You Are the Salt of the Earth

OT Lesson: Ezekiel 4:9-15 (NLT)

“Now go and get some wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and emmer wheat, and mix them together in a storage jar. Use them to make bread for yourself during the 390 days you will be lying on your side. Ration this out to yourself, eight ounces of food for each day, and eat it at set times. Then measure out a jar of water for each day, and drink it at set times. Prepare and eat this food as you would barley cakes. While all the people are watching, bake it over a fire using dried human dung as fuel and then eat the bread.” Then the Lord said, “This is how Israel will eat defiled bread in the Gentile lands to which I will banish them!”

Then I said, “O Sovereign Lord, must I be defiled by using human dung? For I have never been defiled before. From the time I was a child until now I have never eaten any animal that died of sickness or was killed by other animals. I have never eaten any meat forbidden by the law.”

“All right,” the Lord said. “You may bake your bread with cow dung instead of human dung.”

NT Lesson: Matthew 5:13 (NRSV)

You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.

Sermon

Introduction

Good morning. I thank God that we are blessed with another peaceful day in our community. Every day, we are confronted with devastating news—the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, especially around Israel, the war in Ukraine, and the increasing tension in our own domestic politics. In the face of these hardships, let us remain steadfast in prayer for those who are suffering. At the same time, let us offer our thanks and praise to God for the peace we enjoy here in our town. 

Last Sunday, three families from our church visited the Children’s Museum and spent a wonderful time together. We are grateful for the joy shared and for the future generations we are nurturing. Let us continue to pray that they may experience even more peace and prosperity than we do today.

SALT

Last Sunday, we concluded our sermon series on the Beatitudes, but we are continuing in Matthew 5. Today’s New Testament lesson is just as well-known as the Beatitudes—“You are the salt of the earth.”

So, what is salt? Well, if you’re a fan of modern history, you might think of SALT as the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty, signed by President Jimmy Carter. If you love movies, Salt might remind you of the 2010 Hollywood film starring Angelina Jolie. Farmers might think of salt as those large blocks that cows lick. I recall some friends from Southern Indiana who kept salt blocks in their backyards to attract wild animals—unfortunately, many of them ended up with a skunk problem! And, of course, if you’re a chef, you might think of the white powder sitting on every kitchen table. That’s the kind of salt we’re talking about today—a mineral primarily composed of sodium chloride, or NaCl. So Jesus is revealing our identity today that we are the sodium chloride of the earth.

Salt in the Old Testament

So, what does salt or sodium chloride do? Have you ever tasted Kentucky sausage or Kentucky ham? Personally, I find them unbearably salty! These types of ham were developed long before the invention of refrigeration. To preserve the meat, they used large amounts of salt because that’s what salt does—it preserves food. People in the Old Testament understood this preserving function as well, and salt often symbolised something enduring. In Numbers 18:19, God says to Aaron, the High Priest, “It is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord for you and for your descendants.”

However, in ancient times, salt was not commonly used as a food preservative for a couple of reasons. First, salt was more expensive than the food itself. Second, there wasn’t always a need to preserve meat in the way Kentucky ham is preserved. Meat was a rare commodity back then, and when an animal was slaughtered, the entire community would gather to eat it, likely consuming it all in one day.

Salt’s value extended far beyond preserving food—it was so precious that Roman soldiers were often paid with salt. The Latin word for salt is sal, and this is where we get the word “salary” in English. Because of its high value, salt came to symbolise more than just seasoning or preservation. In some cultures, offering “salt and bread” was a sign of hospitality and welcome. To offer not just bread but salt as well meant you were welcoming someone with great generosity.

In Arabic and Hebrew cultures, however, “salt and bread” means something different. When I visited Israel and Palestine in 2014, during the war between Israel and Gaza, I learned that Israel provided Palestinian prisoners with bread and salt. However, I was told that the prisoners refused to eat the salt. Why? In those cultures, eating salt and bread together symbolised an alliance. By accepting Israel’s salt, they would be seen as becoming Israel’s ally, agreeing to Israel’s terms, whether they liked it or not.

This symbolism is echoed in 2 Chronicles 13, where we see a debate between two military leaders about the legitimacy of the divided kingdom. In this passage, Abijah says, “Do you not know that the Lord God of Israel gave the kingship over Israel forever to David and his sons by a covenant of salt?” Here, the “covenant of salt” refers to a binding alliance between God and David, with mutual obligations between them.

