Salt that loses its saltiness

Jesus said, “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men" (Matthew 5:13)

Table salt is the simple chemical called sodium chloride. It is responsible for the salty taste of, for example, the sea. No other chemical tastes quite like salt, so it is chemical illiteracy to say that salt can lose its saltiness. Other (similar) compounds formed from sodium chloride can never taste as salt does. 

     Salt was a valuable commodity in Palestine during Roman times, so we know a lot about its production: salt came from two sources, either from salt mines or by evaporating salt-containing water. Rock salt is quite pure and in Roman times was more precious than salt from the evaporators. It was ground into small lumps ca. 1-3 mm across. Most of the salt used, however, was the cheaper evaporated material. Production of evaporated salt was as follows: the water at the edge of a lake was sectioned off, leaving a wide but shallow pool. The water would soon evaporate in the warmth of the sun to leave an off-white powdery solid. This ‘salt’ was very impure and contained many other substances such as chalk and sand. Water from the dead sea also contains gypsum. The crude material could be used as produced, or could be purified by dissolving in a small quantity of pure water. Impurities being less soluble would remain solid while the salt dissolved. The second stage of purification was thus a simple process of filtration followed by a second evaporation. This purified salt was as almost as pure as rock salt.

      Most of the poor (and therefore most of Jesus’ audience) would have used the cheaper, impure salt. If this salt was stored in a damp place then the soluble (real) salt would leach from the powder leaving behind the less-soluble impurities. Although looking like the real thing, this salt-free ‘salt’ would thus have lost its saltiness. This white powdery impurity was not very soluble, had no taste and only a slight preservative ability, and would have to be thrown away.

The Lord looks at the heart

So many of our problems arise simply from people pretending and acting.

      Charlie Chaplin was once on holiday in Europe in the early 1920s. There happened to be a "Charlie Chaplin look-a-like competition" nearby on the beach so, despite protestations, his wife persuaded him to enter ... and he came third! Two men with canes and moustaches looked more like Charlie Chaplin than did the real Charlie Chaplin! 

     While it is easy to make fun of such stories, we are often the same: it is dangerous to think in terms of caricatures, we look at the outside rather than at the interior. It was similar for Jesus: his way of prayer was so different to what His disciples expected to see that they even had to ask him how to pray: they knew it was prayer because Jesus said it was, but it did not conform to the patterns set by those who liked to be thought of as ‘holy’. The disciples saw the difference between Jesus’ way of prayer and caricature of holiness set by the Sanhedrin, and found it incomprehensible.  

      Again, look at the words we use in our prayers: look at their number and intonation. And, anyway, who is this show for? It is unlikely to be for God because we pray differently in private; perhaps we should rather concentrate on our inner intention. Would we pray like that in our locked room? 

     Occasionally we do need to be careful about appearances. The obvious examples relate to when we have dealings with ‘the world’ who will start to judge us with a single glance. It is good to avoid appearing worldly before the eyes of the world but it is just as important not to want to appear Holy before the church. Being Holy should occupy all our strength, so that there is no energy left over with which to think of appearances: God said ‘be Holy’ but he never said that we ought to ‘appear to be Holy’. 

     The ultimate example of appearances is the cross, which illustrates the dangers of appearances getting out of hand: Jesus was condemned to death by the custodians of the Jewish faith who thought that their observances and their way of living was closer to God’s heart than was that of Jesus. The Jews put God on a cross because God was perceived to be blasphemous, that is, they thought that God was living and speaking against God! We must be real and not a caricature

And Jesus washed the disciples’ feet (Jn 13:1–20)

Jesus was a teacher; in Aramaic, the word is rabbi. Like all Palestinian rabbis of the time, Jesus had a group of close followers who went everywhere with him. Being semi-nomadic, these disciples would all have left their families behind and sworn obedience to their master. We see Jesus’ disciples fitting this mould exactly.

      A Jewish rabbi could ask his disciples to accept all aspects of their teaching. If they did not like what they heard, they simply ‘tore up the contract’ and left. We see many of Jesus’ first disciples doing just that in John 6:66 over Jesus’ Eucharistic teaching.

      The only thing a Jewish rabbi could not ask of his disciples was for them to wash his feet. Only a slave could be asked to do that.

     In context, then, the story of Jesus washing the feet of his own disciples in John 13 is extremely odd. Firstly, because Jesus should not have even thought of foot washing; and, secondly, if feet had been washed, his own would have been first.

      As the reading shows, Jesus’ disciples were confused. They knew that Jesus was making a radical suggestion, but were either too afraid to face it, too embarrassed at his unorthodox approach, or simply did not understand.

      But with hindsight, it is obvious what Jesus was saying: being a servant is an integral part of being a Christian. Because we are to follow Jesus’ example in everything, we can be asked to be servants in this same mould, that is, we are to think of ourselves as slaves. In other words, there is nothing that we cannot be asked to do. For him, we can and should be willing to do anything.

      This is a matter for great thanksgiving: there is no longer any need to ‘keep up with the Jones.’ We are free from all distractions and ambitions. Our sole reason for existence is to serve: to serve Jesus and serve the saints in our local church, St Andrews’.

      And because the Greek word for ‘thanksgiving’ is ‘Eucharist,’ any public washing of feet in church (whether on Maundy Thursday or not) is sometimes called a ‘John’s Eucharist.’