Reading the Signs - Matthew 5:13-15

KAALAGAD Gospel Reflection – February 9, 2020

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Matthew 5:13-15

13“You are the salt of the 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 under foot. 14“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. 15No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.

Reading the Signs  

I wonder at times how Jesus does perceive his world. Does he see the first century Palestine in dire crisis? That something sinister is underway that must be immediately addressed otherwise social collapse is imminent?

No one, for sure, will miss the light and the salt in reading our text. Discussion on those metaphors are swarming and still mounting. The saints are ardently urged to shine brightly and stay salty.

Having them in focus, I wonder, on the other hand, if anyone has noticed the state of darkness and rottenness in the text. They are not in there, you are right. You cannot find them in the text. Inquisitive mind, however, would assume they are there, otherwise light and salt will have no use at all.

 This is to point out that shining and saltiness are not the end in itself. They were coaxed primarily to counter a prevailing condition, where in the condition of darkness and decay fit well.  And there the problem of religious language comes in, to understand the actual reference of those metaphors and figures of speech Jesus employed.

If we take “light” and “good deeds” as one and the same thing in the line that says, “…let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds,” we have a de facto reference of light therefore, which in most probability goes also with the salt.

Good works then must counter darkness and rottenness. And on this crucial speech he made, he perceives no other way to address them but good works. No magical utterance, no secret formula, no mystical travel but good deeds only.

 And Jesus is explicit as to what comprise these good deeds. We might see resemblance with Moses in Mount Sinai in the process of the making of the nation of Israel spitting up the constitution that will seal the covenant, and with Jesus uttering the “blessed” teachings that precede our text. The difference, however, is that Jesus was not laying down legal statutes like Moses, but somewhat of wisdom principles akin to the original shape of the Torah before it was officially turned to legal order as asserted by some scholars.

 The absence of coercive force means that the “blessed” principles now dubbed as “Beatitudes” must be internalized freely and willingly by the community or movement Jesus imagined. Internal the process might be, but it discourages personal piety or individual spirituality. It has its social dimension, or its entire goal is societal rather. It must save the world from rotting and darkness. Meaning, from all the evil the Beatitudes are trying to counter.

The goading to keep our saltiness intact and our light shine suggest the urgency of time. Jesus might have seen something ominous befalling to Israel. To act swiftly and surely is the call of the time. The fall of Israel, the destruction of the second temple and the consequent diaspora tell us clearly that for Jesus, perdition is coming.

 Damned is a nation that does not listen to its prophets, curse is when you cannot find one!


NESTOR M. RAVILAS

Penuel School of Theology