September 1, 2025 • 18 mins
Sometimes we get caught up in the topical interpretation of "Salt of the Earth". We dig deeper. Jesus saying this to his disciples carried tremendous weight, and conviction. Salt is not just a flavoring. Jesus, in one simple statement, just redefined the covenant associated with the Old Testament!
Notes for Salt - The Weight of the New Covenant
https://rabbitholes.faith/e/salt-the-weight-of-the-new-covenant/
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(00:00):
Okay. So today, we're jumping into one of Jesus's, well, most famous metaphors, the salt of the earth.
(00:06):
You hear it all the time. Right? But, uh, what did it actually mean to the people actually hearing him say it?
Exactly. It's, uh, it's one of those phrases that sounds simple, but the context is everything.
The ancient world, the old testament background.
It's rich. And that's what we wanna dig into. We'll be looking at the key bits in Matthew,
(00:27):
Mark, and Luke, plus pulling in some crucial Old Testament context
from, you know, Leviticus, Numbers, second Chronicles.
These really light it up. They really do. They provide the foundation.
. So our mission, if you will, is to unpack what Jesus really meant beyond just, I don't know, be a good person.
It's, uh, it's much deeper, much more challenging than that.
(00:47):
Definitely more challenging.. . Jesus brings up salt in a few key places.
We've got Matthew five verse thirteen, Mark nine verses
forty nine to fifty, and Luke fourteen verses thirty four to thirty five.
Mhmm. And each one gives it a slightly different spin depending on the context.
Yeah. Like in Matthew five, that's the Sermon on the Mount. Right? Big picture stuff.
Right. There, it feels very outward focused.. Disciples are salt of the earth.
(01:12):
It's about their influence, their, uh , preserving role in the wider world.
But then Mark nine, that feels different. More inward.
I think so.. Mark puts it right after these really
intense warnings about causing others to stumble.
About, you know, Gehenna. So the focus shifts to inner character, purification, staying
(01:33):
salty within the community, and peace.
And Luke Luke connects it to, well, the tough stuff.
Yeah. Luke fourteen places it squarely in the context of the cost of discipleship.
If you're not willing to pay the price, you're like salt that's lost its taste, utterly useless.
So preservation, inner purity, costly commitment, that's already a lot packed into one little word.
(01:55):
It is. And remember what salt was back then. It wasn't just cheap table salt.
. It was valuable, essential. Hugely valuable for preserving food, obviously,
especially meat, but also flavor and, crucially, for
symbolizing faithfulness and covenants, like in Leviticus two verse thirteen.
Ah, the covenant connection. That feels important.
(02:16):
It's central. Leviticus two verse thirteen says salt had to be included with grain offerings.
It signified loyalty, permanence, purity, God's commitment, and the worshippers commitment too.
So Jesus calling his followers salt, that's not a light thing.
He's essentially saying, you are my covenant people embodying permanence, purity, loyalty.
(02:39):
Precisely. He's declaring their mission. Preserve the world from decay, season it with God's
truth and grace, and live out that covenant faithfulness.
It's not about hiding away. It's active engagement.
And it's interesting. He's not calling for, like, a huge army.
It's like salt in food. A little goes a long way. Disproportionate influence.
That's the idea. A small group, faithful and distinct, can have a massive impact.
(03:04):
There's always a but, isn't there? This power comes with a serious warning.
What if the salt isn't salty anymore? Yeah.
The failure scenario. Jesus talks about salt losing its taste.
And the Greek word he uses there is fascinating. It's… What does that actually mean?
What literally means to become foolish or dull? Foolish, not just tasteless.
(03:25):
Right. So figuratively, it means tasteless. But the root implies a kind of spiritual or moral
foolishness, a dulling of what makes a disciple distinct.
So it's not, like, scientifically, salt losing its sodium chloride.
No. Pure salt doesn't really lose its saltiness chemically.
But think about the salt they often use then, maybe from the Dead Sea.
(03:47):
It was often impure mixed with other minerals Okay. If that kind of salt got damp, the actual
saltiness could leach out, leaving behind this white powder that looked like salt, but had no flavor, no preserving power.
. It was useless. Wow. So visually, it still looked the part.
