A city on a hill

Not only are we salt, according to Jesus (see our last blog), we are light. Again (as it was when Jesus talked about salt) the construction in the Greek is emphatic: “You, you alone and no others are the light of the world!” This should be no surprise, because Jesus said of Himself: “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12), and here He teaches us that we are meant to reflect this light in our own lives. Paul wrote that we are to “become … children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe…” (Phil. 2:15), and that God has “shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” (2 Cor. 4:6). The next thing Jesus says is this: “A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.” This statement seems to give a practical application or consequence to His declaration that we are the light of the world. What does Jesus mean by describing the church as a “city on a hill”?

Clearly, it has something to do with visibility, and again a knowledge of the historical context comes in handy. In the Israel of Jesus’ day, houses were often built of white limestone. As such, they would gleam in the sun and could scarcely be hidden, particularly if set on a hill. At night, the light of hundreds or thousands of oil lamps would cast a glow over the hillside. Even as you would not build a city on a hill and try to hide it, neither would you light a lamp and set it under a bowl, verse 15 continues. A lamp is put on a lampstand to give light to everyone, and the church is set on a hill for the same purpose. Jesus was almost certainly thinking about the Old Testament prophecies concerning Jerusalem as a city of light lifted up before the nations who would come to it: “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” (Is. 2:2). “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness 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” (Is. 60:1-3).

Jesus is reminding us that the church has taken the place of Jerusalem as the city of God in the same way that believers of Christ from every nation, Jew and Gentile alike, have taken the place of Israel as His covenant people. In the same way as a city on a hill gives out its light, day and night, God’s city will shine eternally: “The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine upon you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory” (Is. 60:19). Jesus now commands us in verse 16 to let our light shine before the world, that everyone may see our good deeds and glorify God. The church is the most powerful solar energy device ever made. We are designed and created to take the light of the universe and reflect it into the world around us, imparting the energy by which that universe was created and by which Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. Without us, the people and nations around us will descend into darkness. This incredible power and responsibility is ours.

Salt of the Earth

“You yourselves and no other are the salt of the earth”. This is the best translation of Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:13. Jesus envisions a role for us no one else can fulfill. If we are not prepared to be the salt of the earth, no one else will be. It is no use looking to governments, scientists, philosophers or military figures to save civilization – only the church of the living God can rise to the task. If the church fails, there is no Plan B. Jesus does not envision a world where humanists and people of various religions will join forces to establish peace and harmony. Jesus was so “narrow-minded” as to insist that only His followers, empowered by His Spirit, would be able to do the job. The most common use for salt in the ancient world, in places with a hot climate and no refrigeration, was as a preservative. A small amount of salt rubbed into meat would slow its decay. Clear enough – we are to be a preservative. But how could Jesus speak of salt losing its saltiness? Anyone who has taken high school chemistry knows that salt, sodium chloride, is what chemists call a stable compound. In other words, it does not decay or become diluted over time. Was Jesus a poor scientist? The answer is found in the fact that in the ancient world salt, rather than being mined or produced as the product of evaporation from salt water, was found in salt marshes. It therefore contained many impurities. Because the salt itself was more soluble than the impurities, it could wind up being drained or leached out in the process of being transported, stored or used, thereby leaving most of the impurities but only a little of the pure salt. The residue was so diluted it was of little worth for preserving purposes. This was described as salt which had lost its saltiness.

Jesus then states that such salt is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled by men. According to scholars, salt that had lost its saltiness was used for a specific purpose in the ancient near east. It was scattered on the soil which covered the flat roofs of houses. The nature of its chemical composition was such as to harden the soil and prevent leaks in the roof. In those times, roofs were used as playgrounds for children or as meeting places for adults (much as we use patios or decks). Consequently, they were continually being trodden under foot, and this process was used, along with the sprinkling of diluted salt, to keep the roofs hard and leak-proof. What is tasteless salt good for?  Only to be thrown out (or cast around) and trodden under foot. That was the only practical use it had left.

The message is clear. In order to be the moral disinfectant, the agent of health and wholeness in a world of decay and death, Christians must retain the full strength of what Jesus has put within them. When we come to Christ, we are given the potential of living with Christ’s nature and the ability that comes with that to affect the world around us. But along with it, we also carry the baggage of our fallen human nature. As we take the purity of what God has given us in Christ and carry it through this fallen world, we are continually confronted with the possibility of compromise, of letting our standards fall, of choosing to live with one foot in the kingdom and one foot out of it. If this takes place, the purity and strength of what we have in Christ will gradually be leached away, and all we will be left with is a pale copy of the real original. There must be no compromise with worldly standards, no letting down of our guard.

Otherwise, we will find ourselves thrown out of God’s purposes and trodden underfoot by the men, in such a way that, through our hypocrisy or inability to live up to the message we proclaim, we wind up contributing to the hardening of their hearts against God.