Hermeneutic Unpacking the Metaphors of Salt and Light in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount Kerygma

Some people still think that religion and science cannot get along. They tend to interpret religious texts, including the Bible, too literally.  As David Tracy (1978) has said, all major religions have certain root metaphors as a common place. In other words, metaphor is a common integral element for many religions, and Christianity is no exception to this. However, if your abilities to interpret a religious text limited to literal meaning, you are less likely to appreciate  what religion makes deeply meaningfully through its texts’ unique rhetorical devices, including metaphors. But, if you can see metaphor as an important element to give taste and flavor to a religion, then, your hermeneutical abilities enables you to transcend the letters of religious text and discover a truth in the spirit of the letters of the text.  In fact, this is how Hans-Georg Gadamer and Paul Ricoeur argue for hermeneutics.  Now with this in mind, let’s visit the Gospel text for the 5^th Sunday in Ordinary Time on Cycle A: Matthew 5:13-16.

The text is pretty much with logos in Jesus’ kerygma from the early part of the Sermon on the Mount. And, these are the words of Jesus proclaimed, as in the text.

You are the salt of the earth.

But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned?

It is no longer good for anything

but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

You are the light of the world.

A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden.

Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket;

it is set on a lampstand,

where it gives light to all in the house.

Just so, your light must shine before others,

that they may see your good deeds

and glorify your heavenly Father.

In his kerygma, Jesus calls us to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.  By being the salt of the earth, Jesus wants us not to lose its taste, while not being hidden as the light to illuminate the world.  Understanding what Jesus meant by being the illuminating light of the world is relatively easier than meaning behind being salt of the earth, not losing its taste. So, what did Jesus really mean by calling us to be the tasteful salt of the earth? Does it have something to do with the salt deposit in the earth or salt in the ocean water? Or, this is Jesus’ unique rhetorical technique in using a figurative metaphor?

A key to tackle such questions is it is helpful to pay attention to “loses its taste” and “no longer good” in v. 13. In the original Greek text, Matthew uses “μωρανθῇ”(moranthe) for “loses its taste” and “οὐδὲν ἰσχύει”(ouden ischyei) for “no longer good”.  Moranthe originally means losing functionality or becoming insipid, as well as stupid, while ouden means nothing and ischyei means potent, vigorous, strong. Thus, ouden ischyei suggests the state of no functionality. So, Jesus wants us to be the kind of salt that never loses its functionality, as he calls us to be the salt of the earth. Now, think of the functionalities of salt.

In the original Greek word for salt, ἅλας (halas), we can find a hint, as it has a nuance of preserving and flavoring. These have been certainly well-known functions of salt ever since the ancient time.  Before refrigeration, our ancestors used to preserve meats and fish in salt.  And, salt has been used as seasoning agent ever since the humans began using it. Therefore, being the salt, we work hard to preserve Jesus’ salvific teaching, the truth, in his Gospel. Ever since the time of the Old Testament, there have been heretical teachers (i.e. Jeremiah 23:16) and Jesus also warned against such ones (i.e. Matthew 7:15).  And, even today, the teaching in the sacred biblical texts and the doctrine of the Church have been attacked to false teachers and heretic theologians. Today, in this post-Vatican-II era, they take “aggiornamento” aspect of the Vatican II Council to their own “progressive” extremes into heretical theological views, as to ignore Paul’s warning in Romans 12:2. If we fail to honor and act on the truth in Romans 12:2, then, we sure would become moranthe (tasteless) salt with no ἰσχύω(ischuo), potency, power. And, becoming ouden ischyei (unable to function, lost potency), we cannot serve as the agent to preserve the truth and the Church, as it would also mean to confirm to the darkness of the world, against which Paul warns in Romans 12:2. Then, we would be just as foolish (moranthe) as a concealed lamp stand.

To be the kind of salt with the functionality of preserving, we serve the Lord as his agents to keep the Church from falling into the darkness of this world, infested with heretic teachings. As long as we are able to function with wisdom (1 Corinthians 12:8), knowledge (ibid.), and discernment (1 Corinthians 12:10) through the Holy Spirit, then, we remain as the salt with full ἰσχύς (ischus), potency, uncompromising to heretical teachings and secular wisdom that may corrupt our minds, such as relativism, under the guise of “aggiornamento”. After all, being the salt of the earth with full potency (not losing its flavor) means that we can preserve the purity of the Church so that she will be the worthy virgin to marry Christ at the eschaton (Revelation 19:1-9).

As to another functionality of halas (salt), seasoning, being the salt means that our presence shall help one another savor meaning of life in Christ. It can also means that we are not boring persons. So, when we speak, nobody shall fall asleep out of boredom. In this regard, a preacher whose teaching is gravitating and helpful in discerning meaning of life, in light of the truth in Jesus’ teaching, is a good example of the halas with ischus, salt with full taste, potency.

Now, I invite you to think of the functionality of salt from your grade school science lab class. Perhaps, you remember that salt water has better electrical conductivity than plain water. As you kept adding and resolving more salt into plain water, you noticed that the electrical conductivity of the water increasing.  You remember the light bulb grew brighter as more salt became resolved in the water. We learned that it was because positive sodium ions attract the negative electrons, making the electric current, which is constant flow of electrons, pass through the water easier. Scientifically, salt makes the electric conductivity of water easier, as electrolyte. Because of this, salt is indispensable for our body to maintain its normal physiological function for the sustenance of life (biological life). If no sodium ion in our body fluid, due to no salt, then, we may die from a cardiac abnormality. Physiologically, salt is an essential agent to our nervous system to regulate and punctuate the electrochemical functionality of the biological life of our body due to the salt’s potency of electrical conductivity as resolved in water.

Let’s see how this scientific fact about salt’s functionality as an agent of electrical conductivity in water can be applied in hermeneutics of the above Gospel text on Jesus’ teaching on being the salt.

Say, we consider electricity as a metaphor for the Holy Spirit, and the electric current (flow of electrons) as a metaphor for what Pope Francis fondly calls “the current of grace” for the Church’s charismatic renewal. And, say, water, in which salt is to be resolved, is a metaphor for the earth or this world, as 71% of the earth is actually composed of water. Now, with these juxtapositions, as the fully potent salt of the earth, we function as the agent of conductivity of “the current of grace” in the Holy Spirit through the earth. As electricity in electrons flows from higher voltage potential to lower voltage potential, the Holy Spirit is sent out from the Father in heaven in Jesus’ mighty name to us on earth (John 14:26), and the outpouring of the powerful Holy Spirit on Pentecost from heaven to the disciples on earth (Acts 2:1-13) is a good example.

Actually, the Holy Spirit does not necessarily need us to propagate the grace, because as in Trinity, the Holy Spirit is God. Therefore, almighty God does not need any agents to propagate whatever He wills to. However, out of His love, God calls us to function as His chosen agents of “the current of grace” in the medium of the Holy Spirit. Because God loves us so much to the point of making His only begotten Son to dwell among us so that we may have eternal life as he does (John 1:1, 14; 3:16), it is in His desire that we function as His agents to propagate the Holy Spirit, through which “the current of grace” flows.  

The world is composed of two agents in terms of the conductivity of “the current of grace” in the Holy Spirit. We, the salt of the earth, the agents for better conductivity, as the salt in the water makes the electrical conductivity in the water better. The other is obstacles for the conductivity of the Holy Spirit, trying to keep the world dark from being illuminated by the wisdom in the Holy Spirit. As our presence in the world increases, we can overcome the impeding forces from these obstacles, thus making the Holy Spirit conductivity in the world better, just the electrical conductivity in the water increases as more salt is put into the water.