Salt and Light

Read It: Matthew 5:13-16 (NRSV)

13 “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. 14 “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. 15 No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. 

Learn It:

Salt was very important to people back when Jesus lived.  We have the modern day convenience of a refrigerator, but they didn't.  Salt not only added flavor to food, but it was mainly used to preserve meat so that it would last a long time.  You might think of it as making their meat into jerky instead of seeing it go bad. People also didn't have light bulbs to light up their whole house but had to use candles and lanterns with oil.  If they wanted to see at night they had to light a candle and they aren't as powerful as the lights we use nowadays.  No wonder Jesus talked about salt and light to the people.  If they didn't have any salt or any lights then they would have been in big trouble.  These were important things to the people Jesus was talking to, so this is a very profound statement that Jesus is making.  He is telling them, and us to take note!  Be salt and be light for God, be those important things that God is calling you to be!

Share It:

Have your family each grab a grain of salt and talk about its size, its shape, and what you use the salt for.  Try tasting that grain of salt and see how what it tastes like all by itself.  What did you like or dislike about the salt?  Since salt was so invaluable to the people of Jesus' time and even for people today, what kinds of things are very important in your lives?  What kinds of things do you think you couldn't live without?  Is light important?  How powerful is one light in a dark room?  What kind of light do you think Jesus is talking about in the passage above and how can your family make that light shine for others to see?

Live It:

Try turning off all the lights in your house and closing the curtains to hide the light from the street.  See how dark it is and then use a candle to light up your room.   Talk about how bright the light is and what it must have been like to live like that.  Think about that one thing you talked about in share it that was just as valuable as salt was to the Israelites, and for the next week try to see how hard it is to live without it.

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Please post comments with your experience with the share it or live it part of this weeks post.  Let others know if you and your family found this useful.