Salt and Light

Posted by Brance on April 24th, 2005 filed in Relationships

This is an interesting passage to start out our discussion of relationships with non-believers. Let’s talk about the story we just read. Leprosy is a skin disease that is highly contagious. In Jesus’ day they had no good way to treat leprosy so any person who had it was outcast from society. They were “ceremonially unclean”, which meant they were not allowed to participate in any religous cerimonies. That meant no sacrifices, or meeting with the priests, and that meant no forgiveness of sins. So these people were not only outcast because of their sickness, but also because of their spiritual state. Anyone who touched a leper was also considered unclean. The lepers were required by law to warn people of their sickness by yelling “Unclean! Unclean!” whenever they were in public. Yet here we see Jesus interacting with one of them.

This man came to Jesus obviously because he had heard good things about him. He knew that Jesus could heal him. Jesus had a reputation for that sort of thing. Interestingly we know from other scripture passages that Jesus could have healed this man with just a word. He did not need to touch the man to heal him. Yet he did touch him. He touched a lepper. What does that say? It shows that Jesus was just as concerned with healing the man’s emotions as he was with healing his body. By touching him Jesus was welcoming him back into society. He told him to go to the priest so he could be proclaimed clean and could participate in society and religon again.

Are we to gather from this passage that Jesus included a sinner in fellowship? That he welcomed him into the group of his followers? Should we welcome non-believers into our fellowship? No, not at all. Yes, Jesus did reach out to this sinner in love, but Jesus did not welcome a leper into fellowship. He did not tell the city and religous leaders to welcome the man into society as a leper. He HEALED the man first! When Jesus welcomed him into fellowship, and encouraged him to seek re-admitance into society, it was as a healed person, not a sick one.

So as we follow Jesus’ example let’s look at how we are to interact with non-believers in the world. We are to love them, and minister to them. We are to accept them into fellowship only after they have accepted Jesus into fellowship with themselves. Jesus explained our role in the world in the following passage.

We are the salt. Salt has two basic purposes. First it makes food pleasant and palatable, increasing it’s flavor. So Christians are to make the experiences of this world enjoyable. We do this by spreading Christ’s love. That’s the only thing that makes this world bearable. We should be an example of how enjoyable life can be. This doesn’t mean we won’t have hard times, but only that when faced with difficulties we should conduct ourselves in such a way that others who see us will see God through our actions and attitudes.

Salt is also used as a preservative. As the ’salt of the world’ we are to preserve the world, by keeping it from entire moral corruption. We should be a voice for moral goodness. We should be active in society. We should be standing up for what is right, and not going along with the world.

Salt only works when it comes in contact with food. It can’t do either of these jobs if it stays in the salt shaker. Last week we talked about Christian fellowship. That is important. But it is also important for us to be ‘in the world’ working for Christ. We are not to be ‘of the world’ just in it.

Let’s consider something else here. Our main task in the world is to show the world our ‘good deads’ so that they will praise God. We are to lead them to Christ.

Jesus provides living water for the soul. He wants to give this water to everyone and he has sent us out into the world to bring people to him so they can drink. Have any of you ever heard the phrase, “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.”? I worked on a ranch in northern Wyoming for a time when I was just out of highschool. On that ranch I learned a bit of wisdom to follow up that little proverb. The ranchers used to say, “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. But you can feed him salt.” We can lead to people to Jesus but we can’t make them drink of the water he offers. We can however make them thirsty by being salt to them. We can demonstrate in our own lives what it is like to have a relationship with the Creator. If a person sees this for real in another person, chances are they will ‘get thirsty’ for God.