Salt of the Earth

I remember being back in college and learning about salt. You learn about such things when you chose to major in health and nutrition. Valuable information, no doubt; probably not the best use of a college education though. But that’s another story for another time. As with so many things, I veered off the course my studies wanted me to go and did my own independent research. In the case of salt, though sorely demonized by diet dictocrats everywhere and downplayed among mainstream nutritionists, the history of salt is rather fascinating.

          Believe it or not, salt is actually essential to life. It is one of the basic taste buds with which we are equipped and for good reason. Salt is necessary for the digestion of protein and carbohydrates, for adrenal function, brain development and cellular metabolism. Without it, we die. Kind of makes all those low-sodium diets sound sort of grim, don’t it? Aside from the physiological role that it plays in the human body, the story of salt in the history of civilization reveals that long before mankind could explore salt scientifically, we were aware of the value of this substance. In 2200 BC, the Chinese emperor Hsia Yu levied one of the first known taxes on what? You guessed it. Salt. Marco Polo noted that the people of Tibet used tiny cakes of salt impressed with images of the Grand Khan as currency. Frances of Anjou, in 1259, financed his conquest of the kingdom of Naples with the salt tax. And in 1785, the Earl of Dondonald claimed that 10,000 people a year were arrested for salt smuggling in England.

          Granted, I know that ancient medicine is, well, ancient, and while I certainly wouldn’t encourage the practice of bloodletting to treat a fever, experience (and experiment) often leads to interesting finds along the way. Just because it’s old doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s wrong. That said, salt has been used in medicine since the time of the ancient Egyptians. They used it primarily to treat infected chest wounds. It worked by drying out the wound and acting as a disinfectant. Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, used salt-based remedies topically for skin legions, internally for digestive problems and steam inhalations for respiratory congestion. A Roman military doctor by the name of Dioskurides, author of Materia Medica, which has been and continues to be used by botanists and herbalists as one of our most valued resource materials, recommended salt for the treatment of skin disease, dropsy, infections, earaches, mycosis, digestive upset and sciatica. It wasn’t really until spa therapy became popular in the last century that scientists began to investigate salt, and it wasn’t until the 1950s that it was studied in any kind of detail. It continues to be used for treatment of disease in clinics around the world.  

          Many religious practices incorporate salt into their traditions and rites. A Buddhist will throw salt over their shoulder before entering a house after a funeral in an effort to repel any evil spirits that may be clinging to him. Certain American Indian tribes worshipped the Salt Mother and had restrictions on who could eat salt, reserving it only for priests and others in higher casts. In 1933, the Dalai Lama was buried sitting up in a bed of salt. In India salt is considered a symbol of good luck and a reference to Gandhi’s liberation of India from British rule, when he led a 200 mile walk to the sea to gather tax-free salt. Judaism recognizes salt as a symbol of the covenant between God and Israel, and Christianity as a symbol of purification.

          Even our language is peppered with salt references (no pun intended). A good worker is “worth their salt.” The word “salary” is derived from the Latin salarium, referencing the salt that the Roman legionnaires received as payment for their service. Even those oh-so-healthy greens we love so much have an association with this mineral. Salad literally means salted vegetables. Raw vegetables served with a dressing of oil, vinegar and salt, otherwise known as brine, was considered peasant’s food.  

          Once considered worth its weight in gold, salt has been an integral part of our history. So when I read this quote, it struck me as poignant:

“Salt is so common, so easy to obtain, and so inexpensive that we have forgotten that from the beginning of civilization until about 100 years ago, salt was one of the most sought-after commodities in human history.”

Mark Kurlansky, Salt: A World History

This really is a striking concept when you consider what Jesus refers to believers as:

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor how shall it then be seasoned? It is good for nothing except to thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.”

Matthew 5:13

          Just as humans have a biological need for salt, so do we have a spiritual need for Christ. The God-shaped hole is real, but more than empty, we are broken. Broken by our own bent towards destruction, selfishness, pride, and false, albeit convenient, affirmation. It tears us from God. It isolates us from each other. It even rends us from ourselves. The gospel makes us whole again. It causes a beautiful masterpiece to emerge out of a James Pollock mess. This good news has been singularly the most earth shattering and history altering gospel ever to be preached and lived. Nowhere on planet earth in any era has anything effected the history of mankind as much as Jesus Christ. If the proof is in the pudding, then the reality of our saltiness should be the way our faith affects our lives and the lives of those around us.

