Blessed. Salt. Light.

Matthew 5:1-20

February 8, 2026

 

            “Have a blessed day!”

            These are words I often hear when I am checking out at a store. I bring whatever it is that I’m buying, whether it is groceries or clothes or toothpaste. I try to exchange pleasantries with the person who is working behind the counter. That same person tallies up my purchases. I pay. I say, “thank you.” And as I’m leaving, the employee sends me on my way with, “Have a blessed day.”

            Whenever someone says that to me, I assume that they are probably connected in some way to Christianity. I don’t mean to imply that people of other faith traditions would not wish blessing upon someone. I think they absolutely would. But considering our context, when someone at a store here or in Columbia or even in Nashville wishes me a blessed day, my assumption that they are implying a Christian based blessing is probably more accurate than Hindu.

            But other than that brief consideration as I walk out the door, I haven’t really thought too hard about what someone is saying when they wish me a blessed day. Until I sat down to write this sermon. Then I started thinking about it.

            When someone says this, are they using the word blessed as a synonym of good? Or do they believe that blessed is an upgrade from good? That makes me wonder what do we mean when we use the word blessed? I used to use the word blessed when I referred to good fortune. We are blessed to have a roof over our heads. We are blessed to have plenty of food. We are blessed to have resources. But if blessing, especially in the context of our faith, implies divine favor, then if I am blessed to have a roof over my head, what about the person who does not? Does God not bless the unhoused person? So, now instead of blessed, I use the word lucky. We are lucky to have a roof over our heads. We are lucky to have enough to eat and warm clothes.

            I have made this linguistic switch because I don’t believe that some of us are blessed with divine favor over and above others. And my change in terminology also stems from what I read in this passage from Matthew’s gospel.

            I will confess to you that we are catching up on our gospel reading by putting two weeks’ worth of passages into one. I should have read the Beatitudes, verses 1 through 12, last week, but the ice storm and missing church threw me out of whack. I could have skipped the first twelve verses altogether and jumped straight into salt and light, but the Beatitudes sets the stage for everything that comes next, so I think it’s important that we hear them.

            Jesus begins each beatitude with the word blessed. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. I have often heard this as an imperative, meaning you should be, must be, poor in spirit if you want to inherit the kingdom of God. But a commentator I read writes that grammatically Jesus is not giving a command. Jesus is stating what is and offering a promise.

            Blessed is a person who is mourning – mourning a personal loss, mourning a communal loss, mourning the world as it is versus the world as it should be – because I promise that person will be comforted. Blessed is the person trying to show mercy to others, because I promise that person will receive mercy as well.

            Jesus is addressing these beatitudes and the rest of the sermon on the Mount to his disciples. And in this sermon he is offering them an upside down version of the world that they know. If blessed means favored by God, then no one would have expected that the poor in spirit or the meek or those in mourning to be the ones favored. They would have thought the opposite to be true. Blessed are those who rejoice. Blessed are those who are strong. Blessed are those who wield power. Blessed are those who have status. But Jesus is turning their worldview on its head. It seems to me that Jesus is not only declaring those who would be at the bottom of the ladder as having divine favor, but Jesus is also teaching the disciples that these lowly ones are seen by God. They are loved by God. God stands by them. God values them. These are the ones, Jesus tells them, that are blessed, that are seen, that are valued.

            Last week we considered that Jesus’ initial call to the first disciples was only “follow me.” Now, he is beginning to flesh out that call, to give the disciples a deeper look into what following him means. The people who need to hear my good news, the people you will one day teach and preach to may be ignored and considered without worth by the world, but God sees them and values them. They are blessed.

            Jesus now pivots. He shifts from third person to second.

            “You are the salt of earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled underfoot.”

            Notice that Jesus does not say that the disciples are like salt or should try to be like salt. He states, “you are the salt of the earth.” Salt is not something they are to emulate. Salt is what they are. Salt is what we are.

            The more I learn about cooking, the more I realize how important salt is. I like to watch cooking shows, not so much for the recipes they share, but because they teach me technique and how flavors work together or not. And every cook, every baker that I watch, emphasizes the use of salt.

            I once told you the story of when I was a little girl and I tried making scrambled eggs for my brother after he had been sick. I confused teaspoon with tablespoon and put a tablespoon of salt into the eggs. Unless you are making enough eggs to feed a platoon, a tablespoon of salt is way too much for two eggs. I have been leery of salt. But I’m learning that without salt, food is flavorless. I’m learning that salt is a key ingredient, an essential ingredient in just about anything I prepare.

And as one commentator wrote, we may take our salt for granted, but in Jesus’ time it was a precious commodity. Salt was sought after. This commentator noted that soldiers were often paid in salt, which is where we get our word salary. Salt was used for food preservation, and disinfecting wounds, as well as flavoring a dish. Jesus tells the disciples that they are the salt of the earth. They are a precious commodity. They are not just there for themselves but to sent out, dispersed, into the world, to care for, to heal, to reveal God. As this same commentator wrote, even if they, as salt, increase thirst in others, it is a thirst that should draw people to the living water that God offers.

After Jesus declares the disciples to be the salt of the earth, he then tells them that they are light of the world. We so often think only of Jesus as the light of the world, especially in this season of Epiphany, that we may forget that Jesus clearly states that the disciples, those who follow him, are the world’s light too.

Many years ago when I was teaching a confirmation class in another church, we played a game. The person who was “it” had to take a lit flashlight, go into a dark room, and  it somewhere in that room. Then all the lights were turned on, and it was up to the rest of us to find the flashlight. In a dark room, a lit flashlight is easy to find. But when all the lights are on, that flashlight was a lot harder to find.

The point of the game was this, we live in a world of light – some of that light is good and helpful, and some less so. But if we are the light of the world, then we need to find a way to shine so that others can see. We can’t hide the light that we are. We have to shine. We have to remove the basket we want to cover ourselves with, and shine so that the whole house is illumined.

Jesus tells the disciples that God sees those that the world doesn’t see. God values those that the world does not value. Jesus tells the disciples that they are the salt of the earth. They are precious and called to be salty, to reveal where life has become flavorless, to reveal where healing must happen, to increase thirst for God, and even to set the world on edge. And Jesus tells them that they are the light of the world, and that their light must not be hidden or made indistinguishable from all the other lights out there. Their light needs to be set up high, so that others can see not only that it shines but that it points to the light of God.

Blessed. Salt. Light. The words Jesus spoke to the disciples are the words he speaks to us. Who is it that God sees that we must see? How are we to be salt in a world that has lost its taste for righteousness? And how can our light shine so that others may finally see?

The good news is that we don’t have to become these things. We already are. This is who God created us to be. And the even greater good news is that we are not alone. We are not called to be disciples by ourselves. We are not called to be salt and light in isolation. We are called into the body of Christ to be the body of Christ. We are already who God created us to be. We just have to believe it. We just have to live it. Blessed. Salt. Light. May every day be blessed. Thanks be to God.

Let all of God’s children say, “Alleluia.”

Amen.