A Comment on Matthew 5:13-16

“A Commentary on Matthew 5, Verses 13-16,” by Andrew J. Schatkin My dear readers, the politically incorrect, and you who are interested in seeking and finding the truth and not being convinced by media propaganda, political hype, and are interested in intellectual honesty and honest discernment and acute thought reflection, I now seek to analyze and attempt to understand one of the most profound and deep of Jesus’s sayings found in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 5, verses 13-16. These verses, in which with my limited human understanding I can only try to grasp from the mind of the eternal god as revealed and spoken in the words of Jesus Christ, the redeemer and savior of the world, are as follows: ‘You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven.’ So my dear readers and fellow thinkers, what are we to make of these verses and sayings of the eternal god, who in his holy word speaks to us from the eternal precincts of heaven? Jesus uses the metaphors of salt and light to express that the disciples and all Christians have a vocation for the world, though persecuted, as we all cannot fail to know in the face of the Christian genocide in the Middle East and the persecution of Christians and their murder, and beheading, rape and torture in Nigeria; the persecution of the Coptic church in Egypt; and the persecution and jailing of Christians and their pastors in China; and the presence and enforcement of blasphemy laws in Pakistan. The reference to salt losing is flavor means, I think, that salt, if it loses is flavor, cannot remain salt but in Judaism may become unclean and need to be thrown out much as the evil of the world will be destroyed in the course of the final divine judgment. Christians and the disciples in their faith and its mission to the world is something valuable. No Christian can evade his or her great responsibility of proclamation and witness. Salt and light are imagery and metaphors and mean, I think, first that Christians as transformed by Christ are, by the examples of their faith and good works to the world, make known to the world the truth in Christ available to all humanity. Christians, in their examples of their lives, bring light and food for the world which is desperate for this spiritual food. No Christian can abandon his or her mission to the world of Jesus, which is love. Bear in mind, we are told here that we are not merely a light, but to be a light and shine before men so that they may see our good works and give glory to the father in heaven. We are told not to just be a light that shines before men with our good works. In short, Jesus is telling us not with some vague words of advice, but tells us in these metaphors what we should and must do with our lives, and that is be beacons to the world. Ladies and gentlemen, I do hope this little literary philosophical excursus and attempt to provide a theological and practical interpretation of these verses will aid and guide us together to plumb the depths of the words of the eternal god. Please go back to Mathew chapter 5, verses 13-16, and read and reflect on this text and with me and others be transformed to the potential we are all capable of.