Be Salt and Light

Comparative commentary by Anna Gannon

Cite Share

Jesus’s teachings have a knack of jolting our imagination through making us think and re-think everyday things. Salt and light are so much part of our daily experience that it is easy to overlook the positive difference they make to our lives.

Jesus’s two injunctions to be salt of the earth and light of the world are recorded in all three Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 5:13–16; Mark 4:21–23; 9:49–50; Luke 8:16; 14:34–35), but are mentioned in separate contexts by both Mark and Luke, while Matthew presents the two metaphors together. In Matthew’s Gospel, the double exhortation of Jesus to his disciples comes after the Beatitudes—clearly an urgent call to action for them, and all who would follow him.

Salt is essential for the health of the human body. It has been harvested from the sea and from rocks all around the globe: its name is embedded in the toponyms of hundreds of geographical locations. A commodity of universal importance, its uses and connotations overlap across cultures, not only as seasoning, but as food preservative, purifier, disinfectant, and even soil fertilizer (e.g. 2 Kings 2:21; see Bradley 2016). In religious ceremonies and rites, it serves symbolically as a sign of purity and in sealing a covenant. It represents a healing blessing—but also death and ruin.

Beyond the analogy of enthusiastic discipleship being equated with salt’s enhancement of flavour, additional and culturally-embedded interpretative possibilities of what ‘salt of the world’ might mean are enriching.

Yisca Harani, a Jewish scholar of Christianity, has suggested that Jesus’s words allude to the practice of salting fresh meat to make it kosher (see Leviticus 7:26–27; 17:10–14). The disciples’ ‘salty’ presence is the ingredient that makes humanity kosher too: Jesus’s invitation is to be the seasoning of those around us, to enhance and transform their quality of life. However, should discord arise (see Mark 9:49–50), this positive ‘saltiness’ will be lost, thus rendering the salt useless.

Anthony B. Bradley has argued that the well-attested, primary use of salt in Palestine and elsewhere is as an effective agricultural fertilizer which, if it lost its ‘saltiness’, would fail to encourage growth (see Luke 14:34–35). In embracing this radical message, Jesus’s followers are to be courageous agents of change, acting where ‘nothing grows’ and bringing about new, wholesome life for the benefit of all, and the glory of God (Bradley 2016: 72–76).

Mindful of how the root meaning of sapientia (wisdom) is connected to ‘discerning taste’, we are to strive and maintain the vitality of our saltiness, so as not to become literally ‘insipid’. As Paul advises (Colossians 4:6): ‘Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone’.

Hagiography (writing the biography of a saint) always comes with an agenda, and Bede’s, in writing about Cuthbert, was to advocate the balancing of Celtic and Roman traditions through strict monastic obedience and equivalence between meditative prayer and active preaching of the Gospel in the world. The lines from Matthew 5:14–16 were specifically chosen by Bede in his Vita metrica S. Cudbercti as appropriate to describe St Cuthbert as the exemplary ‘light of the world’ and primary ‘lamp’ for the Anglo-Saxons. Bede used a number of light metaphors to signal crucial moments in Cuthbert’s career, his sanctity even in childhood, his prophetic power, his miracles while living amongst the community of Lindisfarne as well as his saintly life during his bishopric—all signposts to the ultimate source of all light: Christ, Light from Light (Brooks 2020). Cuthbert, good pastor-monk, obediently, albeit reluctantly, relinquished his ascetic life to serve as bishop and provide direction and guidance for those lost and living in darkness. The return to active life must have felt painful, and Cuthbert’s craving for seclusion on Inner Farne may be understood as a yearning for a blessed time to ‘trim his lamp’ (Matthew 25:1–13), so ‘not to lose his saltiness’.

 

References

Bradley, Anthony B. 2016. ‘You Are the Manure of the Earth’, Christianity Today, 60.8: 72–76

Brooks, Britton Elliott. 2020. ‘St Cuthbert as Lamp: The Ideal Gregorian Monk-Pastor in Bede’s Vita metrica S. Cudbercti’, Peritia 30:53–70

See full exhibition for Matthew 5:13–16; Mark 4:21–25; 9:49–50; Luke 8:16–18; 14:34–35

Matthew 5:13–16; Mark 4:21–25; 9:49–50; Luke 8:16–18; 14:34–35

Revised Standard Version

Matthew 5

13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men.

14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. 15Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Mark 4

21 And he said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a bushel, or under a bed, and not on a stand? 22For there is nothing hid, except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret, except to come to light. 23If any man has ears to hear, let him hear.” 24And he said to them, “Take heed what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you. 25For to him who has will more be given; and from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

49For every one will be salted with fire. 50Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its saltness, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

Luke 8

16 “No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a vessel, or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, that those who enter may see the light. 17For nothing is hid that shall not be made manifest, nor anything secret that shall not be known and come to light. 18Take heed then how you hear; for to him who has will more be given, and from him who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away.”

34 “Salt is good; but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltness be restored? 35It is fit neither for the land nor for the dunghill; men throw it away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

More Exhibitions