Sermon outline

INTRODUCTION
Most of the Beatitudes are in the third person, but in verses 11-12 Jesus addresses the people directly: “Blessed are you.” That third-person address continues into verses 13-16. Jesus is addressing the same group. The people who fulfill Israel’s calling to be salt and light are the persecuted.

THE TEXT
“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden . . . .” (Matthew 5:13-20).

SALT OF THE EARTH
Israel added salt to every offering at the tabernacle and temple, and is called the “salt of the covenant” (Leviticus 2:13). Salt symbolizes the perpetual character of the covenant (Numbers 18:19; 2 Chronicles 13:5). It is associated with fire (Mark 9:49), and hence with fiery judgments (Genesis 19:26; Jeremiah 17:6). In Jesus’ metaphor, He emphasizes the use of salt for flavor. Jesus’ persecuted people are like the salt on an offering, spread over the earth to make the earth a pleasing sacrifice to the Father. Jesus’ disciples bring the fiery, saving judgment of God wherever they go, and turn the world into a holocaust.

LIGHT ON A LAMPSTAND
Jesus moves from the salt of the altar into the Holy Place, where seven lamps burned on the menorah. His people are like Him, lights in dark places. The image of light merges into the image of a city – a lighted city raised up to bring turn the nations to glorify the Father (v. 16). Jerusalem was supposed to be that city (cf. Isaiah 2:1-4). Jesus says that His disciples will take over that ancient Israelite role.

SALT AND LIGHT
The images of salt and light should be taken together, as a pair. Salt is low, on the earth. Light is lifted up on a lampstand, or on a hill, and becomes like the sun or the stars in heaven. The promise to Abraham was that his descendants would be the sand on the seashore and the stars of the heaven. Jesus says salt, not sand; and he says light, not stars. But it’s the same promise. The persecuted, oppressed disciples of Jesus are the heirs of the Abrahamic promise.

FULFILLING THE LAW
Jesus goes on to explain His relation to and teaching concerning the law. The fact that He’s preaching the coming of the kingdom, and that He says His people are the renewed Israel might lead to the conclusion that Jesus is destroying everything that went before. He says that His message, His teaching, His life and work “fulfill” the Law and the prophets.

Matthew has already used the word “fulfill” a number of times (2:15, 17-18, 23; 3:15), and “fulfill” describes something surprising. Who would have thought that “Out of Egypt I called My Son” (Hosea 11:1) would be fulfilled in Jesus’ escape from Herod? The deepest story that Hosea told was the one he didn’t know – the story of Jesus. The deepest meaning of the law is the righteousness that Jesus goes on to describe in the remainder of the sermon – the redemptive righteousness that scribes and Pharisees didn’t grasp.