Emily Lyons

Dear Friends, 

When I was a Catholic kid, I didn’t think much about the Bible, let alone read it, outside of Sunday Mass. I wasn’t steeped in the language of the Bible, and I didn’t realize until much later that common idioms like “to read the writing on the wall” and “to escape by the skin of one’s teeth” had biblical origins. 

As a literature scholar, I love encountering idioms in their original context, so I knew I had to write about “the salt of the earth,” found in today’s reading from Matthew. In common usage, “salt of the earth” means an honest, unpretentious person, but this doesn’t quite line up with how Jesus uses this phrase. 

In these verses from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus addresses his disciples directly. He tells them to rejoice even as they are persecuted for his sake, knowing their reward is in heaven. He then charges them with the responsibility of being the “salt of the earth” and “the light of the world.” 

I dove into Wikipedia looking for information on what scholars and theologians have to say about this passage and learned a surprising amount of helpful context.  

First, salt’s importance as a preservative and as an essential ingredient for baking made it a highly valuable commodity in the premodern world. Then there is salt’s ritual significance in Judaism as a purifying agent and in making covenants. By sharing salt with each other, parties entering a covenant symbolically became members of one family. 

So what does “salt of the earth” mean to Jesus and his disciples? Here’s what the historical context adds to my understanding. One way to look at it is that God’s truth, like salt, is immensely valuable, but its value can only be realized when it is used and shared with others. If it isn’t shared it might as well be trampled under foot. 

Another way to look at it is that Jesus imbues the disciples themselves with the ritual significance of salt. They become living symbols of the new covenant established by Jesus’ sacrifice for us. 

To me this stands as a reminder that by Jesus’ death and resurrection we are all reconciled to God as members of one family. But more than that, it challenges me to be the “salt of the earth,” sharing what I know of God’s love with others.

In Christ, 

—Emily