Calling - pt 2

Matthew 5:13-16
English Standard Version (ESV)

13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.

14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that[a] they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Simple Illustration isn't it?

Perfect and simple explanation of what we are called to do - be salt.  According to webster - salt has a "calling" doesn't it?  Salt, as it were, has a strong compulsion to "do a certain kind of work".  Specialized.  Salt is kinda like the special forces - designed to accomplish a certain task and to do it well and complete.    

Same thing is actually true of light isn't it?  Light does one thing really well.  It illuminates.  If you were to light a lamp and then hide it - you would be by definition keeping the light from accomplishing it's purposes.  You would be cutting off the light from it's calling.  


Let's look a little deeper at Salt.

Salt - in nature - is a very simple and very stable chemical compound.  We call it sodium chloride.  Salt is extremely durable and resilient.  

Salt comes to us at the end of a process though.  

What you and I know as dinner salt comes to us after a sometimes lengthy process of harvest, purification, and packaging.  In it's natural form - it was always there though, in the earth - waiting to be used.  

To understand the statement Jesus is making in Matthew 5:13 we need to have a bit of an education on how salt was harvested in biblical times.

The main source of salt in the region was the area of the Dead Sea, 

The Hebrew people harvested salt by pouring sea water into pits and letting the water evaporate until only salt was left.  Salt wasn't extracted - everything else was.  The salt was simply what was left after the evaporation.

The Great Calling that we all carry is to let everything else in your life evaporate until you and I become like Salt.  Like Salt - Jesus is harvesting the calls in our lives the same way. 

John actually paints a great picture of this process of evaporation in John 3.

John 3:30

New International Version (NIV)

30 He must become greater; I must become less.”