Back in the good old days, before refrigerators were invented, what did
people use to preserve their food?  People cure meat with salt.  Germs need
moisture to survive.  The salt dries that moisture up, killing the germs.  Salt
could also be used to help heal wounds.  Using the same idea to preserve
meat, salt could be rubbed onto a sore or an infected wound that was
discharging pus.  The salt would cause pain, but it would dry up some of the
moisture and kill some of the germs.  That’s where we get the saying that
somebody is “rubbing salt into a wound.”  Today, some people still use a bit
of salt water to gargle with when they have a sore throat.

    In ancient Rome, salt was worth quite a bit.  Salt was used to pay people
for working.  This is where the phrase “that person is worth his or her salt”
comes from.  The word “salary” even comes from the word salt--see the first
three letters of both words?

    People also used to think salt was good luck.  Throwing salt over your
shoulder was supposed to help you have good luck.

    Today, we don’t have to rub salt over a wound--but it was still used less
than thirty years ago as a household remedy for cuts.  People might still be
using salt that way.  We also don’t use salt anymore as money.  Saline
solutions are still given in hospitals, through intravenous lines, to prevent or
correct dehydration in patients.  I don’t know whether or not people still
throw salt over their shoulder for luck though, but salt still has its uses today.

    People who do not want to use harsh chemicals can wash their hands with
salt to kill germs.  It might not be as effective as soap, but it still works.  Salt
is spread out on ice and snow to help melt it away.  Once it’s melted through,
the slush is much easier to shovel away from sidewalks and driveways.  Salt
makes roasted nuts taste better, and people add a little to their popcorn for
flavor.  Some foods don’t have quite the same flavor when the salt is left out
of them.  Salt is a primative material, which has been used from Biblical
times, all the way up to now.

    But what if the salt “loses its saltiness?”  Jesus asked the very same
question in Matthew, chapter five, verse thirteen.  What good is salt if its
qualities are gone?

    Meat couldn’t be cured without salt.  Countless people would have died in
the past from eating germ-contaminated meat.  People exploring the world
centuries ago would have had to carry enough livestock aboard their ships to
have fresh meat every day of their voyage.  That would have been almost
impossible, expensive to say the least.  The use of salt on a wound would
have had no effect--and people would have died from infections in their
wounds.  Rome wouldn’t have had something to pay its people with, other
than silver, gold, and other valuable metals and stones.  We couldn’t use salt
anymore to melt the ice off the streets when the next snowfall happens. 
Streets would be unsafe, and more car accidents would happen.

    Certain kinds of fish can only live in salt water.  If salt had no saltiness,
then the fish would die.  At the very least without salt, we would not have any
way of flavoring our food.  At the very most without salt, a valuable nutrient,
we would die!  Life would be harder than before.

    What good would salt be, if it lost its saltiness?  Jesus sums it up perfectly:
“It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled...”  It
would be absolutely worthless.  People would sweep it out of their houses
like the other dust and dirt.  Nobody would care about the salt.  All kinds of
other things would be brought in, and used to replace salt.

    Why would Jesus proclaim salt “worthless” in a sermon?  Because earlier
in verse 13 of Matthew chapter five, Jesus calls us “the salt of the earth.” 
We, as christians, are salt.  We are worth something in this world when we
follow Jesus.  By analogy, we could be used to heal wounds.  We could be
used to prevent people from “spoiling.”  As salt, we could be used melt down
cold hearts.  Salt makes us thirsty if we eat too much at once.  As salt, we
could be used to make this world thirsty for living water.  As salt, we as
christians could be used to add flavor to this world through love.

    But if we lost our saltiness, then what would we be worth?  Nothing.

    Nobody would care about us, as salt.  And all kinds of other things, other
gods and religions, other idols, and other philosophies would be brought in
and used to replace the salt.  People would die of spiritual wounds.  A great
wealth of blessings from the Lord would be lost to this world if we lost our
saltiness.

    The best qualities that God has given us would be gone if we lost our salt. 
And what’s worse?  We would be thrown out!

    We have to remember our salt.  We have to remember that we are different
from this world.  This world knows we are different by the “taste” we have. 
That’s the distinct flavor of salt.  Nothing tastes quite like salt, and certainly
nothing else would serve as a good replacement.  When Jesus proclaims:
“You are the salt of the earth,” he is saying that we are like real salt.  We
once had the poison of sin in us, but now we’re cured.  We have an amazing
impact on the world around us, but at the same time, we come from a simple
and humble source.

    It’s not amazing that people get salt out of ocean water by drying up the
water in special ponds.  It’s not amazing that salt can be dug up from the earth
just like any other rock.  It’s just there with everything else that God created.
We have to remember this.  As the “salt of the earth” we are endowed with
incredible gifts from God, as well as humility.  We are useful to God in many
ways, provided that we are humble enough to remember where we came
from, and that God should be the one using us.

    I encourage you to let God pick you up and “sprinkle” you out of your
comfort zones.  I encourage you to let God use you to add a unique and
distinct “flavor” to a bland and sometimes dreary world.  Let God use you to
“cure” lost souls, so they don’t spoil because of sin, and allow God to use
you as a “salary” to bring his blessings to the world. I encourage you to
remember where you came from.  But I also encourage you to always be
readily available for the Lord to use.

    God bless you all.