Exactly. But functionally useless. Yeah. Spiritually, that points to, you know, compromise
(04:07):
, hypocrisy, losing your distinctiveness, your loyalty, becoming like the world around you.
And the consequence? Stark, thrown out, trembled underfoot
, publicly discarded because it fails its purpose.
It's like an offering without salt, unacceptable. That
image of becoming foolish or dull, it makes you think, doesn't it?
. How subtly that could happen. A slow slide into compromise.
(04:30):
It's rarely dramatic, usually gradual. And that warning kinda sets the stage for maybe the
most intense phrase in Mark nine verse forty nine, For everyone will be salted with fire.
. Okay. Salted with fire. That sounds… painful.
What on earth does that mean? Judgment?
Purification? It's a really debated phrase. Context is key again.
(04:53):
Remember, Jesus has just been giving these incredibly severe warnings about sin, cutting off
hands and feet, and the unquenchable fire of Gehenna.
Right. So option a could be. that everyone refers to the wicked.
They are salted with fire, meaning they're preserved in judgment.
Like, salt preserves something. The fire of Gehanna preserves them in that state of eternal consequence.
(05:15):
It makes the judgment permanent unquenchable. Some link this to Isaiah sixty six verse twenty four.
Okay. That's intense. What's option b? Option b, which I personally think fits the flow a
bit better here, is that everyone refers to Christ's followers.
They are salted with fire, meaning they will be purified through trials, through suffering,
through the refining fire of testing and self denial.
(05:37):
Like gold being refined. Exactly.. Like, first Peter one verses six to seven talks about.
And there's even a textual variant, a note in some manuscripts of Mark nine verse forty nine
that adds, and every sacrifice will be salted with salt, which pulls right back to Leviticus
two verse thirteen, purification for service.
So judgment for the wicked or purification for the believer.
(05:59):
Why do you lean towards purification in this spot?
Because of what Jesus says immediately after in Mark nine verse fifty.
Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.
That's an instruction to the disciples. It makes more sense, I think, if the salting with
fire they just heard about is the process they undergo, the purification that leads to having
(06:20):
genuine salt within them, which then fosters peace.
So the fire refines them, makes them truly salty disciples, enabling peace within the community.
That seems to fit the flow. It's still intense, but it's a purposeful fire for believers, not just destructive.
It creates the stark contrast then. Everyone faces assaulting with fire, but the outcome is radically different.
(06:42):
It hinges on your relationship with Christ. You mentioned Gehenna earlier.
Can we just clarify that? It's often just translated as hell, but you're saying it's more specific.
Yes. It's important. Gehenna, in Greek, Jena, comes from the Hebrew Valley of Hinnom.
This is a real place outside Jerusalem, historically infamous for pagan worship, even child sacrifice.
(07:04):
A place with horrifying associations. Exactly. So Jesus uses this specific deeply resonant
image to describe the final place of eternal judgment for the wicked.
It's distinct from Hades, which is more like the general realm of the dead before final
judgment or Tartarus used for fallen angels.
Gehenna signifies finality, unquenchable fire.
(07:27):
Using this specific term helps us grasp the weight Jesus intended,
avoiding the sometimes vague connotations of the English word hell.
Okay. That's helpful. So whether this fire of judgment or the fire of purification, this
salting involves serious even eternal consequences and commitments.
Where did this whole salt and covenant idea really take root?
We need to go back, right, to the Old Testament. Absolutely.
(07:49):
. You can't understand Jesus here without understanding the Old Testament background.
It's not just a passing mention. Salt is woven into God's covenants.
So that phrase may be from Mark nine verse forty nine, every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.
Its roots are deep. Deep in Leviticus two verse thirteen.
God explicitly commands, you shall season all your green offerings with salt.
(08:13):
With all your offerings, you shall offer salt. It wasn't optional.
Not at all. It symbolized, as we said, covenant loyalty, permanence, purity.
Adding salt consecrated the offering made it acceptable.
Without it, unacceptable. It marked the seriousness of approaching God.
And it wasn't just sacrifices. Right? No. In Numbers eighteen verse nineteen, God's
(08:34):
permanent provision for the priests, their share of the offerings, is called a covenant of salt.
It signifies an enduring, binding, incorruptible agreement, permanent loyalty.
