Youth Group Connect - Salt and Light
Context for Verse
- Jesus has just described who the kingdom belongs to. Now he tells the same crowd what they are actually for.
- Salt was valuable in the first century because it preserved food and gave it flavour. The salt people used near the Dead Sea was mixed with other minerals, so it could be washed out until nothing useful was left.
- A town on a hilltop was visible for miles after dark. Jesus is not asking his followers to become visible, he is telling them they already are.
- Verse 17 turns hard. Jesus knows people are whispering that he came to scrap the Old Testament, and he says the opposite. He came to take it where it was always heading.
- The tension arrives in verse 20. If none of the law is cancelled, and the standard beats the Pharisees, where does that leave anybody?
Verse
Try and get multiple people to read a few verses at a time.
13. "You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.
14. You are the light of the world-like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.
15. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house.
16. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.
17. Don't misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose.
18. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God's law will disappear until its purpose is achieved.
19. So if you ignore the least commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But anyone who obeys God's laws and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.
20. But I warn you-unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!"
Questions
Pick 3 or 4. Spend the most time on Q4.
Q1. Salt that tastes of nothing and a lamp under a basket are both useless for the one job they exist to do. What is Jesus saying Christians exist to do? (Look for: he says "you are", not "you should try to be".)
Q2. Verse 16 says let people see your good deeds so they praise your Father. How is that different from doing good so people think well of you, and can you honestly tell which side of the line you are on?
Q3. Jesus says he came to accomplish the law's purpose, not scrap it. So if none of it is cancelled, why don't we sacrifice animals or avoid bacon? What do you think actually changed?
Q4. The Pharisees were the best rule-keepers alive, and Jesus says you need a better righteousness than theirs. If the answer isn't keeping more rules harder, then what is it?
Q5. Salt you can't taste is worthless. Name one place this week where you blend in completely, and describe what standing out there would look like without being obnoxious.
Pray
- Pray that we would be visibly different in the places people named, and that God gets the credit
- Pray for anyone leaving tonight feeling they will never keep up with the standard
The heart of this passage is verses 17 and 20 together. Jesus does not lower the law to something manageable. He actually raises it, and then he becomes the one who meets it.
Two places people end up drifting to:
- Jesus cancelled the Old Testament, so the rules don't matter right? No verse 18 rules that out completely.
- We have to beat the Pharisees at their own game. But this is what Jesus is pulling apart, and it will crush them.
The righteousness in verse 20 is more than anybody can produce, which is exactly why it has to be given. Christ's righteousness is credited to us, and the Spirit works it into how we actually live.
Watch the salt and light half too, because it turns into "be a good example" moralism very easily. Verse 16 aims it at the Father being praised.
Pastorally: kids raised in church have usually heard salt and light as pressure to perform their faith in public. That is the exact thing Jesus warns about in the next chapter. Keep the target on the Father being seen, not on them being seen being good.
If not one detail disappears, why don't we keep every Old Testament law? Christ completed everything the sacrifice and temple laws pointed toward, and God's character underneath them has not changed at all.
Does verse 19 mean I lose my salvation if I break a commandment? No, Jesus is talking about how you treat and teach God's commands, and your standing in the kingdom, rather than getting into it.
How can salt lose its saltiness? Isn't that impossible? Pure salt cannot, but the mineral mixture people used near the Dead Sea could be washed out until only useless residue was left.
How could my righteousness ever beat the Pharisees'? It isn't yours. Christ's righteousness is credited to you by faith, and the Spirit makes it show up in how you live.
Isn't "let people see your good deeds" the opposite of Matthew 6? The difference is who ends up being praised. Here it is your Father, and in Matthew 6 it is you.