December 6 – Who You Are (Matthew 5:13-16)

“You are the salt of the earth. . . . You are the light of the world.”(Matthew 5:13-14)

IN WORD:
Jesus has gathered an odd collection of disciples and other listeners to a place on a hillside. His opening words to them are perhaps a little surprising. The way to blessedness, He has told them, is through poverty, grief, meekness, hunger & thirst, mercy, purity, pacifism, and persecution. These aren’t the standards human beings are prone to strive for. Nevertheless, they are the divine prescription for a fallen character.
His next statements are a little more promising, however. “You are the salt of the earth,” He tells them; and not only that, they are “the light of the world.” That’s a little more affirming, a positive statement that is sure to stroke the self-importance of the listeners. But Jesus’ statements about our identity are more than positive affirmation; they are an indication of our responsibility. Those who follow Him have taken on the weight of influencing the grave situation that this world finds itself in.
The principle is that God’s people are key to the Kingdom of God in this world. That Kingdom is coming, but not apart from the work of its ambassadors. Those who hear Jesus, who have ears to hear truth and act on it, are the vehicles of God’s activity in this world. They are salt & light, preserving, seasoning, illuminating, and pointing to the one true Light. There is something profound and humbling about a God who does His work through a rag-tag collection of redeemed throwaways. The scavenger God has gathered a remnant for an amazing re-genesis through the coming of His Son.

IN DEED:
Our lives are largely shaped by our perceptions of ourselves. Perhaps that’s why Satan has targeted our sense of identity from Eden until now. So Jesus begins His great sermon with words designed to bring our self-perception in line with His truth. We can never come to grips with reality — God’s reality — until we understand His assessment of ourselves and begin to live accordingly: We are called to be His salt and His light in a decaying, dark world.

“According to the New Testament, God wills that the church be a people who show what God is like.” -Stanley J. Grenz-