Okay. So sacrifices, priesthood… anything else.
Kingship. Second Chronicles thirteen verse five describes the kingdom God promised to David and
his descendants as a covenant of salt.
(08:56):
Again, signifying God's unbreakable promise, the permanence of that Davidic line.
. Worship, priesthood, kingship, the absolute pillars of Israel's relationship with
God, all marked by this covenant of salt.
It's not just a spice. It's a sign of unbreakable, serious, permanent commitment.
(09:17):
That's the weight it carried. But here's the twist, the really mind blowing part.
Jesus takes that symbol loaded with all that history
tied to Jerusalem, the temple, the priests, the kings.
And he applies it to his disciples. Yeah. That's the radical shift.
Explain that. How does he do it? Well, think about the Old Testament pattern.
(09:37):
Salt was linked to Jerusalem Right. The temple, the Levitical priesthood based there, the Davidic king ruling from there.
It was geographically and institutionally anchored. Right. But Jesus, especially in Mark nine
verses four nine to fifty, takes that exact imagery.
Every sacrifice shall be salted with salt, have salt in yourselves Yeah.
And relocates it. Not in a building or a lineage, but in his followers.
(09:59):
Let's just pause there. That is huge. He's saying the place where God's unbreakable covenant promise resides.
It's not stone anymore. It's you. Exactly. You are the living sacrifices.
You are the royal priesthood. You are heirs with David's son, the true king.
The covenant reality is now embodied in his people. How
would the disciples have heard that people steeped in the Torah?
(10:21):
, it would have been staggering. They knew the weight of the covenant of salt.
To hear Jesus apply it directly to them, fishermen, tax collectors, casting them in roles
previously held by the temple, the priesthood, the monarchy.
It was revolutionary. It conferred immense dignity, but also immense responsibility.
And it's easy for us, maybe less familiar with the deep roots in
(10:41):
Leviticus or Numbers, to just hear salt and think, add flavor.
Precisely. We flatten it. We miss the profound covenantal significance, the call to
permanence, purity, unwavering loyalty embodied in their very lives.
This shift away from a physical place, it reminds me of that story with Jeroboam.
Yes. First Kings twelve. Jeroboam rebels against the Davidic king Reboam, and he worries his
(11:05):
northern tribes will keep going back to Jerusalem to worship, and their loyalty will drift back.
So he sets up his own rival worship centers, golden calves.
Exactly. A counterfeit system trying to sever that connection to the Davidic covenant and the Jerusalem temple.
And this, of course, deeply shaped Samaritan worship later on. Which Jesus addresses directly, doesn't he?
He does. With the Samaritan woman at the well in John four verses twenty to twenty three, she
(11:29):
brings up the whole… Jerusalem versus this mountain debate.
Mhmm. And Jesus says the time is coming and now is when true worshipers will worship neither on
this mountain nor in Jerusalem, but in spirit and truth.
Worship is centered in him, not a location. So he fulfills the temple, the priesthood, the
kingship, and the covenant of salt now rests on his followers wherever they are.
(11:52):
It's a radical redefinition of covenant identity, profound seriousness, enduring loyalty to
Christ, not tied to geography, but to a spiritual reality in his people.
But that brings us back to the warning, such a high calling.
. But what if you fail? What if the salt becomes unsalty, dull, foolish?
Jesus doesn't mince words. Losing your saltiness, again becoming foolish or dull.
(12:15):
It means spiritual corruption, compromise, losing that distinct God honoring quality.
Like that dead sea salt losing its punch. Just like that.
It looks like salt. Maybe talks like salt, hangs around other salt, but it has no preserving
power, no flavor of grace, no mark of covenant loyalty.
It's become like the world. And spiritually, how does that happen?
Hypocrisy is a big one. Saying one thing, living another, compromising core convictions to
(12:40):
fit in or avoid trouble, letting your heart become corrupt, loving money or power more than
God, or simply rejecting the cost refusing to take up the cross.
It's essentially presenting an unsalted offering, worthless.
Are there Old Testament parallels for this? God rejecting offerings
…
(13:03):
blasts the priest because they're offering blind, lame, sick animals.
. Cheap, casual, contemptible sacrifices. God says he curses them for it.
The salt of true value and reverence was missing.
