mourn;” “Blessed are the meek;” “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” You get the point: those who are lowly in this “kingdom” are the blessed ones in God’s. And it seems that the opposite might be true as well.
Jesus often goes after the religious leaders of his day so we almost don’t notice it when he takes a shot at them in our lesson today. “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven;” that line would have caught the attention of crowd… especially the scribes and Pharisees in the crowd.
The scribes and Pharisees, of course, get a bad reputation in the Gospels; and they probably deserve it. But I also feel I need to defend them sometimes: because they meant well. You see, at this point in Israel’s history, they people of God have been occupied and dominated and oppressed ever since the Babylonians conquered them. For generation upon generation they have been a subjugated and conquered people; and in Jesus’ day, it was more of the same under the Romans. It’s not hard to imagine how this might begin to affect you as a people once called “Chosen” by God.
In Jesus’ day, there were three general responses to this national crisis. First, here was the pragmatic approach: simply cooperate with the Romans; go along and make the best of it; and who knows, maybe your cooperation will get you a profit while you’re at it. This was the response of people like the temple priests and those they called the Herodians.
A second response was kind-of the opposite of that: to rebel; to fight the powers that be, even though you know they are a lot more powerful than you. And who knows, maybe God will finally notice your struggle and crush your enemies like in the good-old-days. They called these kinds of people “zealots” (and, by the way, Jesus had one or two as his followers). And although there were a lot of different kinds of zealots, they all wanted the same thing and they wanted to fight for it.
And then there were people like the scribes and the Pharisees: their response to the Roman occupation was a kind of spiritual “circling of the wagons.” They saw the sin of conspiring with the Romans, but they also saw the futility of fighting against them. And so they walled themselves off spiritually and followed the letter of the law. And in so doing, they sought to keep the sin of the world at bay while – at the same time – keeping their own identity as God’s people.
So you can see that these were tough times for the Israelites. There was no perfect response to their current situation, but at least they meant well. In fact, it kind of reminds me of what it’s like to be a Christian in America these days: but I suppose it’s not always easy to be the people of God in any day; leading us to the question that the followers of Christ have always asked; “How do we live both in this ‘kingdom’ and God’s at the same time?” Do we compromise; do we try to relate the gospel to the world by trying to be like the world? Do we revolt; do we – in a sense – go to war with the world; finding our identity in opposition to the world around us? Or do we, like the scribes and Pharisees, seek a holier path? Do we mind our own business, focus our attention on being holier than the world around us, and then wait for Christ to come back and rescue us?
I admit that, even though I know that last one is the wrong answer, I find it appealing. I know the next part of this sermon so I already know they’re wrong, but I respect what the scribes and Pharisees were trying to do: while waiting for God to do something about the sin of the world, they sought live as righteously as they could. What they didn’t realize, though, is that God was already doing something about the sin of the world.
Now of course, when we talk about possible responses the Roman oppression and the sin of the world, you can probably guess that Jesus will take a totally different approach: Jesus will not compromise the righteousness of God like the Herodians do; God’s law is God’s and there is no compromising God’s law. And not only will he not fight against the powers that be – like the zealots do – he calls his followers to love their enemies and pray for them. And unlike the scribes and Pharisees – whose righteousness is about isolating themselves and waiting for God to arrive – Jesus shows us that God is already here; that righteousness isn’t about waiting it out, but it’s about living in the kingdom of God right here, right now.
In other words, simply living right is not enough. It’s not enough that we be upright, moral, and righteous people. It’s not enough that we hold up here with other pious people, preserving our Christian heritage. That’s the righteousness of scribes and Pharisees and it’s a righteousness that our Savior calls us to exceed. Their righteousness is not what Christ calls us to do and it’s not what we’ve been created to be. Theirs is a so-called righteousness that loses its saltiness; theirs is a righteousness that hides itself under a basket. The righteousness that our Savior taught – the righteousness of the kingdom of heaven – is one that lives out the law as it was meant to be lived out: in the world, making the world a better place, and living like God’s kingdom has come and we are living in it.
Jesus calls us the salt of the earth and the light of the world; and as I’ve said, there are a lot of ways we might interpret this parable. But for today I would offer just this observation: one thing we often overlook when we talk about salt and light is that, not only are these things essential for our survival, they also make life better. I mean, how great is salt! We put it on everything for a reason. And light! Have you ever considered how much better life is because there’s light? Sure, you’d have a hard time getting around without it, but light is so pleasant. Just ask my pets as they’re fighting for the last sunny spot by the window every afternoon; light is great.
God hasn’t simply put us in this world to bring life to it as salt and light do; God has made us to make the world better like salt and light do. One thing we often overlook is that salt and light are also quite pleasant. So let us live out the true righteousness of God; living today in the very kingdom of heaven that our Savior proclaimed; and let us remember that when we do, we are being the people that we are created to be.
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