People like to argue over opinions, but few question facts like gravity, at least without paying the price. It does not take a physicist to understand the simple law of gravity. Even a two-year-old begins to understand, if I jump up, I will come back down again. It is said Sir Isaac Newton discovered gravity when an apple fell from a tree and hit his head. But then, how does a figure from the middle-ages get to claim something my two-year-old child understood on his first journey down, from a jump he made going up? Seems to me, many 2-year-olds made this self-same discovery since Cain and Able were playing just outside of Eden. Now taking credit for the obvious, that is entirely another matter. Sounds like a wonderfully English thing to do. And Americans have had no hesitation in inheriting this fine English trait, with which we add the concept of “abundance” and there you have it. Everyone gets gravity, almost nobody understands democracy.
But there are few debates (outside of the world of physics and the study thereof) about the notion of gravity. Common folks, from children to senior citizens, just understand what gravity does, and what happens when we try to defy it. There is little sense in arguing that gravity does not exist, because people simply throw apples at you, until you change your mind, or at least until you be quiet about your lunacy. Some things just are. They exist despite our opinions about them. They can be easily understood by the masses. And they spark little debate. This kind of commonly accepted fact can be used to great effect, when discussing more seemingly complex topics. Discussing salvation for example; were I to compare something about salvation to gravity, since gravity is well understood, perhaps the point I am making about salvation might be equally well understood. Enter Jesus.
Nearly 2000+ years ago, Jesus had a ton of people following Him around. Perhaps not a ton, perhaps a legion, or maybe many legions. The term ton may be well understood today, but it lacks the kind of comparison a Roman would have been keenly aware of in this day and time. Suffice it to say, the crowd following Jesus was spread across the entire side of a mountain. And His sermon had begun from near the top of it. Jesus began by listing a state of blessing, few listeners could agree with, let alone understand. His expressions were deep, they were profound. These were teachings no member of the Sanhedrin had ever offered. The sermon being done in a place no Pharisee had ever thought to preach at. This was new. His words might be interpreted, and then re-interpreted for 2 millennia to come, as Christians debated what it means to be blessed. Something more basic was needed. Something more akin to gravity.
Matthew records what followed in his gospel in chapter five picking up in verse 13 saying … “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.” Let’s talk about food. Everybody eats. And nearly everybody knows what salt tastes like, or at least what salt is supposed to taste like. Even little kids and animals seem to get this concept. But what happens when your salt, no longer tastes like salt? What happens when your salt is nothing more than a white grainy powder with no taste at all, and with our collective luck, all the same health detriments that tasty salt still had? Would you keep using it? Would you keep putting the dead no-taste-salt on the food you were trying to season? Would your two-year-old still eat it? No. You would ditch the stuff down the drain. If you were American, you would take the empty container back to Walmart and scream at the sales lady until she gives you a new one, and a gift card for the added luxury of hearing you scream. But the bottom line is, you would not use a worthless pile of white tasteless grains on your food.
This is what Jesus has just stated for His audience. But here is where the analogy of crappy salt and a people who do not understand what salvation is, begins to form. People who know Jesus, become different people. Jesus does not change. But you do. The more time you spend with Jesus the tastier you get. Just going to Temple, or church in our case, does not make you tasty, it just makes you a white grainy powder no one wants to use. The container does not make the salt, salty. The Creator of salt does.
Hanging out with other pasty white grainy tasteless people does not improve the flavor of your salt, it just makes a sad statement about how much wasted salt there is in the land of Christianity. A bunch of white tasteless power talking about religious “stuff” with another bunch of white tasteless powder is a waste of breath. But learning from Jesus what Jesus has to say, that is an entirely different matter. Jesus is not just a concept. He digs in to your life. He gets in to your business. He digs down, and begins to work on areas of your life you do not want anyone else to know even exist. But that is what Jesus does. He gets in there and begins to make things better. He gets in there and changes how you think, who you love, how you love, and what you want. You become someone else. You start getting very tasty. At that point, church is over, and salvation has begun.
Salt is either worth using, or it’s not. Jesus continues in verse 14 saying … “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. [verse 15] Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. [verse 16] Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” The light of a candle in a dark place is not camouflage, it is the opposite of camouflage. Everybody sitting in darkness will immediately see the light of a candle. They may not see everything else there is in the room, but they will surely see the fire burning on the candle. This is one of those gravity kinds of things. Light fills darkness and few debate the nature of this idea.
So how does this apply to salvation? Jesus changes who you are. In short, He puts a passion in you, you have yet to even understand before He does it. He makes you passionate about other people. He makes you love them, truly care about their lives. To the point where you forget to care about your own life. You get so wrapped up in how others feel, you forget to take care of you, and somehow God takes care of you without even needing to ask. But that passion for others, makes you different than who you were. And believe me, people notice. The guy or girl at the other end of you loving, really notices. Whether a former enemy, a homeless person on the street, a person just down the pew from you in “church”, or a family member who has never seen you like this before. People notice. The fire of your love is like a candle in a dark room. It chases darkness out, and draws attention. And the question is … where did it come from?
