The Rev. Dr. Kenneth H. Saunders III
Greeneville, TN
The Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany
February 8, 2026
When I say Salt—people usually think simple sodium chloride... The salt we use on our dinner tables. That same Salt has received a pretty bad reputation in recent years. Our bodies need salt to live. Yet, doctors warn us that too much of it can quietly harm us.
Excess salt in our diet has been linked to high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and even stomach cancer. Those who try to live a healthier lifestyle soon learn that they must limit their daily intake to about a teaspoon a day. This includes all the salt already hidden in the foods we eat before we ever reach for the saltshaker.
When watching for salt content in our food, we quickly discover how deeply salt is woven into our modern diets. It’s in the processed cheese and butter, snack foods and breakfast cereals, canned goods, and processed meals. Salt shapes our food’s texture, preserves its color, binds its ingredients, and even controls the rise of bread. Salt is everywhere. It’s also pretty cheap.
We buy salt by the box or canister for our tables. We buy it by the forty-pound bag or five-gallon bucket to sprinkle on our icy sidewalks, and our municipalities buy it by the truckload to keep our roads passable in wintertime. This view shapes how we, as modern people, see salt... common, ordinary, and sometimes taken for granted. But this wasn’t always so.
In biblical times, salt was rare and difficult to obtain. It was a traded commodity. It was precious. It was guarded. Before refrigeration, it was used for food preservation. It was used in the healing arts, religious rituals, and it was even used as currency. Salt was highly valued and considered essential to life itself.
Knowing this helps us hear Jesus’ words more clearly... especially when he tells his followers, “You are the salt of the earth.” Jesus chose an image his listeners understood deeply. He was telling them that he expected something extraordinary, not for their own glory, but for the sake of God’s world.
Jesus placed great value on his disciples, just as their culture placed great value on salt. He called them to live in ways as vital and life-giving as salt was in their daily lives. To be salt to the world is to help others discover what makes life rich and whole.
Faith offers a kind of spiritual seasoning. One that brings joy, hope, and meaning. Without it, life can grow bland, discouraging, and heavy. With it, life is awakened by the knowledge of God’s love for all God’s children.
To be the salt of the earth means adding flavor wherever we are placed... in homes and workplaces, in strained families and fractured communities, in a world weary from conflict, division, and fear. It means speaking up and giving a voice to the voiceless. And it means empowering the powerless.
It means choosing love when bitterness would be easier. It means caring when cynicism feels safer. In Jesus’ day, salt was also linked to purity. The Romans believed salt was the purest substance, because it was born of sun and sea.
Among the religious, salt was used to purify offerings brought to God. So when Jesus calls us salt, he calls us to integrity... to a high standard of speech, thought, and action. Not perfection, but a willingness to resist the pull of selfishness and indifference that so easily infects the world.
As followers of Jesus, we are invited to be a cleansing presence, bearing witness to the goodness and love of God and the values of God’s kingdom... even when those values run against the kingdoms of this world.
In ancient times, salt was a valued, traded commodity essential to life itself.
Fun fact to know and tell... The word we use to describe our wages and earnings, "salary," actually comes from the Latin word Salarium, meaning "salt payment." So too, as salt in the world, we are of value, meant to be a basic nourishment for others... Caring, teaching, encouraging, and gently leading hearts toward Christ.
But the properties and uses for salt keep going… Salt was also used for healing. As salt in the world, we bring healing through prayer, presence, and compassion. We bring healing and restoration through standing with those on the margins, the lost, and the lonely... Especially at this time in our country when some folks feel isolated and anxious…
We use salt on our streets… And just as salt melts ice on our winter roads, we are called to thaw the frozen places of life for others. The frozen hearts of this world can be strangely warmed when they encounter patience and grace. Fractured relationships can begin to mend when they are met with humility and love.
And, for centuries, salt has preserved food from decay. In the same way, Christ calls us to help preserve what is good. From those things that cause our society to decay… He calls us to resist corruption, to protect truth, and to uphold justice and mercy in a world that is quick to trade them away.
It is worth recognizing that Jesus did not say, you are the “pepper” of the earth. Different from salt, pepper draws attention to itself. But Salt, when used properly, draws attention to what it serves.
Jesus does not ask us to be in the spotlight up on stage with a flashy feel-good show, calling attention to ourselves, but he calls us to quietly make life better for others... more meaningful, more loving, and more whole. However, we need to realize that salt can only do this important work
when it leaves the container.
We need to let God set us free from fear, complacency, and comfort so we can be free to be the salt in the world he expects us to be. Released to serve others. Released to risk compassion for those the world has forgotten. Released to make a difference in the world around us.
That difference looks like hope where despair has taken root. It looks like forgiveness, healing the deep wounds of sin. It looks like companionship in the midst of loneliness, welcome in the face of prejudice that isolates and builds walls, and reconciliation in the midst of conflict that divides. It looks like striving for justice when the wrong persists, food when hunger remains, and comfort when illness, grief, and loss overwhelm.
Jesus empowers us to be salt... To purify, to heal, to nurture, to melt what is frozen, to preserve what is good, and to season the world with his grace and love. And when we fall short... and as we know we surely will... God does not abandon us to failure. God renews us, strengthens us, and invites us to try again.
Unlike our physical diets, which depend on the moderation of salt, our spiritual lives require an abundance of salt. The world does not need less faithful love. It needs more. So let us be the salt of the earth that Jesus called us to be... A pure and precious commodity that is of high value... Healing and reaching out and flavoring a world that is in desperate need of what real Christian seasoning can provide.
No comments:
Post a Comment