Synoptic Gospels

Let’s move on to the New Testament. Since Matthew and Luke are both synoptic gospels, they contain many similar, even identical, teachings. The metaphor of salt is also found in Luke 14:34-35, where Jesus says, “Salt is good; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; they throw it away. Let anyone with ears to hear listen!” The message here is similar but with subtle differences. What does it mean that salt, when it loses its flavour, is not fit for the soil or the manure pile? Is salt supposed to be good for the soil or for a dung heap?

I’m not a farmer, but we live in an agricultural community, surrounded by fields, and many of you are familiar with farming. So let’s imagine dumping large amounts of salt on a cornfield or soybean field. Do you think the farmers would thank you for it? Of course not! The crops would die, and the farmers might even sue you for the damage. It’s common knowledge that salt is harmful to the soil. In fact, many scholars believe that the Sumerian civilisation may have collapsed due to soil salinisation, as their farmland accumulated too much salt over time. But then, what about salt being good for the manure pile? Does that make sense to you? It doesn’t to me! The idea of salt being useful in that context seems strange, doesn’t it?

Earthen Oven

In the NRSV translation, Matthew uses “earth,” while Luke uses “soil.” Interestingly, both of these English words are translations of the same Greek word—γῆ (gay)—and the same Hebrew word, אֶרֶץ (erets). While these words often refer to the soil or the earth, they can also refer to an “earthen oven.”

Take Job 28:5 in the NRSV, for example, which says, “As for the earth, out of it comes bread.” Does bread really come from the earth? Not exactly. Grains and crops grow from the earth, but bread comes from an oven. In this case, the verse should likely be understood as referring to an “earthen oven” rather than just the soil. Similarly, Psalm 12:6 says that silver is purified in the earth, which actually refers to a furnace made of earth—again, an earthen oven.

In Hebrew, the word for “earth” is אֶרֶץ (erets), but it has a pronunciation variation—אָרֶץ (arets)—as found in Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ). The equivalent word in Arabic, Ar-tsa, also means “kiln oven.” So, the “earth” or “soil” in the Bible can sometimes also mean an earthen oven.

With this in mind, consider Jesus’ words in Luke 12:49: “I came to bring fire to the earth.” This could, or perhaps should, be translated as “I came to light the oven” or “I came to ignite the oven.”

Dung as the Fuel

But we still face the question: Why did Jesus say that salt is supposed to be good for the oven? In our modern understanding, salt is good for food, but we don’t think of it as useful for the oven itself. This is difficult for us to grasp because we no longer use earthen ovens. Has anyone here used an earthen oven in their younger years? Today, some of us use gas ovens, but most likely, we all use electric ovens.

Bible scholars often disagree on many points, but there is one rare thing they tend to agree on: the Bedouin people have best preserved the ancient lifestyle of the Middle East, where biblical Israel once existed. For this reason, some scholars have spent several years living among the Bedouins, observing their ways to better understand the life described in the Bible. Interestingly, the Bedouins still use earthen ovens, and without electricity or natural gas, they have to find alternative fuel sources to bake bread.

So, what do they use for fuel? It’s not wood, because they live in the desert. Burning wood would be like burning a hundred-dollar bill to light a cigarette—something you might only see in a movie. Instead, the Bedouins use dung as fuel for their ovens.

Dung as fuel is also mentioned in the Bible. In 1 Kings 14:10, God says, “I will completely burn the house of Jeroboam as a man burns up dung until it is all gone.” But not all dung can be used as fuel. Human, goat, or sheep dung isn’t suitable. The ideal dung for fuel comes from donkeys, camels, or cows, mixed with chaff. That is why in today’s Old Testament lesson, Ezekiel appealed to God when he was instructed to bake with human dung. And finally God told him to bake with cow dung instead of human dung. Archaeological discoveries have shown that peasant homes in ancient Israel had places for keeping animals indoors to collect their dung, along with storage rooms for dung patties. A regular household would need about 2,000 dung patties to fuel their cooking for a year.

Women were primarily responsible for collecting and shaping the dung into patties to dry. This was considered “women’s work” because most men didn’t want to touch the dung. The Bible even uses dung as a metaphor for punishment. In Ezra 6:11 and Daniel 2:5, there is the expression of filling someone’s house with dung as a form of judgment. But since dung was a valuable fuel, you might wonder—why would it be a punishment to fill a house with it where the special storage room for dung is present? The answer lies in the type of dung. While cow and donkey dung could be used as fuel, human dung was useless for this purpose. Filling someone’s house with human dung would be like filling a car’s gas tank with diesel—it makes a mess and ruins things, rather than serving a useful function.

