“You are like salt for the whole human race. But if salt loses its saltiness, there is no way to make it salty again. It has become worthless, so it is thrown out and people trample on it.” (Matthew 5.13)
Salt was a requirement of Hebrew religious sacrifices, as reported in Leviticus 2.13: “Put salt on every grain offering, because salt represents the covenant between you and God. (You must put salt on all your offerings.)”
The taste of salt is described as “salty” to us, but to the Kewa (with whom we lived for several years in PNG), salt is “sweet,” with the same description as the taste of sugar cane or (now) refined sugar. And, until refined salt became available in stores, it was hard to find.
This was because finding and manufacturing salt among the Highland people of Papua New Guinea (or the island of New Guinea) was difficult. There were a several traditional ways to produce salt, but none of them were easy. People obtained salt by evaporating sea water, extracting and soaking certain plants in salt springs, burning certain kinds of wood to get salt ash, and scraping rocks that had salt in them. Each of these procedures was labor intensive.
The Kewa people traded for salt, and it came from many miles away, mostly from the Enga people to the north. It was a highly prized barter item and Enga traders could demand axes, knives, tree oil, other items, and (now) kina.
Despite the lack of salt among the Kewa, it is prevalent around the world. In the U.S., Syracuse, New York is called “The salt city” because of salt mining there, and Grand Saline, Texas has a Morton Salt mine, which is one of the largest in the world. Other states that produce large quantities of salt are Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Utah.
China is the leader in salt production, with 27% of the world’s production, but it is not called the salt capital of the world. That honor goes to Zipaquira in Colombia, which has a “Salt Cathedral” that explores the culture and tradition of salt in that country.
We will probably never run out of salt because we cannot deplete the salt in the ocean. And yet the idiom “back to the salt mines” reveals that working in the salt mines was unpleasant and difficult.
However, salt is an appropriate and yet common metaphor for defining the characteristics of a Christian. It not only refers to our character by calling us the “salt of the earth,” but its ubiquitous presence is also like the spread of Christianity throughout the world.
Jesus gives us a powerful and frightening image of what can happen to Christians who lose their “taste,” their character, and the substance of who they were meant to be.
Salt can lose its taste when it becomes diluted and non-reactive in its crystalline form. It is then good for nothing and can be thrown out. Some Christians also have their lives diluted and their usefulness is then gone because the world around them has saturated them with other religions and ideologies. They are then useless for the Kingdom of God.
However, just as salt can never be obliterated, the church of Jesus Christ will also prevail against the very “gates of hell.” (Matthew 16.18)
Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt, perhaps becoming a salt lick for some of the wild animals. In America, some farmers put out salt licks for deer or cattle, which provide minerals for healthy bone and muscle growth. The animals, including birds, rabbits and squirrels will smell the lick so there is no need to put up a sign, “salt lick here.”
I mention the idiom of “back to the salt mines,” but there are others like:
· Not worth a grain of salt = not of any value
· Pouring/rubbing salt on the wound = to make a bad situation worse
· Take it with a pinch/grain of salt = don’t take it seriously
· Attic salt = sharp or dry wit
· Salty language = course or bad language
· An old salt = an experienced sailor
· Throw salt on someone’s game = interfere with their plans
· Salt away money = reserve money for the future
If I keep going you will think that I “don’t have enough sense to pound salt” and that I live well “below the salt,” so I’ll quit and brush what little hair I have, which is no longer “salt and pepper.”
Karl Franklin
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