Let’s face it, you don’t love like that today. Maybe for someone, or even a few someone’s, but not like that for people you hardly knew, or hardly cared about before. Those folks are bound to notice. Because it was not there before, and now it is. So where does it come from? Well guess what, it doesn’t come from you. If it did, it would be there today. You cannot fake this kind of passion, it is too tiring to do. But when it is real, when it is genuine, it comes with the energy you need to share it 24/7. And the fire burns brightly, and people notice. The question remains, where does it come? The only explanation. The only real answer is Jesus. Jesus can put love in a heart of stone, and transform it to a heart of flesh. Jesus can burn the apathy away, and replace it with a burning passion that just cannot sit still. Once you catch fire, you begin to understand … this love does not come from you, it passes through you and originates in Jesus Christ. You are just His candle, not the flame. Jesus will always be the flame. He just needs to put His fire into your vessel, and for that you must be willing to let Him transform you into one who wants it.
So most Christians are eager to hear this news, and get right into the waiting room of Jesus’ transformation area. They are excited to hear they are going to be different. But while they wait, and instead of submitting themselves, they decide to “live a little”. If salvation is truly a gift from God, then perhaps we can accept that gift any old time. Leave ourselves a little time to take care of number one, before we start getting all passionate about taking care of others. And so begins the idea in the Christian’s head, that the law doesn’t matter anymore. Love is what it is all about, so as long as I am loving me, and loving others, I should be OK. Wrong. Loving me leads to doing things to make me happy, most often at the expense of others. Loving me, is not really loving at all. The Law was given to point this physics based phenomenon out to us.
Jesus continues in verse 17 saying … “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. [verse 18] For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Ta-da! The Law stands as a mirror to show us who we truly love. When we love others we would not even think to lie to them, dishonor them, steal from them, hate them or kill them. You would not even need a law, if these thoughts never came into your mind. But they do. The thoughts that would hurt another enter the mind, because we are too focused on pleasing ourselves. I want what you have, so I would lie to you to get it, steal from you if I could, hurt you if I have to. All of the actions that hurt others reveal that I love myself, not others. We justify our misdeeds in any number of ways, but the revelation who we love is made clear by the Law. It is why Jesus does not come to destroy our mirror, but to give us a new perspective when we look into it. We become someone else, someone in harmony with the law, instead of at war with it. The transformation changes who we love, others not us.
Jesus continues in verse 19 saying … “ Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. [verse 20] For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” So Jesus makes a couple of points here. Notice that breaking a commandment does not keep you “out” of the Kingdom of heaven. Forgiveness covers our mistakes. But it cannot make up for our opportunities we lose while breaking His Law, and loving only ourselves. It is we who we punish when we love ourselves instead of letting Jesus make us passionate about loving others. On the other hand, being in harmony with God’s law, understanding what it is like to truly be passionate about loving others, grants us every opportunity, and offers us a level of fulfillment we can hardly imagine today.
The second point Jesus makes and it is an important one … we cannot compare ourselves against other “people” to judge the state of our salvation. Comparing yourself, even against a pastor or priest or Pharisee, does not make you one bit better off, or them one bit worse off. It is like tasteless salt comparing grain sizes to determine who is better off, a big grain, or a little grain, both equally useless. The religious intelligencia have their own problems to overcome. They do not believe they need Jesus. They believe intellect and a study of the Word can compensate for the lack of an intimate knowledge of Jesus. They believe perfection can be achieved by force of will. They only entertain partnerships with God where they do for themselves, and ask God to make up for the difference. And they find no perfection, no relief from the desire to sin, and ultimately no salvation from themselves. For they have dictated the terms of their salvation to be interlocked with self at the center of their Christian religion. And these are the smart people. Imagine the state of you and me.
But then … imagine the state of you and me. Imagine what it would be like to be freed from who you are, by doing nothing more than letting Jesus free you from it. Imagine becoming passionate about loving others not by “trying” to be passionate, but by letting Jesus reflect His love through you, instead of shutting it off to go do something else. Imagine what it is like to have Jesus all up in your business. Letting Jesus get to places you don’t want anyone else even knowing about. Imagine knowing it is OK to let Jesus in there, because He makes all things new. Imagine letting Jesus change how you think, who you love, how you love, and what you want. You would be someone else. And that would be a good thing. A good thing for you, for those you love, for everybody. You would be catching fire. And once you get a taste of this, you won’t ever want to put it down. You will reflect a fire, everyone else cannot help but see. And that fire will consume everything about you, in a good way, in a great way. Are you ready to let Jesus strike the match?
And the sermon was nowhere near finished yet …
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