The World is Bland
"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.“
Lots of recent studies suggest that we’d all be a healthier if we ate a lot more fish. Something about the oil and our brains. It’s either a really important discovery or the guys on the National Fish Marketing Board are geniuses. Either way, my wife is on the bandwagon. That means I’m eating fish. It’s not that fish is terrible, it’s just bland. In order to get it down, I need plenty of salt or other seasoning. Otherwise, it just kind of sits in my mouth boring me to death.
In Jesus’ world, fish was major. Lots of people earned their living from fishing, and everybody ate the stuff. But they needed salt even more than I do. For one, they used salt (and lots of it) as a way of keeping the fish fresh for more than a day or two. But they also used it for flavor. Middle Eastern cooking is not bland.
In today’s passage, Jesus says something with a surprising idea tucked inside of it: the world is bland. Okay, He doesn’t come right out and say that. But He tells His listeners that they are the salt of the world. That’s their function in the universe. If you stop being salty, He says, what’s your point?
But the implication is that without salt -- followers of the one, true God -- the world is as bland as baked, unseasoned fish. Growing up, I tended to think it was just the opposite. I followed God because it was the ”right thing to do,“ but I was pretty sure everyone else was having a much spicier life than me. ”Being a Christian is boring.“ Wrong. I might have been boring, but it’s wasn’t because of Jesus.
The world is bland because, without God, it’s got no real power and no real future. Without power and a future, sex, popularity, and money go bad faster than yesterday’s trout. Measured in lifetimes, people who live for themselves repeat the same old patterns over and over and over again. Yawn.
Want to keep life more interesting for everybody? Want to add real flavor to your circle of influence? Then don’t apologize for being who God made you to be, for following Jesus with real passion right out loud, for representing the only life truly worth living. I’m not saying you’ll be popular (and it ain't easy), but people can’t deny the spiciness of genuine, loving Christlikeness. Once they sense it in your life, they might realize it’s the taste they’ve been waiting for all along.
--Matthew 5:13
Lots of recent studies suggest that we’d all be a healthier if we ate a lot more fish. Something about the oil and our brains. It’s either a really important discovery or the guys on the National Fish Marketing Board are geniuses. Either way, my wife is on the bandwagon. That means I’m eating fish. It’s not that fish is terrible, it’s just bland. In order to get it down, I need plenty of salt or other seasoning. Otherwise, it just kind of sits in my mouth boring me to death.
In Jesus’ world, fish was major. Lots of people earned their living from fishing, and everybody ate the stuff. But they needed salt even more than I do. For one, they used salt (and lots of it) as a way of keeping the fish fresh for more than a day or two. But they also used it for flavor. Middle Eastern cooking is not bland.
In today’s passage, Jesus says something with a surprising idea tucked inside of it: the world is bland. Okay, He doesn’t come right out and say that. But He tells His listeners that they are the salt of the world. That’s their function in the universe. If you stop being salty, He says, what’s your point?
But the implication is that without salt -- followers of the one, true God -- the world is as bland as baked, unseasoned fish. Growing up, I tended to think it was just the opposite. I followed God because it was the ”right thing to do,“ but I was pretty sure everyone else was having a much spicier life than me. ”Being a Christian is boring.“ Wrong. I might have been boring, but it’s wasn’t because of Jesus.
The world is bland because, without God, it’s got no real power and no real future. Without power and a future, sex, popularity, and money go bad faster than yesterday’s trout. Measured in lifetimes, people who live for themselves repeat the same old patterns over and over and over again. Yawn.
Want to keep life more interesting for everybody? Want to add real flavor to your circle of influence? Then don’t apologize for being who God made you to be, for following Jesus with real passion right out loud, for representing the only life truly worth living. I’m not saying you’ll be popular (and it ain't easy), but people can’t deny the spiciness of genuine, loving Christlikeness. Once they sense it in your life, they might realize it’s the taste they’ve been waiting for all along.
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