Okay. Any others? Isaiah one. God says, he's sick of their
festivals, their sacrifices, their prayers because their hands are full of blood.
(13:24):
They do the rituals, but there's no justice, no holiness.
The salt of a righteous life of covenant loyalty and action wasn't there.
And Amos two. Right? Amos five. Yeah. God says, I hate.
I despise your feast. Take away from me the noise of your songs.
Why? Because there's no justice rolling down like
waters, no righteousness like an ever flowing stream.
(13:46):
The offerings lacked the salt of justice. They were a stench to him.
So God looks past the outward ritual to the heart, to the actual saltiness of the life behind it.
Always. This is quite convicting. If this warning is so severe, who in the gospels would
be the most tragic, maybe the ultimate example of someone who looked salty but wasn't?
(14:08):
It has to be Judas Iscariot, doesn't it? Yeah. He's the embodiment of the unsalted sacrifice.
Outwardly, he's one of the twelve. He's doing ministry, hearing Jesus teach.
He's even the treasurer. Seems fully part of the inner circle.
The others didn't seem to suspect him until the very end. No.
But inwardly, John twelve verse six tells us he was a thief pilfering from the money bag.
(14:30):
His heart was corrupt. His discipleship was self serving, ultimately treacherous.
He heard all these warnings from Jesus about salt, about cost, about hypocrisy.
And yet And yet his heart leaned towards betrayal, not peace.
His final act, the ultimate saltless betrayal, leads him, as acts one verse twenty five puts
it, to go to his own place, discarded, like useless salt trampled underfoot.
(14:54):
Wow. That is sobering. You can be so close, hear everything, be part of the community.
But if the heart isn't truly consecrated, truly loyal, you can still be saltless.
Judas is a terrifying warning for anyone in the church. A permanent warning.
Outward association isn't enough. Okay. Let's pivot from that darkness.
If the covenant of salt is now with us as believers, how do we actively add salt to our life or sacrifice?
(15:19):
How do we live this out? Well, if our lives are the offering now, then adding salt means
living as consecrated, enduring, covenant loyal disciples.
It's about the quality of that life offered to God how does that look practically several ways
connect directly first consecration Romans twelve verse one… present your bodies as a living
sacrifice holy and acceptable to God…that's offering your whole self intentionally set apart
(15:46):
for him that's salty okay consecration what else endurance under fire first Peter one verses
six to seven again letting trials test improve your faith purifying it like gold…That
suffering endured with faith seasons the offering, proves its genuineness.
That adds salt. Right. Trials aren't just pointless pain.
They can be refining fire. And covenant loyalty.
(16:09):
Luke fourteen verse thirty three. So, therefore, any one of you who
does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
That radical commitment, putting Christ above everything else, family possessions, self demonstrates true allegiance.
That's the salt of loyalty. Consecration, endurance, loyalty, anything else.
Else. Yes. Our speech and conduct, Colossians four verse six
(16:30):
, let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt.
Our words should have that distinctiveness, that purity, that grace,
that flavor of heaven, preserving goodness in our interactions.
So it impacts everything, our inner life, how we handle hardship
, our ultimate allegiance, even how we talk to people.
It's holistic. And this brings us back to Mark nine verse fifty.
(16:51):
Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.
There's a vital link there. A crucial link. Jesus says that having this inner salt, this
purified character, this covenant loyalty is what produces peace within the community.
Remember, the disciples had just been arguing about who was the greatest.
Uh , right. Rivalry, ambition, the opposite of peace.
(17:14):
Exactly. Jesus says get the salt right internally.
Deal with your sin. Embrace the purifying fire. Be truly loyal.
And the result will be harmony, humility, peace with each other.
. So the salt of covenant holiness and the peace of covenant unity,
they go hand in hand, inseparable marks of real discipleship.
(17:35):
Beautifully put. They are. Jesus often finished these really weighty teachings with a specific phrase.
He uses it in Luke fourteen verse thirty five right after the salt warning.
He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Yes.
That's not just filler. It's a signal flag. It means pay attention.
This is fundamentally important. It's a call for spiritual perception, not just physical hearing.
(17:57):
Everyone heard the words, but Jesus is calling for people to truly understand the depth, the
implications, the life or death seriousness of what he just said.
