"In parts of the world
salt was sprinkled across the soil
to help break up the compacted earth
and allow moisture to sink in
and allow plants to grow up.
The salt acted as a fertilizer
enabling new life
and Jesus was
drawing on this agricultural picture
to show that his disciples
were to be fertiliser in the world.
However,
the second part of this saying
was much more shocking.
In Jesus' time,
at some houses,
a mound of salt
would be left beside a pit
in the garden to cover human waste.
The salt acted as a disinfectant
and as a sealant against nasty smells.
Jesus was asking his people
to be up against the crap of the world."
As Jim Punton said,
'Tight up against it, protecting others from its rottenness and its decay.'
If we sit in little heaps refusing to have anything to do with the crap of the world,
we are refusing to be the salt of the earth.
.
