Salt, Light, and Bible Reading

Our Friday Shepherd’s Nook post by John Frye.

Salt, Light and Bible Reading

I like it when Scot McKnight makes a bold claim like, “Our passage is the most significant passage in the entire Bible on how to read the Bible…” (66). Most significant. Entire Bible. We are reviewing chapters three and four of Scot’s SGBC: The Sermon on the Mount. Chapter three addresses the salt and light metaphors Jesus used about his followers (Matt. 5:13-16) and chapter four engages Jesus’ august claim to fulfill all that is written in the Law and the Prophets (Matt. 5:17-20).

Salt and Light. Something as simple as understanding these verses in the context of the Bible’s big Story enriches appreciation for Jesus’ engagement with his original audience. The unlikely candidates who populate the kingdom of God (see the Beatitudes) can imagine their “role in the world as God’s agents of redemption” (55). Their role is ours as well. We, like them, have a ruling and mediating role in putting on display by our behaviors that Jesus is both the perfect King and Priest. As his followers, we, too, are a kingdom and priests (Revelation 1:6). Those original followers as Jews were the “salt of the Land.” Here is where patient study of the Jewish story pays dividends in interpretation (see, e.g., Psalm 37; Luke 1:67-79). In a bigger framework I think salt points toward what would be Peter’s ministry as “apostle to the Jews.” Light, on the other hand, has the Gentiles in the cross-hairs (see Isaiah 51:4; 60:3; 9:1-2 parallel in Matt. 4:14-16) and, thus, finds advancement in Paul’s apostleship to the Gentiles. Discipleship means mission both to Jews and Gentiles, that is, the whole world (Matthew 28:18-20). The church does not do “missions,” the church is God’s mission in the world. To emphasize the behavioral aspects of salt and light, Scot transforms the nouns to verbs: “You salt the Land; you enlighten the world.” On the other hand, the salt-less salt verb “thrown out” emphasizes the seriousness of judgment for those who do not stay faithful as followers of Jesus. Instead of dwelling on whether or not someone can “lose their salvation,” Scot urges us to dwell on the sharp call to stay faithful to Jesus.

Bible Reading.  I would summarize this chapter like this: The big Story of the Bible is the grand Story of Jesus. Jesus, in essence, makes another audacious claim that the Old Testament is all about him! Who does this man think he is? That is the magnetic question. With Jesus’ claim, everything in history changes. When we read the Bible, we must look through and at Jesus as he is presented in the Old Testament. In fact, twice in Luke 24, Jesus teaches that the whole Old Testament is about him and his messianic mission (Luke 24:27, 44). The Torah, now, must be read and obeyed as Jesus teaches it (69 Scot’s emphasis). Jesus actually does expect that the righteousness of his followers will greatly exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees. It must be so or a person will not see the kingdom. This is not another head-fake to Law so that we will cry out for Christ’s righteousness to be accredited to us. Jesus is talking about real behavioral righteousness, i.e., right living as Jesus’ moral vision defines it (70). Again, Scot offers a provocative conclusion under the heading “Extensions.” Christians must not try to live faithfully by appealing to two realms: the realm of the Bible’s claims and the realm of the U. S. Constitution and culture. What is legal by the Constitution does not mean it automatically is biblically moral (e.g., the legality of abortion and the legality of civil unions for homosexuals). You might say, “Well, I know that.” There’s more to come, however. In the world, it’s legal to kill people in war. Is that part of Jesus’ moral vision for his followers?