So it's an invitation to really grapple with it, not just nod along.
Exactly.. Have spiritual ears open to grasp the
cost and the glory of being a truly
(18:17):
salted disciple. Are you just listening, or are you hearing?
Okay. So today, we're jumping into one of Jesus's, well, most famous metaphors, the salt of the earth.
(00:06):
You hear it all the time. Right? But, uh, what did it actually mean to the people actually hearing him say it?
Exactly. It's, uh, it's one of those phrases that sounds simple, but the context is everything.
The ancient world, the old testament background.
It's rich. And that's what we wanna dig into. We'll be looking at the key bits in Matthew,
(00:27):
Mark, and Luke, plus pulling in some crucial Old Testament context
from, you know, Leviticus, Numbers, second Chronicles.
These really light it up. They really do. They provide the foundation.
. So our mission, if you will, is to unpack what Jesus really meant beyond just, I don't know, be a good person.
It's, uh, it's much deeper, much more challenging than that.
(00:47):
Definitely more challenging.. . Jesus brings up salt in a few key places.
We've got Matthew five verse thirteen, Mark nine verses
forty nine to fifty, and Luke fourteen verses thirty four to thirty five.
Mhmm. And each one gives it a slightly different spin depending on the context.
Yeah. Like in Matthew five, that's the Sermon on the Mount. Right? Big picture stuff.
Right. There, it feels very outward focused.. Disciples are salt of the earth.
(01:12):
It's about their influence, their, uh , preserving role in the wider world.
But then Mark nine, that feels different. More inward.
I think so.. Mark puts it right after these really
intense warnings about causing others to stumble.
About, you know, Gehenna. So the focus shifts to inner character, purification, staying
(01:33):
salty within the community, and peace.
And Luke Luke connects it to, well, the tough stuff.
Yeah. Luke fourteen places it squarely in the context of the cost of discipleship.
If you're not willing to pay the price, you're like salt that's lost its taste, utterly useless.
So preservation, inner purity, costly commitment, that's already a lot packed into one little word.
(01:55):
It is. And remember what salt was back then. It wasn't just cheap table salt.
. It was valuable, essential. Hugely valuable for preserving food, obviously,
especially meat, but also flavor and, crucially, for
symbolizing faithfulness and covenants, like in Leviticus two verse thirteen.
Ah, the covenant connection. That feels important.
(02:16):
It's central. Leviticus two verse thirteen says salt had to be included with grain offerings.
It signified loyalty, permanence, purity, God's commitment, and the worshippers commitment too.
So Jesus calling his followers salt, that's not a light thing.
He's essentially saying, you are my covenant people embodying permanence, purity, loyalty.
(02:39):
Precisely. He's declaring their mission. Preserve the world from decay, season it with God's
truth and grace, and live out that covenant faithfulness.
It's not about hiding away. It's active engagement.
And it's interesting. He's not calling for, like, a huge army.
It's like salt in food. A little goes a long way. Disproportionate influence.
That's the idea. A small group, faithful and distinct, can have a massive impact.
(03:04):
There's always a but, isn't there? This power comes with a serious warning.
What if the salt isn't salty anymore? Yeah.
The failure scenario. Jesus talks about salt losing its taste.
And the Greek word he uses there is fascinating. It's… What does that actually mean?
What literally means to become foolish or dull? Foolish, not just tasteless.
(03:25):
Right. So figuratively, it means tasteless. But the root implies a kind of spiritual or moral
foolishness, a dulling of what makes a disciple distinct.
So it's not, like, scientifically, salt losing its sodium chloride.
No. Pure salt doesn't really lose its saltiness chemically.
But think about the salt they often use then, maybe from the Dead Sea.
(03:47):
It was often impure mixed with other minerals Okay. If that kind of salt got damp, the actual
saltiness could leach out, leaving behind this white powder that looked like salt, but had no flavor, no preserving power.
. It was useless. Wow. So visually, it still looked the part.
Exactly. But functionally useless. Yeah. Spiritually, that points to, you know, compromise
(04:07):
, hypocrisy, losing your distinctiveness, your loyalty, becoming like the world around you.
And the consequence? Stark, thrown out, trembled underfoot
, publicly discarded because it fails its purpose.