For a real scholarly read on the subject of Christianity’s influence in western thought and culture, check out Francis Schaeffer’s book, How Should We Then Live? In it he outlines the radical kind of impact biblical Christianity has had on pretty much every area of life. Here are just a few examples of that influence:

-      It was the gospel that brought an end to the practice of infanticide in the Roman empire

-      While the religions and societies of ancient Rome and its surroundings considered women to be merely property, the gospel stated that all are created equal and that God shows no partiality. Not only are woman equal in value but they are to be loved and respected.

-      2/3 of the abolitionist movement in the 1830s were followers of Christ

-      Education for the masses has its roots in the Protestant Reformation for the purpose of teaching people to read the Bible so that they could know God for themselves.

-      Rational truth, whose only foundation is in Scripture, is the only means by which we can study the world around us. Just ask Boyle, Pascal, Pasteur and Newton.

-      Even a form of government that is democratic in nature is founded in the Bible as it is the only system that allows for freedom without chaos. America is not the only nation that has tried freedom; we are simply the only ones that made it work because we recognized that freedom is based in a knowledge of God and His Word.

These are just some of the repercussions on society of believers living what they profess. The power of the gospel takes selfish people and causes them to lay down their lives for others. It is what drove Mother Teresa to devote her life to ministering in the colony of the lepers in Calcutta. It is what caused David Wilkerson to start Teen Challenge, a ministry that reaches out to young people with drug and alcohol abuse problems. William and Catherine Booth founded the Salvation Army. Amy Carmichael left her home in Ireland and went to India, rescuing girls from temple prostitution. Nate Saint and Jim Elliot made their home in the jungles of Ecuador. Rachel Saint and Elizabeth Elliot returned to live among the very people who had murdered their husbands. 

But natural unprocessed sea salt is way different from the white granulated stuff you will find on most dining room tables. And not all Christianity is the same. Just because you slap a ichthus on it and tune the radio to the K-Love doesn’t mean that it is the same faith that turned the world upside down. The truth is that truly admirable people, the kind that inspire us, are the incredible people we know them to be because they were willing to walk through fire with the knowledge that even if God didn’t bring them out the other side unscathed, they wouldn’t compromise or cower at the inflated threats of a self-deceived world. They stood their ground. They put their trust where it was due: in Christ.

Sad to say, but the face of Christianity is not the same today was it was even 20 years ago. The heart of it is: that never changes. But we are the face, and the face has undergone some plastic surgery. My dad used to tell me that God was worth the struggle. Lately I have been convicted in this area. How much do I really struggle for God? It’s not that He is inaccessible, but am I willing to fight through the noise, push through the distractions, quiet the relentless hollering of my own inclinations and desires to know Christ? Am I willing to lay down my life, as He did, for others? Am I concerned with His kingdom or mine? Would I rather have a good day or make today a good day for someone else? Does my complaining outweigh my gratitude? Does entertainment take precedent over spending time with Jesus? Would I be interested in being with the body of Christ if there wasn’t anything in it for me? Is my fishbowl so small that apathy and superciliousness marks my attitude towards anything outside of it? As things get darker and darker around me, and the world seems to be little crazier than it was 10 minutes ago, I find myself forced to ask myself these questions. What kind of Christian am I going to be? The salty kind, or the cheap substitute?

           Being a Christian is hard. But hardship makes heroes. Difficulty makes difference makers. There is a wealth of stories about ordinary people that God used in extraordinary ways, simply because they were willing to let their salt get out of the shaker. Read those stories. Be encouraged and inspired to live a life of faith, fully surrendered to God. We need to be committed to the Lord in such a way that our lives cause others to be thirsty for Christ. Let it not be said of us that our generation was the one in which Jesus was so common, Christianity so easy to obtain and grace so inexpensive that we forgot that from the beginning of time until within the last few decades, Christ was the most sought-after thing in human history.