Salt and Light: SALT's Commentary for Epiphany 5
Epiphany 5 (Year A): Matthew 5:13-20 and Isaiah 58:1-9a
Big Picture:
1) This is the second week in a four-part series walking through one of Jesus’ most famous sermons, the so-called “Sermon on the Mount.” As we saw last week, Jesus’ audience is largely made up of people who are sick or afflicted, along with those who care for them — and his first move is to present them with a surprising, encouraging map of God’s blessings in creation. This week, he continues in this vein, and then pivots toward instructions for living.
2) One of the most important ideas in the ancient world of the Gospels was “fulfillment.” The Gospel writers often write of scripture being “fulfilled” in and through contemporary events, and in this week’s passage, Jesus says he has come to “fulfill” the law. In both cases, the underlying notion is that when something is “fulfilled,” it’s truly embodied, incarnated, filled out, brought to life. When we “fulfill a responsibility,” for example, we perform it — we give it form — like an arm sliding into a perfectly tailored, beautifully embroidered sleeve. To “fulfill the law,” then, is to embody its essential features, to “fill out” and exemplify its meaning, spirit, and substance.
3) In this week’s reading from Isaiah, likely written shortly after the return from Babyonian exile, the prophet is confronting his community directly, contrasting hollow, hypocritical religious practices with truly faithful ones.
Scripture:
1) As we saw last week, Jesus has just proclaimed the surprising news that many of his listeners are actually among those graciously blessed by God. And now Jesus makes this idea even more explicit. He addresses his audience directly, using the second person: “You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world” (Mt 5:13-14). God has made you, and blessed you, for a particular role in creation’s redemption.
2) What role? First, even in very small quantities, salt and light can make a big difference to a much larger whole. A pinch of salt brings a dish’s flavors alive — indeed, salt is one of the only spices that can enhance and bring out other flavors in a dish. And even a little bit of light — say, a single candle — can light up a room. It can even light up a landscape: a candle is visible from more than a mile away (1.6 miles away, to be exact).
3) Second, both salt and light have simple, elemental purposes. As a seasoning, salt is, well, salty. No-one would use salt that’s “lost its taste” (Mt 5:13). Salt is for saltiness; its identity and its purpose are virtually one and the same. Likewise, light is for shining. Just as no-one would use unsalty salt, no-one would light a lamp and then hide it out of sight!
4) In the same way, our identity and purpose — who we are and what we’re meant to do — are virtually one and the same. Like salt and light, God made you as a small thing that can make a big difference for a larger whole. God made you to spice things up — not to overpower the dish, but to enliven it, enhancing and highlighting its other flavors. And likewise, God made you to shine, as only you can: a flame that can light up an entire room, or help guide a lost traveler home.
5) Jesus isn’t giving his listeners a new role to play here; rather, he’s naming who we already are. We don’t have to work to become salt and light. God made us this way, blessing us with gifts that can bless the world. But we do have to claim and embrace and live out these gifts. We do have to actually be salty and luminous, fulfilling and embodying what our gifts make possible. We do have to be who we are.
6) In this way, Jesus pivots from announcing blessings to giving instructions on how to live. But please note: every one of these forthcoming instructions is built on this foundation of blessing. Jesus doesn’t say, You wayward and sinful generation, leave behind your transgressions and transform yourselves into salt and light! Rather, he says, You ARE salt and light. God made you to bless the world! You may feel small and insignificant, but like a pinch of salt or a spark of light, you can make a tremendous difference. Go boldly, then, and be who you are! For heaven’s sake, don’t hide your light — go and shine for all to see!
7) In short, the essence of Jesus’ sermon is not, Do these “good works” in order to be blessed. Instead, it’s the reverse: You are blessed, and made to be a blessing — so go and live out your destiny by doing these “good works” (Mt 5:16)! In this way, the sermon is designed to make clear that good works — including the actions Jesus will now recommend in the rest of the sermon and beyond — are not strategies for earning or acquiring blessings. On the contrary, they are tangible ways to respond to our blessedness in gratitude and confidence, and so to bless the world in joy and love.
8) But before turning to specific instructions, Jesus adds one more introductory note: Some of the teachings to come, he says, may at first sound rather different than what you’ve heard in the law. But don’t worry: if you follow my instructions, you’ll more fully embody the essential features of what Moses taught, “filling out” and exemplifying the law’s meaning, spirit, and substance. Do you see? I’m not about abolishing or changing the law! I’m about getting to the heart of the law, and fully living it out (Mt 5:17-20).
9) To return to the image of the law as a “tailored, embroidered sleeve,” think of it this way: a scarecrow can technically wear such a sleeve, but its stick-for-an-arm won’t fill it out; it won’t “fulfill” it, and so the sleeve can only hang slack and wrinkled in the wind. But a human arm would fill out the sleeve perfectly; it would “fulfill” it; and the embroidered sleeve itself, with its substantive inner meaning fully embodied, would then show forth in all its beauty.
10) The basic idea here is by no means new: Isaiah, too, along with many other prophets, pointed out centuries before Jesus that it’s quite possible to adhere to the superficial “letter” of a law while at the same time violating its inner heart or “spirit.” Religious practices are permanently vulnerable to this kind of hypocrisy, since ostensibly identical actions can be carried out via drastically different motivations. For example, Christians may pray earnestly for our neighbors, even as we demonstrate our contempt for them: Dear God, help them become more like us… Or, as Isaiah puts it, we may fast in a way that “serves our own interest,” even as we ignore the interests of others around us — in effect “hiding from our own kin” (Isa 58:3,7). This kind of fasting, the prophet insists, may appear to be faithful to the law, but actually violates it.
11) Bottom line: superficially following the law isn’t enough. What really counts is to “fulfill” the law from the inside out, to embody its meaning, spirit, and substance — and doing so may well take surprising forms. It may mean a “fast” that consists in “sharing your bread with the hungry” or “bringing the homeless poor into your house” (Isa 58:7). Genuinely following the law, then, means staying true with regard to inner substance, and staying open-minded with regard to outer forms.
Takeaways:
1) After beginning with a surprising map of divine blessing in the Beatitudes, now Jesus pivots from blessing to instruction. Addressing his listeners directly, he declares us “salt and light,” little things that can make a big difference for a larger whole. Like salt, we can spice things up, bringing out other flavors in the dish. And like light, we can illuminate a room, dispel shadows, or guide a lost traveler home.
2) This declaration of blessing also contains within it a move toward instructions for living — for while we don’t have to work to become salt and light (since we already are!), we do have to claim, embrace, and embody our saltiness and luminosity. We have to be who we truly are!
3) And this idea — being who we truly are — forms the basis for all the instructions to come in the rest of the sermon. Jesus does not say, Follow these instructions and you’ll be blessed. Rather, he says, You are already blessed with gifts for blessing the world — so go and bless! Spice and shine! And here are some instructions for how best to do just that…
4) Finally, Jesus adds that while these forthcoming instructions may appear on the surface to differ from the law, in fact they help us “fulfill” it, bring it to life, embody its meaning, spirit, and substance. In the tradition of Isaiah, Jesus argues that genuinely following the law means staying true with regard to inner substance, and staying open-minded with regard to outer forms.
5) St. Augustine once remarked that when we receive Communion, we “receive what we are.” Sure enough: Jesus is the light of the world, and we, Jesus insists, are too! (John 8:12; Mt 5:14).