Love, Love, Love

“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.  Matthew5:13

Nobody quite knows what Jesus was talking about when he refers to ‘salt that has lost its saltiness’ since it is one of the traits of salt that it does not lose its saltiness!

One possible explanation for Jesus’ words may be that in Palestine, salt was often used as an insulator under the stone floors of ovens.  After a while the salt ceased insulating and needed to be replaced.  When the old salt was removed from the oven floor, it was typically thrown out upon the roadways… probably to stop weeds from growing.  Perhaps that is what Jesus meant.  However, since nobody knows for sure, maybe it would be safe for me to suggest a different explanation.  How about this:

Some years ago, while traveling in northern Africa, I stopped at the Dead Sea.  An interesting thing about this foul body of salt water is that the salt content is so high that the rocks of the shoreline are encrusted with a layer of salt crystal nearly an inch thick!  

Out of curiosity, I broke off a chunk of crystal and tasted it.  It was horrible!  Sure it was salty, but it also tasted of all kinds of vile impurities.  It was salt and a whole lot more… none of it good to the tongue.  Maybe that’s what Jesus meant when he talked about ‘salt that has lost its taste.’

I believe that Jesus came to show us how love can enhance and beautify our world of relationships.  His message is clear: do not judge, do not condemn but love, love, love.  Love our God, love others and love ourselves.  Love is the seasoning which makes everything better.  And when we Christians keep that message pure and un-polluted by harshness… then our hearts and doors are wide open and we help in positive ways to build God’s kingdom.

Lent is a wonderful time to take a look at how our faith and the living out of our faith seasons the world around us.  We are all unique and beautiful people, but maybe we could be even more so!  Let’s try adding a few more pinches of love into everything we do, and take care not to add any of that other stuff that might spoil the taste. How does that old song go… “and they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”