Keion Henderson - Salt in the Wound

I want to talk about this subject for the next few moments: salt in the wound. That 's what I want to discuss — salt and the wound, without extreme proliferation, as it relates to the introduction of the sermonic expression. I think that the text is pregnant with its own possibilities and worthy of diving right in. Without the assistance of my mental capacity, just the text itself lends itself to deliverance. The scripture is clear; it’s concise. It says we are the salt of the earth. Bottom line: who is «ye»? You and I, the Christian, the believer. We are those of us who have confessed with our mouths the Lord Jesus and believe in our hearts that God has raised His Son from the dead. Those of us who have been baptized in the faith, those of us who believe in the gifts of the Spirit: ye, you, you and I are the salt of the earth.

When the Bible says, «consider this,» you have to always take into account the time — what we call context and culture — of when and where the text was written and distributed to men. When the Bible says that ye are the salt of the world, it may not resonate with you and me as it should, due to the way we view salt. You see, perspective is indeed a reality. It doesn’t matter what a thing is; what matters is how you see a thing, how you consider it. You have to consider that in antiquity, during the moments that Matthew wrote this text inspired by the Holy Spirit, you need to delve into Matthew 's mind to understand why he would use " salt,» something that you pay 50 cents for at a restaurant.

When you walk into a restaurant, there is no filet mignon on the table because it’s too valuable; you have to order that. When you walk into a restaurant, there is no calamari sitting on the table; it’s too expensive, and you have to order that. When you walk into a restaurant, you don’t receive a complimentary bottle of red wine or white wine; there are no spirits or desserts on the table — all of that has to be ordered. There are only a couple of things that come gratis — things that are given to you at most restaurants without your request. At most restaurants, there are at least two items on the table prior to your arrival: one is pepper, the other is salt. It’s so cheap and so irrelevant that they put it on the table even if you’re going to need it or not; they just leave it there. If you knock it over, you simply sweep it off the table, and at the end of the shift, they take a larger container, refill the salt shaker, and leave it there all night because it’s insignificant.

However, in Matthew 's day, there would not have been salt on the table; it would not have been insignificant. In the days of Matthew, in the days of Jesus, salt was a precious commodity, a valuable commodity with a multitude of uses. You must understand this; it’s crucial because in biblical times, salt carried immense weight and was an important commodity. Today, it’s common; we don’t even regard it as an expensive commodity, but gathering salt during the days of Jesus was a difficult task. The only place you could find high-quality salt in Israel was near the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is so saturated with salt that its viscosity is so thick that a person can float without treading water because the salt content outweighs the water content. Here in America, if you go to Utah and visit the lake there, it is so high in salt that a car can float due to the viscosity and density of the water.

Salt was valuable in Israel, and it had to be mined in the same way we mine diamonds; obtaining salt during the days of Jesus was an expensive endeavor. So, when Jesus says that you are the salt of the earth, He is not referring to something common; when Jesus says you are the salt of the earth, He is not speaking of something ordinary. When Jesus says you are the salt of the earth, He is referencing something precious. When Jesus says you are the salt of the earth, He is talking about something that requires effort and work to obtain. He is talking about something costly to gather. That 's from the Holy Ghost; thank You, Holy Ghost! He asserts that the salt is expensive to gather because the cost of a thing-thank you, Holy Spirit- is determined not solely by the item itself but by how challenging it is to acquire that item. You see, a diamond is not merely expensive because it has been under pressure for millions of years.