Study Format:
1. Read passage aloud. What did you notice in the reading? What words or phrase caught your attention?
2. Read passage aloud a second time. What questions would you ask the text?
3. Read passage aloud a third time. What do you hear God calling you to do or be in response to this text?
Interesting Ideas to Consider:
• Salt has many connotations in the scriptural tradition. Salt was used in sacrifice (Lev 2:13 - “You shall not omit from your grain-offerings the salt of the covenant with your God; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.”, Ezek 43:24 – “You shall present them before the Lord, and the priests shall throw salt on them and offer them up as a burnt-offering to the Lord.”), to seal a covenant and ensure loyalty (Ezra 4:14 – “Now because we share the salt of the palace and it is not fitting for us to witness the king’s dishonor, therefore we send and inform the king,” Num 18:19 – “All the holy offerings that the Israelites present to the Lord I have given to you, together with your sons and daughters, as a perpetual due; it is a covenant of salt for ever before the Lord for you and your descendants as well,” eating together was called “sharing salt” and expressed a binding relationship), purification (2 Kgs 2:19-22 – “Now the people of the city said to Elisha, ‘The location of this city is good, as my lord sees; but the water is bad, and the land is unfruitful.’ He said, ‘Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it.’ So they brought it to him. Then he went to the spring of water and threw the salt into it, and said, ‘Thus says the Lord, I have made this water wholesome; from now on neither death nor miscarriage shall come from it.’ So the water has been wholesome to this day, according to the word that Elisha spoke”), seasoning (Job 6:6 – “Can that which is tasteless be eaten without salt or is there any flavor in the juice of mallows?”), and preservation.
• The “You” in “You are the salt of the earth” is emphatic. Meaning there is a “you” in the Greek text, even though Greek is a language where the subject is implied by the verb and thus is not strictly necessary.
• Salt loses its saltiness through dilution with other elements. A nod to the “Blessed are the pure in heart” from v. 4. Remember “purity” does not mean clean or unblemished, rather it means undivided. Pure salt is salt that does not have other elements mixed into it.
• “The earth” in Matthew is not dualistic, meaning it is not divided from heaven. Sometimes we hear theology about how the earth is the property of Satan whereas heaven is the property of God. That is not the case in Matthew’s Gospel. For Matthew, the earth is just as much the property of God as heaven. God created the earth, it is where the disciples’ mission takes place, where God’s will is done.
• The primary function of light (v. 14) is not to be seen, but to illuminate other things. Though in contrast, by calling the disciples a city on a hill, it indicates that they will inevitably been seen, though that is not their primary purpose.
• Both “light” and “city on a hill” are images used in Isaiah to refer to Israel’s mission to the world. (Isaiah 42:6 – “I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations,” Isaiah 2:2-3 – “In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. Many peoples shall come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob”). Matthew seems to be insinuating that since Israel failed to live up to the task, it now falls to the church to fulfill God’s mission. I mean this not in that Matthew had a judgment against Israel or Jews (remember, Matthew is writing to a Jewish community), but as a warning to the disciples about what it means to be a disciple. Just as saltiness is inherent to salt and shining is inherent to light, so is mission to the world essential to discipleship. The church is not to be a secret society set inside a room for private prayer and personal faith, rather the church is to be an authentic, unconcealable witness, like a city on a hill.
• Salt does not generate its own saltiness, nor light its own light. In the same ways, the disciples do not generate their own action, but their source is God. Jesus said, “you are salt, you are light,” like the beatitudes, the job for the disciples then is to be what they are.
• V. 17-20 serve as the introduction to the section in the Sermon about the Law. The next three weeks will offer specific examples.
• “Law” refers to the Torah, in our bible, the first five books, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. “Prophets” are both the former prophets (Joshua-Kings) and the latter prophets (Isaiah-Malachi). This would be the core of the Hebrew scriptures.
• This is insider talk. It is primarily addressed to followers of Jesus who were making fundamental changes in the practice of Torah.
• “Fulfill” is the key word in this section. Fulfill does not mean merely do, but interpret and complete, and even in some ways move beyond.
Works Sourced:
Boring, M. Eugene. “The Gospel of Matthew.” The New Interpreter’s Bible Volume VIII. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995.
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