It's like an offering without salt, unacceptable. That
image of becoming foolish or dull, it makes you think, doesn't it?
. How subtly that could happen. A slow slide into compromise.
(04:30):
It's rarely dramatic, usually gradual. And that warning kinda sets the stage for maybe the
most intense phrase in Mark nine verse forty nine, For everyone will be salted with fire.
. Okay. Salted with fire. That sounds… painful.
What on earth does that mean? Judgment?
Purification? It's a really debated phrase. Context is key again.
(04:53):
Remember, Jesus has just been giving these incredibly severe warnings about sin, cutting off
hands and feet, and the unquenchable fire of Gehenna.
Right. So option a could be. that everyone refers to the wicked.
They are salted with fire, meaning they're preserved in judgment.
Like, salt preserves something. The fire of Gehanna preserves them in that state of eternal consequence.
(05:15):
It makes the judgment permanent unquenchable. Some link this to Isaiah sixty six verse twenty four.
Okay. That's intense. What's option b? Option b, which I personally think fits the flow a
bit better here, is that everyone refers to Christ's followers.
They are salted with fire, meaning they will be purified through trials, through suffering,
through the refining fire of testing and self denial.
(05:37):
Like gold being refined. Exactly.. Like, first Peter one verses six to seven talks about.
And there's even a textual variant, a note in some manuscripts of Mark nine verse forty nine
that adds, and every sacrifice will be salted with salt, which pulls right back to Leviticus
two verse thirteen, purification for service.
So judgment for the wicked or purification for the believer.
(05:59):
Why do you lean towards purification in this spot?
Because of what Jesus says immediately after in Mark nine verse fifty.
Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.
That's an instruction to the disciples. It makes more sense, I think, if the salting with
fire they just heard about is the process they undergo, the purification that leads to having
(06:20):
genuine salt within them, which then fosters peace.
So the fire refines them, makes them truly salty disciples, enabling peace within the community.
That seems to fit the flow. It's still intense, but it's a purposeful fire for believers, not just destructive.
It creates the stark contrast then. Everyone faces assaulting with fire, but the outcome is radically different.
(06:42):
It hinges on your relationship with Christ. You mentioned Gehenna earlier.
Can we just clarify that? It's often just translated as hell, but you're saying it's more specific.
Yes. It's important. Gehenna, in Greek, Jena, comes from the Hebrew Valley of Hinnom.
This is a real place outside Jerusalem, historically infamous for pagan worship, even child sacrifice.
(07:04):
A place with horrifying associations. Exactly. So Jesus uses this specific deeply resonant
image to describe the final place of eternal judgment for the wicked.
It's distinct from Hades, which is more like the general realm of the dead before final
judgment or Tartarus used for fallen angels.
Gehenna signifies finality, unquenchable fire.
(07:27):
Using this specific term helps us grasp the weight Jesus intended,
avoiding the sometimes vague connotations of the English word hell.
Okay. That's helpful. So whether this fire of judgment or the fire of purification, this
salting involves serious even eternal consequences and commitments.
Where did this whole salt and covenant idea really take root?
We need to go back, right, to the Old Testament. Absolutely.
(07:49):
. You can't understand Jesus here without understanding the Old Testament background.
It's not just a passing mention. Salt is woven into God's covenants.
So that phrase may be from Mark nine verse forty nine, every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.
Its roots are deep. Deep in Leviticus two verse thirteen.
God explicitly commands, you shall season all your green offerings with salt.
(08:13):
With all your offerings, you shall offer salt. It wasn't optional.
Not at all. It symbolized, as we said, covenant loyalty, permanence, purity.
Adding salt consecrated the offering made it acceptable.
Without it, unacceptable. It marked the seriousness of approaching God.
And it wasn't just sacrifices. Right? No. In Numbers eighteen verse nineteen, God's
(08:34):
permanent provision for the priests, their share of the offerings, is called a covenant of salt.
It signifies an enduring, binding, incorruptible agreement, permanent loyalty.
Okay. So sacrifices, priesthood… anything else.
Kingship. Second Chronicles thirteen verse five describes the kingdom God promised to David and
his descendants as a covenant of salt.
(08:56):
Again, signifying God's unbreakable promise, the permanence of that Davidic line.
