At the Dawn of Lent

  by Peter L. DeGroote

Salt is good (and salty)—if salt becomes bland, with what will your renew it?
Mark 9:50a See also: Matthew 5:13; Luke 14:34.

1. This saying thrills serious students of Jesus' teachings. All three synoptic gospels report it. Short and pithy, it was remembered and passed on in the early oral tradition before any gospels were written. The minor differences in context only serve to emphasize its central focus on personal and group disciplines. 

A.  In Mark, the saying is immediately followed by the words Maintain ‘salt’ among yourselves and be at peace with one another. Coming at the end of a series of teaching on personal disciplines, it highlights their necessity in maintaining the vitality of the community. 

B. Matthew couples it with a saying about the early Christian community being the light of the world in order to provide a conclusion to the Sermon on the Mount (5:1-16). The emphasis is on the disciplines necessary to share the values of Jesus’ good news with the world around it. 

C. In Luke, it concludes the 14th chapter which deals with conflicts, both with religious leaders and with ideas and values that are common to most human societies. As such, its emphasis is on the personal and group disciplines necessary to keep Jesus’ teachings alive.

2. As all gospels agree on the need for disciplines, comment on some elements of the saying is worthwhile at the dawn of the Lenten season.  

A. "You are the salt…" reflects the early church’s belief that by following Jesus’ teachings they were living life as God intended; that is, they possessed the saltiness, zing, or bite that gave human life its unique characteristics in God's creation. Many Christians agree with that view while never having used those words.  However, it is important to balance that attitude with Jesus’ rejection of all ideas that created structures of superiority and inferiority, worthiness and unworthiness, clean and unclean among peoples. 

B. "…of the earth…”, earth meaning “world”. Reflecting Jesus’ rejection of the idea that the world is the domain of evil, it is an assertion that the world belongs to God. To say that followers of Jesus are the salt of the earth is to say that they carry in their minds and emotions the values and attitudes that express God's Presence in and love for the world that God created.

C. "If the salt loses its taste (its zing) how can it be restored?" The salty are those who trust in God’s Presence and activity. If they lose that trust how can they recover it? Matthew adds: "It then has no further use than to be thrown out and stomped on."  While we buy pure salt, in Jesus’ day salt was mixed with what we call impurities. After the salt was extracted, nothing of value was left.

3. We are presented with a stark challenge: If we, either individually or communally, have lost the values and way of life that Jesus taught, of what use are we? A worthy question as we contemplate the disciplines of Lent.