"Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear." (Luk 14:34-35)
Sometimes Jesus seems to zig when you’re expecting him to zag.
In Luke 14:25-33—the section immediately before the verses above—Jesus lays down one of His (in)famous calls to discipleship: The punch line is: "You want to be my disciple? Renounce everything you have."
Seems like a good spot for a mic-drop, right?
Then Jesus zigs.
“You know how salt is good?” He continues, “What happens when it’s no longer salty?" (Why... are we talking about salt now?) "Can you resaltify salt? Nope. And you can’t even use it as an additive for soil in gardening, like you do with practically everything else worthless in life. You’ve got to just chuck on the street. No good.
Whoever’s got ears that work, listen up.”
What does salt being salty have to do with disciples being disciply?
Salt has one defining characteristic: being salty. Without that, its value is nil.
Disciples have one defining characteristic: they follow Jesus. Without that, what is their value?
I think Jesus is saying: the disciple’s relationship to Jesus needs to be regularly assessed.
What is my relationship with Jesus? Is He number one? Numero uno? First place? Preeminent? “Seek first”?
We all know why Jesus is posing this to His disciples. It’s because we tend to avoid crosses, and we tend to love family, and we tend to desire and acquire and store. The table of our heart wobbles away from following Jesus.
Jesus says, “Hey, this is discipleship.” And then He says, “Keep it salty, kids.”
Keep it salty. Do everything, and do all that you do with a certain flavor. Our saltiness is how we do everything with attention to the presence of The Master.
Because without Jesus in our lives, then what use are we to the Kingdom of God? Everyone wants to be a “leader,” “make a unique contribution.” But not in this Kingdom. There’s one leader. And then there’s followers. If you’re not a follower, here, of the Master, then what are you? What are you doing?
What’s our “salt”? Our unique contribution? The thing we bring to the table? The way we keep behind, and keep close to, The Master.
You and I will never not be disciples in relation to Jesus. We will always be learning, imitating, following. We are always to live our life being attentive to Him who is ahead. (Heb 12:1)
Our unique, defining, feature, the thing we do that brings value to our days, is that we follow Jesus. Following is salty. Always be a follower. Always wonder, “Where’s Jesus?”
Keep it salty.
Photo by Charles Deluviot on Unsplash
