February 8, 2026 Sermon
Sermon title: “More Beatitudes”
Scripture: Matthew 5:13-20
(Other lectionary suggestions include Isaiah 58:1-9, Psalm 112:1-9, and I Corinthians 2:1-12.)
Matthew 5:13-20
Salt and Light
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. 16In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
The Law and the Prophets
17“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. 18For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. 19Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Have you ever said, “God bless you” or “Bless you” when somebody sneezed? I am guessing that you HAVE said something like that, and I just found out where that practice comes from. In the Middle Ages when people caught the bubonic plague, it usually began with a fit of sneezing, so the practice began with the saying, “God bless you; I hope you don’t have the plague.” I learned this from the Rev. R. C. Sproul, who says such a thing in his sermon on the Beatitudes. He is trying to say that to be blessed by God is a good thing and certainly not something trivial. “To be blessed of God is something deep and profound,” he says.
He also talks about the Aaronic Benediction, which begins, “May the Lord bless you.” It’s about more than being happy. That benediction is saying, “May you understand in the depths of your soul, in the deepest chamber of your heart, the sweetness of the presence of God as you live before his face every moment.”
Says N. T. Wright, the British New Testament scholar who was the Bishop of Durham in England, “Jesus is calling the Israel of his day to BE Israel indeed, now that he is here. ....God had called Israel to be the salt of the earth; but Israel was behaving like everyone else, with its power politics, its factional squabbles, its militant revolutions. How could God keep the world from going bad - the main function of salt in the ancient world - if Israel, his chosen ‘salt,’ had lost its distinctive taste?”
And doesn’t that apply to all Christians? You and I can fall short, too!
I like it that Jesus says he wasn’t intending to abandon the law and the prophets. Israel’s whole story was going to come true in him. Says Prof. Wright, Jesus’s concept “was truly revolutionary, and at the same time, deeply in tune with the ancient stories and promises of the Bible. And the remarkable thing is that Jesus brought it all into reality in his own person. He was the salt of the earth. He was the light of the world: set up on a hilltop, crucified for all the world to see, becoming a beacon of hope and new life for everybody, drawing people to worship his father, embodying the way of self-giving love which is the deepest fulfillment of the law and the prophets.”
Jesus was challenging his own people, but all those who claim to follow Jesus need to pay attention. Says Wright, “Where does the world need salt and light right now, and how can we, through following Jesus, provide it?”
You may recall that I said this before, but Jesus was not going to react in a violent way to anything that confronted him, and he did not want his followers to react in a violent manner, either. The alternative? Make friends! Even if you are on your way to court, make an attempt to mollify your opponent. Is that a hard thing to do? Absolutely! But that’s what Jesus meant when he said what we now call the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Some of us may be tempted to think that doing it Jesus’s way was impossible, given how we know the world is. Jesus himself refused to go the way of anger. What he did was to take the anger of his enemies upon himself, and he died under its load. “From that point on,” says N. T. Wright, “reconciliation is not simply an ideal we might strive for. It is an achievement, an accomplishment, which we in turn must now embody.” Amen.
Pastor Skip
