Just as salt is refined through being dissolved and re-crystallized, we are purified by losing ourselves in Christ and re-emerging with crystalline perfection.
The Sermon on the Mount is chalk-full of metaphorical teaching: the righteous are compared to a city on a hill, a candlestick, and salt. It is this last metaphor, “the salt of the earth,” that I would like to comment on. There is so much symbolism associated with salt; it is a seasoning, a preservative, and a component of ritual sacrifice. In addition to all these meanings, salt also represents the process of redemption. How so? The process in which salt is taken from the earth and refined for human consumption parallels the personal change experienced through Christ.
Salt of the Earth
In Jesus’s salt analogy, it is significant that He designated the believers as “the salt of the earth.” In ancient times there were two sources of salt: it could be obtained from sea water or mined from the earth. Salt that is taken out of the ground usually isn’t pure enough to eat. In order to remove the impurities, the mined salt was dissolved in water. This allowed the highly soluble salt to be separated from sand and other insoluble particles. Next, the water was evaporated, causing the salt to form into crystals. This crystallization actually results in further purification: as the salt ions arrange themselves to form a crystal lattice, impurities that do not fit the pattern are not incorporated into the structure. This is why crystals typically have a simple makeup even though a variety of elements are present during their formation. (Sorry, it’s the chemist in me coming out...)
Our Change Through Christ
Just as salt is cleaned through being dissolved, we are purified when we completely lose ourselves in Christ, the Living Water. Losing ourselves in Christ means being freed of any self-interest, as taught in the remainder of the Sermon on the Mount: we are to be generous with our substance, deny ourselves of lust and anger, and love our enemies (see Matthew 5:21-48). After being fully absorbed in Christ, we re-emerge as something crystalline in nature: ordered, symmetric, and perfected. A crystal is one of the most pure and orderly objects that can be found in nature; it is, therefore, a fitting symbol of perfection. As we submit to Christ and allow ourselves to be refined, like “the salt of the earth,” we, too, will eventually become perfect. This may be why the fifth chapter of Matthew ends with the injunction to “be ye therefore perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”
Awesome
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