The Power of Salt
February 5, 2017
Text: Matthew 5:1-20
I don't know whether to think of it as the Women's March of its day, or the Million Man March, or the March on Washington for Jobs and Justice, but there was some reason – some longing – that drove the multitudes under Roman occupation to be together on the hillside. At this gathering, Jesus was the keynote speaker.
Of the many, Jesus named and blessed a particular subset. He named and blessed the poor in spirit. We can each only guess what he meant by that phrase, but to my thinking he was naming those who—under occupation—were depleted, exhausted, and without the inner resources for the demands of the day. Do you know anyone like that today, who would gather with the masses for strength? Then Jesus names those who mourn. I've always thought of that identifier in a general way—anyone who is experiencing grief—but I am now thinking he may have been speaking specifically to those whose grief was tied to political oppression; someone, perhaps who has lost a loved one to police brutality, or lost a spouse to war, or had to give up a child to protective services. Jesus continues, naming the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers in his descriptive blessing.