. Worship, priesthood, kingship, the absolute pillars of Israel's relationship with
God, all marked by this covenant of salt.
It's not just a spice. It's a sign of unbreakable, serious, permanent commitment.
(09:17):
That's the weight it carried. But here's the twist, the really mind blowing part.
Jesus takes that symbol loaded with all that history
tied to Jerusalem, the temple, the priests, the kings.
And he applies it to his disciples. Yeah. That's the radical shift.
Explain that. How does he do it? Well, think about the Old Testament pattern.
(09:37):
Salt was linked to Jerusalem Right. The temple, the Levitical priesthood based there, the Davidic king ruling from there.
It was geographically and institutionally anchored. Right. But Jesus, especially in Mark nine
verses four nine to fifty, takes that exact imagery.
Every sacrifice shall be salted with salt, have salt in yourselves Yeah.
And relocates it. Not in a building or a lineage, but in his followers.
(09:59):
Let's just pause there. That is huge. He's saying the place where God's unbreakable covenant promise resides.
It's not stone anymore. It's you. Exactly. You are the living sacrifices.
You are the royal priesthood. You are heirs with David's son, the true king.
The covenant reality is now embodied in his people. How
would the disciples have heard that people steeped in the Torah?
(10:21):
, it would have been staggering. They knew the weight of the covenant of salt.
To hear Jesus apply it directly to them, fishermen, tax collectors, casting them in roles
previously held by the temple, the priesthood, the monarchy.
It was revolutionary. It conferred immense dignity, but also immense responsibility.
And it's easy for us, maybe less familiar with the deep roots in
(10:41):
Leviticus or Numbers, to just hear salt and think, add flavor.
Precisely. We flatten it. We miss the profound covenantal significance, the call to
permanence, purity, unwavering loyalty embodied in their very lives.
This shift away from a physical place, it reminds me of that story with Jeroboam.
Yes. First Kings twelve. Jeroboam rebels against the Davidic king Reboam, and he worries his
(11:05):
northern tribes will keep going back to Jerusalem to worship, and their loyalty will drift back.
So he sets up his own rival worship centers, golden calves.
Exactly. A counterfeit system trying to sever that connection to the Davidic covenant and the Jerusalem temple.
And this, of course, deeply shaped Samaritan worship later on. Which Jesus addresses directly, doesn't he?
He does. With the Samaritan woman at the well in John four verses twenty to twenty three, she
(11:29):
brings up the whole… Jerusalem versus this mountain debate.
Mhmm. And Jesus says the time is coming and now is when true worshipers will worship neither on
this mountain nor in Jerusalem, but in spirit and truth.
Worship is centered in him, not a location. So he fulfills the temple, the priesthood, the
kingship, and the covenant of salt now rests on his followers wherever they are.
(11:52):
It's a radical redefinition of covenant identity, profound seriousness, enduring loyalty to
Christ, not tied to geography, but to a spiritual reality in his people.
But that brings us back to the warning, such a high calling.
. But what if you fail? What if the salt becomes unsalty, dull, foolish?
Jesus doesn't mince words. Losing your saltiness, again becoming foolish or dull.
(12:15):
It means spiritual corruption, compromise, losing that distinct God honoring quality.
Like that dead sea salt losing its punch. Just like that.
It looks like salt. Maybe talks like salt, hangs around other salt, but it has no preserving
power, no flavor of grace, no mark of covenant loyalty.
It's become like the world. And spiritually, how does that happen?
Hypocrisy is a big one. Saying one thing, living another, compromising core convictions to
(12:40):
fit in or avoid trouble, letting your heart become corrupt, loving money or power more than
God, or simply rejecting the cost refusing to take up the cross.
It's essentially presenting an unsalted offering, worthless.
Are there Old Testament parallels for this? God rejecting offerings
…
(13:03):
blasts the priest because they're offering blind, lame, sick animals.
. Cheap, casual, contemptible sacrifices. God says he curses them for it.
The salt of true value and reverence was missing.
Okay. Any others? Isaiah one. God says, he's sick of their
festivals, their sacrifices, their prayers because their hands are full of blood.
(13:24):
They do the rituals, but there's no justice, no holiness.
