The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
Mark 9:38 “Now John answered Him, saying, ‘Teacher, we saw someone who does not follow us casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow us.’ 39 But Jesus said, ‘Do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in My name can soon afterward speak evil of Me. 40 ‘For he who is not against us is on our side. 41 For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in My name, because you belong to Christ, assuredly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward. 42 But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea. 43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched; 44 where ‘Their worm does not die, And the fire is not quenched.’ 45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched; 46 where ‘Their worm does not die, And the fire is not quenched.’ 47 And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire; 48 where ‘Their worm does not die, And the fire is not quenched.’ 49 ‘For everyone will be seasoned with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt. 50 ‘Salt is good, but if the salt loses its flavor, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another.’”
The Gospel lesson this morning began with a report from John that the disciples saw someone casting out demons in Jesus’s name. The disciples considered this a infringement on their franchise and wanted to put a stop to the man’s activity.
This is the issue of the “insiders” verses the “outsiders.” In first-century Mediterranean culture the distinction between the “in-group” and “out-group” is a big deal. A person’s “in-group” generally consisted of one’s household, extended family, and friends. If you’re part of the “in-group” you’re expected to be loyal each other and to go to great lengths to support and help the other members of your group.
The same treatment is not extended to people who are outsiders. In dealing with members of an “out-group” almost “anything goes.” At best they are dealt with indifference. At worse, open hostility. Think of the animosity between the Hebrews and the Samaritans. Or Eldad and Medad in the Old Testament lesson Joshua reported to Moses saying (Num 11:28), “My lord Moses, restrain them!” 29 But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? If only all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!”
Jesus’s response to the disciples is along the same lines. Jesus says, 39 “Do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in My name can soon afterward speak evil of Me. 40 For he who is not against us is on our side.”
Then follows a series of seemingly unrelated sayings, but they all have a theme. Sin is the greatest threat to the Christian. Sin is deadly serious and brings with it judgment, unless washed away by the blood of the Lamb.
Christians in the West have gone from taking sin so seriously many a Christians thought they needed to do certain “good deeds” to balance the scale between vice and virtue to mandating every manner of sin and evil.
Here Jesus warns us against such a cavalier attitude toward sin. 42 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea.” Parents, schools, governments, and so called churches (just to name a few) are doing everything they can to bring about the stumbling and falling of our children into sin of every kind.
Jesus continued 43 “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off, if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off, if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out, it’s better for you than to be cast into hell fire where Their worm does not die, And the fire is not quenched.” Hard words to hear and not just because we are sinners, but we are constantly causing ourselves to sin. I know that sounds strange, but it is true. The biggest threat to your life in Christ, is you.
Sin makes war within our flesh. St. Paul wrote of this war. “22 For I joyfully agree with the law of God in the inner person, 23 but I see a different law in the parts of my body waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin, the law which is in my body’s parts.” (Romans 7:22-23)
In contrast to a life of sin, Jesus teaches here that “whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in My name, because you belong to Christ, assuredly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.” Our Lord looks favorable on Christians who treat other Christians kindly because they “belong to Christ.” That’s how it is suppose to be, but we know well that the visible church is very often not marked by kindness. Instead we find ruthlessness.
The balance of the Gospel lesson this morning is not so easy to understand Jesus went on to say, 49 “For everyone will be seasoned with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt. 50 Salt is good, but if the salt loses its flavor, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another.’”
Obviously “salt” is a metaphor. The challenge here is that then as now, there was in the ancient world many different uses for salt. They used it as *seasoning for food. *It was a preservative or purifier of things contaminated or rotten. *It was used to destroy the fertility of land. *It was also added to offerings and incense.
Jesus said, “everyone will be seasoned/salted with fire.” That sounds like a bad thing, a very painful thing; salt, and fire, and burning. In this case, salt will burn everyone. “Everyone will be seasoned with fire.”
What we have here is a study in contrast. On the one hand there is sin that leads to “hell fire where Their worm does not die, And the fire is not quenched.” On the other hand the seasoning/salt/fire that will come to all. This is Judgment Day language. Jesus is talking about the Last Day when the Word of God will purge all sin and impurities from the children of God and God’s kingdom.
For those who live and die outside of Christ, there is nothing here but law and judgment. This is the use of salt to destroy the fertility of land. This fallen world is fertile land for sin. But on the Last Day, its fertility will be destroyed.
For the children of God in Christ, this is a good thing. This is the same spiritual principle that some of the prophets and apostles have written about. God refines the faith and character of the Christian by the furnace of trial, affliction, and suffering. “Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.” (Isaiah 48:10) (1 Peter 1:7) “So that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which perishes though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
The seasoning/salt Jesus tells us is good, “but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you salt it?” Jesus sticks with the metaphor of salt, but when He uses it the second time, He shifts to one of salt’s different uses and applies it to a different subject. 50 “Salt is good, but if the salt loses its flavor, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another.”
Here Jesus is using the metaphor of salt as He did in Matthew 5:13. “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.”
This salt is you! You, Jesus says, are good— because you are in Him. The Christian is the preservative. Justin Martyr, a theologian of the early church wrote of Christians, “What the soul is to the body, Christians are to the world. The soul dwells in the body but is not of the body. So Christians dwell in the world, but are not of the world. The immortal dwells in the perishable tabernacle of the body. So Christians, heirs of immortality, dwell in a perishable world. The soul is the guardian of the body. Christians are the guardians of the world. Without the soul the body becomes a rotting corpse; without Christians the world is a mass of corruption.”
This is not what people normally think of when they say or hear the old saying. “He or she is the salt of the earth.” They mean said person is a person of hard work and integrity. Christians should be people of character, but we know that our lives are filled with times when we weren’t a person of character.
Christians are the ones who work against the evil of the world. You are a people who live by faith and all that that means. You are the ones who were made good in the waters of Holy Baptism and in the gift of faith in Jesus Christ. He made you clean in His blood. There is nothing else in the world that can make sinners, sinless. Without the washing of renewal and regeneration in Christ you cannot do anything good, that is holy.
The metaphor continues. “Have salt within yourself.” Don’t lose it. Don’t become ineffective. That leads to a side question here. How do you keep your saltiness? How do you not lose your faith? Anyone who has studied a foreign language knows well this saying. “Use it or lose it.” The language of faith is the Word of God. Listening to it in good preaching. Read and study it in class. Applying the doctrines of the Christian faith to yourself and the world around you so that you will know what is good and right and the will of God.
Salt confesses its sin and takes to heart holy absolution. It’s partakes of the sacrament of altar and hears the words, “This is My body and this is My blood, given and shed for you for the remission of sins.”
“Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace among one another.” In other words, live as Christians because that is what you are. Jesus isn’t telling us to get the salt that leads to this peculiar fellowship with Him and with each other. Here He teaches we have it already. To borrow another metaphor. You are a chip of the salt block. You are a child of God the Father. Brother and sister of Jesus Christ. You are the host to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
As a person of salt, your sins are forgiven and on the Last Day, all sin, corruption, and death will be burned away and all that is left is the Christ like you. Holy, innocent, blessed, and righteous.
Amen.
The peace that passes all understanding keep your hearts and mind in Christ Jesus Amen.