What Did Jesus Teach About Being Salt and Light?

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. -Matthew 28:19-20

Update: February 13, 2011: As part of my Discipleship and the Torah class, I've made an audio recording of a class discussion on this lesson. Enjoy.

Leadership and Servanthood

This is the second part of my series on what Yeshua (Jesus) directed his Jewish disciples to teach the newly minted Gentile Messianic disciples to obey.  It's also the first of a series of Yeshua's teachings in the Book of Matthew on Leadership and Servanthood. To summarize Part I: What Did Jesus Teach About Gentiles:

In a nutshell, we learn that Yeshua taught that Gentiles have a place in the kingdom of heaven through faith and their place will be at the feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. What teachings are the Gentiles supposed to obey? The teachings of faith in Yeshua and perseverance in approaching the Throne.

That is what we can say about what Yeshua taught the Jewish disciples to teach the Gentile disciples about Gentiles in the Kingdom. Remember though, he also told the Jewish disciples to teach the Gentile disciples "to obey everything I have commanded you". In order to understand what everything means, we need to press on. After all, we've just scratched the surface.

I'm not sure what to call this collection of teachings. I loosely refer to these lessons as "leadership and servanthood" since the two concepts are intertwined, but it's really about how to be a good example, especially when you are given a responsibility in the Kingdom and, by definition, if we're in the Kingdom, we have a job to do for God.

Yeshua taught a lot on this topic. All of Matthew chapters 23 and 25 are dedicated to the theme of being a responsible steward of what we are given. Even containing his teachings in Matthew to "leadership and servanthood", I could write an enormously long blog post. Today, I'll stick with the simple topic of being "salt and light". The rest of the leader/servant teachings will follow.

Let's see what we can find out about how this teaching applies to Gentile believers and indeed, to all believers everywhere. Also recall, that the Gospel of Matthew is our specific guide book in this series. Here we go:

"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.

"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven". -Matthew 5:13-16

Salt and light are metaphors that say the same thing. Once you have the message of God and of the Messiah, you can't just keep it to yourself, you have to spread it around. If you fail to be "salt" (spread the message; be a living example), you aren't good for much. If you put your light under a bowl, you condemn those around you to walk in darkness.

In other words, once you accept discipleship under the Messiah, as a student, a servant, and an example, you have a responsibility to express what you know and what you have learned, if through no other means, than by living your life in the Messiah's footsteps, walking where he walks and doing what he does. This very much mirrors a couple of other passages that were specifically directed to Israel (emphasis added):

See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the LORD my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people." What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to him? And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today? -Deuteronomy 4:5-8

Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.

See, darkness covers the earth
and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the LORD rises upon you
and his glory appears over you.

Nations will come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

-Isaiah 60:1-3

God always intended for Israel to be a "light" and an example to the world of how to live a godly lifestyle and an existence as servants of the Great King, obeying his righteous decrees and laws. The nations (Gentiles) as supposed to be drawn to Israel to learn the ways of God. Today's Messianic Jewish movement shouldn't be surprised that a ton of Gentiles have come flocking through their doors to learn about the God of Jacob.

In the last days
the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established
as chief among the mountains;
it will be raised above the hills,
and all nations will stream to it.

Many peoples will come and say,
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
so that we may walk in his paths."
The law will go out from Zion,
the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

-Isaiah 2:2-3

Many nations will come and say,
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
so that we may walk in his paths."
The law will go out from Zion,
the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

-Micah 4:2

And many peoples and powerful nations will come to Jerusalem to seek the LORD Almighty and to entreat him." This is what the LORD Almighty says: "In those days ten men from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say, 'Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.' "
-Zechariah 22-23

It's by design. No wonder Yeshua came "for the lost sheep of Israel". He had to "turn on the light" among the Jews, so to speak, so that the Gentiles would see it and come. No wonder Paul went "first to the Jew". As an emissary to the Gentiles, he first had to "turn on the light" among the Jews, so the Gentiles would see it and come. This is prophesy, gang. I'm not making this up.

If strict Messianic Judaism then pushes the Gentiles back out the door rather than discipling them as commanded by the Messiah, how is that teaching us to be light and salt? How is that shining their own light and maintaining their own saltiness? How is that teaching the Gentile disciples to obey everything the Messiah taught?

Conclusion: What did Yeshua tell his Jewish disciples to teach the Gentile disciples about being light and salt; that is, about sharing "the message of the Good News"? We are only referencing one passage in Matthew, so the list isn't long...but it's important:

1. You are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. If you've accepted discipleship as a Gentile (or a Jew) under the Messiah, these are your roles by design.
2. If you've been made salt, don't stop being salty because you lose your worth to the world. In other words, do your job by spreading the salt around. Don't waste it or you'll be wasted.
3. Don't put you're light under a bowl to hide it. If you were designed to shine, go to the highest hill you can find so you can shine your light as far as possible. People will see the light and praise God.
4. By inference, Messianic Jews as the original salt and light, need to share that salt and light with the Gentiles, discipling them (us) and teaching them (us) to do the same. Tag. Your it. Pass it along.

In order to understand the Matthew 5:13-16 teaching, I had to reference several passages from the Tanakh, so again, part of the valid Torah study for Gentile disciples isn't limited to the New Testament and specifically not just to Acts 15 and 21. The synagogue in Berea was comprised of Jews and Gentiles who studied Torah together and probably for the same reasons I just pointed out.

As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men. -Acts 17:10-12

One of the things we can infer about what Gentile disciples are suppose to learn from Yeshua and what we're supposed to obey is a directive to examine the Scriptures ... probably all of them. How else are we supposed to understand what else we are being taught to obey? Yeshua's teachings don't exist in a vacuum. They exist within the context of the entire Word of God. To understand what Yeshua is teaching us to obey, we have to understand what the Torah says. The Torah is the necessary lens by which we must look at the teachings of the Master in order to gain a correct understanding of our duties to him.

Putting it another way, Matthew 25 is a collection of Yeshua's parables about the topic of using our gifts wisely, specifically the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30). This is obviously something we are meant to take to heart. If someone gives you a gift and tells you that you must use it, then use it. If you don't know how to use the gift, read the instruction manual. Then you'll know and then you can do. A requirement of obeying Yeshua for Gentiles then, is reading and studying the Torah...the Bible...all of the Word. There's no way around it.

In a nutshell, for today's lesson, we learn that Yeshua taught that once we, as Gentile disciples, accept him as our Master and begin learning his lessons through being taught by Yeshua's disciples and by Torah study, we are supposed to pass the word along through the example of our lives and through our good deeds (Matthew 5:16) so that those seeing our light will praise God in Heaven. Learn from disciples. Learn from the Bible. Do good deeds. Be salt. Shine your light. Don't hide under a bowl.