The salt of a righteous life of covenant loyalty and action wasn't there.
And Amos two. Right? Amos five. Yeah. God says, I hate.
I despise your feast. Take away from me the noise of your songs.
Why? Because there's no justice rolling down like
waters, no righteousness like an ever flowing stream.
(13:46):
The offerings lacked the salt of justice. They were a stench to him.
So God looks past the outward ritual to the heart, to the actual saltiness of the life behind it.
Always. This is quite convicting. If this warning is so severe, who in the gospels would
be the most tragic, maybe the ultimate example of someone who looked salty but wasn't?
(14:08):
It has to be Judas Iscariot, doesn't it? Yeah. He's the embodiment of the unsalted sacrifice.
Outwardly, he's one of the twelve. He's doing ministry, hearing Jesus teach.
He's even the treasurer. Seems fully part of the inner circle.
The others didn't seem to suspect him until the very end. No.
But inwardly, John twelve verse six tells us he was a thief pilfering from the money bag.
(14:30):
His heart was corrupt. His discipleship was self serving, ultimately treacherous.
He heard all these warnings from Jesus about salt, about cost, about hypocrisy.
And yet And yet his heart leaned towards betrayal, not peace.
His final act, the ultimate saltless betrayal, leads him, as acts one verse twenty five puts
it, to go to his own place, discarded, like useless salt trampled underfoot.
(14:54):
Wow. That is sobering. You can be so close, hear everything, be part of the community.
But if the heart isn't truly consecrated, truly loyal, you can still be saltless.
Judas is a terrifying warning for anyone in the church. A permanent warning.
Outward association isn't enough. Okay. Let's pivot from that darkness.
If the covenant of salt is now with us as believers, how do we actively add salt to our life or sacrifice?
(15:19):
How do we live this out? Well, if our lives are the offering now, then adding salt means
living as consecrated, enduring, covenant loyal disciples.
It's about the quality of that life offered to God how does that look practically several ways
connect directly first consecration Romans twelve verse one… present your bodies as a living
sacrifice holy and acceptable to God…that's offering your whole self intentionally set apart
(15:46):
for him that's salty okay consecration what else endurance under fire first Peter one verses
six to seven again letting trials test improve your faith purifying it like gold…That
suffering endured with faith seasons the offering, proves its genuineness.
That adds salt. Right. Trials aren't just pointless pain.
They can be refining fire. And covenant loyalty.
(16:09):
Luke fourteen verse thirty three. So, therefore, any one of you who
does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
That radical commitment, putting Christ above everything else, family possessions, self demonstrates true allegiance.
That's the salt of loyalty. Consecration, endurance, loyalty, anything else.
Else. Yes. Our speech and conduct, Colossians four verse six
(16:30):
, let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt.
Our words should have that distinctiveness, that purity, that grace,
that flavor of heaven, preserving goodness in our interactions.
So it impacts everything, our inner life, how we handle hardship
, our ultimate allegiance, even how we talk to people.
It's holistic. And this brings us back to Mark nine verse fifty.
(16:51):
Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.
There's a vital link there. A crucial link. Jesus says that having this inner salt, this
purified character, this covenant loyalty is what produces peace within the community.
Remember, the disciples had just been arguing about who was the greatest.
Uh , right. Rivalry, ambition, the opposite of peace.
(17:14):
Exactly. Jesus says get the salt right internally.
Deal with your sin. Embrace the purifying fire. Be truly loyal.
And the result will be harmony, humility, peace with each other.
. So the salt of covenant holiness and the peace of covenant unity,
they go hand in hand, inseparable marks of real discipleship.
(17:35):
Beautifully put. They are. Jesus often finished these really weighty teachings with a specific phrase.
He uses it in Luke fourteen verse thirty five right after the salt warning.
He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Yes.
That's not just filler. It's a signal flag. It means pay attention.
This is fundamentally important. It's a call for spiritual perception, not just physical hearing.
(17:57):
Everyone heard the words, but Jesus is calling for people to truly understand the depth, the
implications, the life or death seriousness of what he just said.
So it's an invitation to really grapple with it, not just nod along.
Exactly.. Have spiritual ears open to grasp the
cost and the glory of being a truly
(18:17):
salted disciple. Are you just listening, or are you hearing?
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