Baptism Salts Us with Christ

Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany

February 5, 2017

Matthew 5:13

Baptism Salts Us with Christ

In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!

Today little Liam has become the salt of the earth. This means that today he is a believer through the blessed work of Christ.

With Liam in mind Jesus was crucified, died, and was buried.

With Liam in mind Jesus rose from the dead to proclaim the fact that He had paid for the sins of the world on His cross.

With Liam in mind Jesus sent out His apostles and pastors to preach this joyful fact into all the world, so that today in Davenport, Iowa, Liam Joseph Allen has received the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Even now Jesus speaks Liam’s name to His Father in heaven. Sitting at His Father’s right hand, Jesus continues the prayer He began in the Garden of Gethsemane for His first disciples, and then for you:

Holy Father, protect them by the power of Your name, the name You gave Me, so that they may be one as we are one. . . . I protected them and kept them safe by that name You gave Me.

JOHN 17:11b-12a

We who are kept safe by the name of the true God, Jesus also calls salt.

“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 by men.

MATTHEW 5:13

Salt is good. Just because we manage to take everything good that God gives to us and overdo it—politics (which is just a fancy name for living in peace with our neighbor), football, salt—doesn’t make them bad. Salt is good. In the past many would have starved without their salted pork. Salt prevents starvation. And the right amount of salt makes food taste good. Salt prevents tastelessness.

Salt is good. Liam is good. You are good. Why good? Because Jesus made them good. He made you good. So He calls you salt.

To be clear even after coming to faith through water and the Word, we still are sinners and we prove it every day. We overdo things when we should be moderate. And when Jesus calls us to be bold, we are bland.

These days it doesn’t take much to be bold. Simply call a spade a spade and you’re in for trouble. If you correctly say that Michelangelo’s painting of the Sistine Chapel is far superior to a wall of paint drips by Jackson Pollock, you’re in for trouble.

Or marriage, marriage. Or a girl, a girl and a boy, a boy. Or a baby in the womb, a baby in the womb. And even though you weren’t wondering, if you’re mostly doing your spade-calling on the internet, you’re doing it wrong. Real salt work happens with real people when you can see the whites of their eyes.

Austin and Erin, you will continue to salt Liam as you tell the truth in your home about the world, about yourselves, and about Jesus Christ. The world is passing away, we are sinners, and Jesus is the Savior who had you in mind when He was willingly crucified, died, buried, rose again, and now sends His pastors to baptize fellow sinners.

He does this work. He makes us salt.

For even the Son of Man did not come to be Served, but to Serve, and to Give His Life as a Ransom for Many. Amen.