Salt of the Oven

But even with all this background, we still might wonder: why and how is salt supposed to be good for an earthen oven or for burning dung as fuel? Let me ask you—have any of you ever tried to burn cow dung? Personally, I haven’t, though I did kind of the opposite—peeing on burning coals. I wouldn’t recommend it—the smell of ammonia is painfully sharp! But I’ve never tried burning cow dung, and I imagine it’s not an easy task. Even with a bonfire, getting dried wood to catch fire can be tricky, requiring time and skill. So, I assume burning dung would be even harder—otherwise, we’d be using dung at bonfires instead of wood!

What archaeology has revealed, and what the Bedouins still practice, is the use of flat plates of salt placed at the bottom of their earthen ovens to help ignite the fire. Salt acts almost like a catalyst, aiding the dung in catching fire and sustaining the burn. Essentially, salt in these ovens serves as a chemical agent that activates the burning process.

However, after several years of use, the salt plates in the oven undergo a chemical transformation due to the constant exposure to heat. As a result, the salt loses its effectiveness. Instead of facilitating the fire, it begins to impede and even stifle the burning of the dung. This is the context in which Jesus’ teaching about salt losing its saltiness becomes more clear—it’s not just a seasoning, but something essential to the process, and once it loses its effectiveness, it becomes useless.

New Interpretation

With this new understanding, we can paraphrase Matthew 5:13 like this: “You are the igniter of the oven to bake bread. But if the igniter loses its function, what use is it? It’s useless and is thrown away.” Similarly, we could rephrase Luke 14:34-35 as: “An igniter is essential—we need it. But if the igniter no longer works, what can ignite the oven? It’s not fit for the oven or the fuel; it’s worthless and gets thrown out.”

Interestingly, when salt burns, it pops and makes a loud noise. If we are the salt of the earth, or the igniters of the oven, we too should make noise—we must be loud and vocal. There’s a phrase many of you have heard, “If you see something, say something.” If we remain silent in the face of injustice or wrongdoing, we lose our function, just like salt that has lost its ability to ignite. Jesus says, “It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled underfoot.”

We must take a moment to reflect: Have we silenced ourselves when we needed to speak up? Have we stifled others’ voices when they should have been heard? Jesus’ words remind us that we are called to be active and vocal, not passive or silent, especially in the presence of injustice.

Igniter

We are the salt of the earthen oven, and our role as the catalytic agent is to ignite the fire, to spark the flames. There’s a song by Katy Perry called Firework. In the music video, there are people who don’t fit society’s ideal image—like a girl who is overweight or a boy who is considered a nerd. These individuals are hiding fireworks within themselves, even though they may feel unnoticed or unworthy, like they are no more than dung. As true Christians, we are called to be the salt for them. We are here to ignite their fireworks, to help them release their inner light so that they can shine brighter than the moon.

Jesus says in Matthew 10:34, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” When we ignite those fireworks—when we give a voice to those whom society has silenced—our community may not remain as quiet as before. But even if things become uncomfortable, as Christians we are called to ignite those hidden fireworks and help people find their voice, so they can speak up for themselves. Jesus clearly says that He didn’t come to silence the oppressed.

We are not called to turn a blind eye to injustice or remain silent in the face of oppression. It is never our role to silence victims or the oppressed in the name of public peace or quiet. That kind of “peace” is not what the Bible calls shalom. True shalom—God’s peace—is achieved only when each and every member of society is in healthy relationship and well-being. The mere absence of conflict or visible violence does not represent shalom if some are still suffering under injustice. Silence imposed on the oppressed is not shalom.

When those who have been silenced finally find their voice, when their fireworks shine brightly, the result will be like fresh bread from the oven—something nourishing and hopeful, symbolising a better future for our community.

Conclusion

Jesus isn’t asking us to solve the world’s greatest conflicts overnight. He’s not telling us to rush to the front lines of wars or step into political arenas where we have no power. Instead, He’s asking us to start right here—right now. To be the salt that sparks change, to ignite the hidden potential in the people around us, and to be bold enough to speak up when we see injustice.

Being an igniter may not always be easy. It may disrupt the comfort and peace we’re used to. But friends, Jesus calls us to step out of our comfort zones, to work for justice, to stand with the marginalised, and to give voice to those who have none. If we are faithful in this, we will not just create sparks—we will create lasting change. And in the end, Jesus will call us His faithful servants, welcomed into the joy of His eternal kingdom. Amen.