I was cleaning in my office and came across this empty salt shaker. I had used some for graduation gifts in 2017 and this one had worked its way behind a bunch of books and was hidden from sight. I stared into its emptiness. A salt shaker without salt is not of much use. Sprinkling air seems ridiculous.
Jesus tells us the we are the salt of the earth, but sometimes it seems our salt shakers are a little empty. We are not adding anything into the world, but are of the world and sharing the world’s values. We are just rehashing what the world thinks. It’s like we are just shaking out the air.
Jesus wants to fill us with something so different that the world cannot live without it. Jesus wants us to change the environment around us. He wants us to preserve life around us. Jesus demands that we do this or else be thrown out (Matthew 5:13).
I was on a zoom call in my office this week and someone noticed a large block of salt sitting on the shelves behind my desk. Its a rectangular bar (3”x4”x14”). The sides are wrapped yellow tough fibrous bands, like the leaves of a yucca plant. I bought it on the backside of an obscure market in Dire Dawa. It had been brought out of the Afar dessert on a camel caravan. In 525 AD Cosmas Indicopleustes, a Greek merchant saw them used as forms of money when he visited Ethiopia. (He wrote book of his travels and he also wrote a book about the earth being flat. He is largely responsible for the erroneous idea that most people in the middle ages believed the world to be flat).
The salt on my shelf is not better than the empty salt shaker. It is an object to be studying and considered. Its a talking point and oddity, but I doubt it will ever be turned into life giving flavor. Instead, it will linger on my shelves until someone finally throws it away, years from now.
Salt drove ancient economies, paid peoples salaries (a form of the word salt), accompanied all the grain offerings (Lev 2:13), bound people in covenants (Num. 18:19), and flavored their food. It was all around them. It was not sitting on a shelf, but sprinkled in the world.
If your salt shaker is a little empty then seek the face of Jesus and ask him to fill you up. If you have some salt, its time to spread it around.