The Sermon on the Mount is found in Matthew 5 – 7. Just before delivering this extraordinary Sermon, Jesus was baptized by John and then spent forty days fasting in the wilderness. He emerges from the wilderness and launches His public ministry by performing amazing miracles of healing and declaring, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near.” Matthew 4:17

It is very important to recognize what Jesus did just before going public. Forty days of isolation and fasting tells us something about how we must prepare for a life of serving and giving. It’s a simple fact: You can’t give what you don’t have. Forty days of fasting is extreme, but considering how Jesus would sacrificially serve and give for the next three years, He needed a deep reservoir from which to draw an unending supply of mercy and grace. How is your supply of mercy and grace holding up these days?

News about Him spread quickly throughout the entire area. They brought people suffering from all kinds of sickness, pain, paralysis, and demon-possession — and He healed them.

The miracles grew a crowd. And that leads us to Matthew 5 and the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus begins by teaching rather counterintuitive principles that turned their perspective upside down. We call them the Beatitudes — and they are still turning us upside down today. To live out what Jesus taught, you need a deep supply of mercy and grace. By the way, counterintuitive is defined as contrary to intuition or common-sense expectation, but still true.

Blessed are the poor? Blessed are those who mourn? Blessed are the meek? Blessed are you when people persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you?

Blessed? Really? Clearly, Jesus was introducing something new. A new perspective, or maybe a new value system. Actually, it was a new covenant — and it was certainly different than what they had known before.

And then He said this, “You are the salt of the earth, But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” Matthew 5:13.

Jesus is making a very specific point: Salt is the only thing that tastes salty. If salt loses its saltiness, there isn’t anything else that can be salty.

Sodium Chloride, NaCl, the stuff we put in saltshakers, is a very stable compound that cannot lose its flavor, its saltiness. It can, however, become contaminated or dirty. In the time of Jesus, salt that was contaminated and could no longer be used for eating had lost its saltiness and was likely scattered on roads and paths to keep the dust down. The bottom line: when salt is no longer salty, nothing can fix it — or replace it.

When we consume salt, three things happen: the flavor of the food is enhanced, we get thirsty, and we crave something sweet.

In August and September, my favorite lunch is fresh tomato sandwiches. I confess I’ve tried them without salt. Meh. But oh my, a little salt and — bam! Those tomatoes are delicious!

My favorite snack has always been potato chips and soda. I’ve had potato chips without salt. Meh. Salt makes them delicious! A crunch of salty, then a swallow of sweet, followed by another crunch of salty and a swallow of sweet — and on and on it goes.

The salty-sweet cycle is why restaurants give away salty snacks while you wait for your meal. They do it to sell more drinks. Why do they put so much salt in their food? To make it taste better and to make you crave something sweet at the end — an expensive dessert! It could be called manipulation, but we love that salty-sweet combination so much that we are more-than-willing participants.

And this is why Jesus needs us to be salty. Jesus is the sweet, Living Water. When we genuinely live out the counterintuitive values of the New Covenant, we become the “salty” that causes people to thirst for the Living Water. The woman at the well was thirsty, and Jesus gave her the sweet Living Water to drink. See John 4.

Jesus refers to the Living Water again in John 7:37-38, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”

When we live counterintuitively, just like Jesus presented in the Sermon, we become salty. The people who experience the salty followers of Jesus Christ then crave the sweet, Living Water.

The key question is this: are we salty? Do we have enough mercy and grace stored up within us to consistently and genuinely live out the counterintuitive values of the New Covenant? Are you strong enough to love your enemies and those who hate you and mistreat you? Are you deep enough to rejoice in suffering and loss and grief? Are you content enough to be perpetually thankful and sacrificially generous? Are you secure enough to die to pride and self? Are you solid enough to keep your thoughts pure? Are you disciplined enough to keep your tongue under control? How salty are you?

Is your reservoir running low? Yeah, mine is too. It’s been a long six months of pandemic. Remember, Jesus went forty days in isolation without food and water to make sure His reservoir was full to overflowing. What are we doing to fill our reservoirs? Are we taking the time to immerse ourselves in the Word and prayer? Are we fully and consistently surrendering our lives to the infilling presence of the Holy Spirit? Are we taking time and making space for the Body of Christ in our busy schedules? Are we seeking to use our gifts and abilities to advance the mission of God? If not, then it is very likely that our reservoirs of mercy and grace are running low, and our salt is losing its saltiness.

Friends, there is no one else on planet earth that can fulfill the mission of God. There is no one else who can be salty. We are God’s plan A — and there is no plan B. It’s time to fill the reservoirs of mercy and grace. Remember, you can’t give away what you don’t have. Be salty.