Therefore, salt is good, but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
Luke 14:34-35
Introduction
I recall a funny exchange my dad had with a friend from Church years ago. She had been recently introduced to sea salt when my dad asked if she knew what made it special. She did not, to which he responded “fish poop!”
It is silly and not exactly accurate, but there is a grain of truth behind that: sea salt is different from regular iodized table salt because it is actually made from sea water, impurities and all. Ancient salts were much more like this: mixed and combined with various other elements and materials that gave them distinct flavor and specialized purpose. These included seasoning for food like we use in the modern day, but salt was also mixed with manure to make a more robust fertilizer for the field that ensured the soil retained nutrients.
Useless salt
For salt to lose its saltiness, it must forfeit the very thing that makes it salt. An unsalty salt is in fact no salt at all. Because of the impurities in ancient salts, the introduction of water to a salt supply would not dissolve everything and wash it away like you might imagine. Instead, it would wash away the actual salt and leave behind nothing but the impurities: salt that has lost its saltiness. This kind of salt would have been worthless and cast aside.
1 Peter 1:3-8 presents a picture of a faith that has been purified by trial by comparing it with gold. To refine gold, one must first burn away all the impurities with tremendous heat. This may reduce the size of the gold significantly, but what remains in the end is pure gold, worth far more than anything that was burned away. Much the same way, your faith, when put through trial, will shed much of its useless weight away. But what remains after the trial is pure faith which you may know is true and life giving, even if it is as small as a mustard seed (Matthew 17:20).
This picture shows us the opposite, though: pure faith being washed away, leaving only that which cannot save. What a terrifying prospect that you or I might go through life only to find that the faith we thought we had was entirely washed away by subtle washing from the world.
Staying salty
Jesus finishes this exhortation with, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” And earlier, in Luke 6, Jesus gives us the parable of the two builders: one who builds on a rock and the other who builds on sand. Interestingly, the foolish builder is not one who does not believe, but rather he is the one who hears Jesus’ words but does not act on them. The wise builder, however, hears Jesus’ words and responds with action. Your faith is proven by your obedience (James 2:18). Having ears to hear does not simply mean you have heard the lesson an understand it. Instead, it is yet more encouragement to listen to His words and take action.
So go and be useful salt of the earth. Fertilize the ground by sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with others around you. The more you practice obedience, the more skilled you will become at it, and the saltier your life will be.
May the Lord bless you and conform you into the image of His Son.
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