Salt is Good

Driving home: There is perhaps no passage in the New Testament which has so defied all efforts to assign to it any certain interpretation.

Martin quotes several learned commentators (Grimm, Bloomfield, Ryle, Grotius) who describe Mark 9:49-50 as 'exceedingly difficult,' 'obscure,' 'vexing,' a 'knot,' and a passage that 'tortures expositors,' establishing the acknowledged difficulty of the text.

Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace one with another. Now as we come to examine these words this morning, two introductory concerns of necessity must be addressed. First of all, I must say a word concerning the universally acknowledged difficulties of interpreting this passage. One commentator has brought into short compass some of the statements of very learned evangelical commentators who, in attempting to interpret this passage, have written as follows. The passage, says a man by the name of Grimm, is exceedingly difficult. Another says it is exceedingly obscure, while another says it ...

4:51 - 5:59 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Adopt a possible interpretation or interpretations with modesty, humility, and tentativeness.

Martin uses the metaphor of a 'torture rack' (from Peter's description of twisting Scripture) to illustrate how interpreters can unnaturally strain the words of a difficult text, leading to heresy.

A second rule or axiom in interpreting a difficult passage is this. Adopt no interpretation which unnaturally strains the words of the text. Adopt no interpretation which unnaturally strains the words of the text. You'll remember that it is with reference particularly to difficult passages that Peter says in 2 Peter 3.18, that the unstable and ignorant rest, and that verb rest literally means to put on a torture rack and to stretch out of shape. And Peter speaks of those who take some of the things written by Paul that are hard to be understood. And it is particularly difficult passages which ...

13:21 - 14:34 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Adopt a possible interpretation or interpretations with modesty, humility, and tentativeness.

Martin quotes Bishop Ryle's commentary on Mark 9:49, where Ryle confesses the passage baffles commentators and he offers no definitive opinion, exemplifying the modesty and tentativeness Martin advocates for interpreting difficult texts.

When you come to a difficult passage over which equally competent, prayerful, spiritually-minded men have differed in the agony of seeking to know the mind of the Spirit, when you do, adopt a possible interpretation, do so with modesty, with humility, and with tentativeness. In other words, God may yet break forth more light which will cause us to understand more fully what is written. And it's that spirit that Bishop Ryle so beautifully exemplifies in the footnote of his commentary on the Gospel of Mark. I quote him, The last verse but one, he means verse 49, appears to baffle all the comment...

15:06 - 16:19 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But now for me to come forward with a possible interpretation of this passage and say I'm ready to spill blood for my interpretation would show at least a horrible imbalance of judgment and at worst, a fallacy, a fallacy…

Martin contrasts Luther's dogmatism on clear biblical truths ('Here I stand') with the fanaticism of being equally dogmatic about a tentative interpretation of a difficult passage, illustrating the need for balanced judgment.

My own conviction is we must wait for more light and regard the text at present as one of the deep things of God. You see, there are some things in the Word of God concerning which we can say, if the words don't mean this, then we cannot know even our own names. If the words don't mean this, then God has given us no certain light on the most vital issues concerning our soul's salvation. And when we come to such passages, may God give us the grace to be, as dogmatic and as unflinching as the clear Word of God demands, to have the spirit of a Luther, here I stand, so help me God, I can do no oth...

16:41 - 18:10 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin unpacks the first part of the main text, explaining 'salted' in its cultural context as preservation from putrefaction, and 'fire' as God's holiness, wrath, and gracious…

Martin contrasts modern use of a salt shaker for flavoring with ancient Palestinian use of salt primarily for preservation, helping the audience understand the cultural connotation of 'salting'.

And it is so because of its strikingness of the verb salted and the noun fire. But if we attempt to put ourselves back in the setting in which they were originally spoken, to use the imagery of some months ago to put ourselves in the time capsule and be shot backwards 2,000 years, and to adopt the mindset and the cultural experience of these disciples, perhaps some of the obscure and the ambiguous will become plain. Now, the verb to salt would be the word commonly used in Palestine, not so much to describe what someone did in picking up a salt shaker and sprinkling it on his peas and carrots a...

19:19 - 20:37 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin unpacks the first part of the main text, explaining 'salted' in its cultural context as preservation from putrefaction, and 'fire' as God's holiness, wrath, and gracious…

Martin describes how fishermen like Peter, James, and John would have understood 'salting' as the primary method of preserving fish and other meats before refrigeration, providing a vivid cultural context for the verb 'salted'.

It was in a situation and in a culture in which the main way of preserving meat, particularly fish, was to salt the fish. If you were a fisherman and it sold your goods to someone and they were seeking to, preserve fish for future use after they had gutted it or cleaned it, to use a more acceptable term, and had laid it open or possibly filleted, they would then rub the fish with salt and lay it out before the open sun. Some of you have seen in your National Geographic magazines certain cultures where they salt their meat, they salt their fish, they will salt their seal meat, they will salt th...

21:08 - 22:35 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin unpacks the first part of the main text, explaining 'salted' in its cultural context as preservation from putrefaction, and 'fire' as God's holiness, wrath, and gracious…

Martin uses the modern concept of 'pickling' (beets, herring, pig's feet) to illustrate the primary meaning of 'salting' in the ancient world: preservation from putrefaction, not just flavoring.

We have pickled beets, we have pickled herring, we have pickled pig's feet. And when we pickle something, what we do when we say we pickle it is we put it in a briny solution in order to preserve it. Now we may add some spices to flavor, but basically to pickle something is to preserve it. Now that's the connotation of the word to these disciples.

22:36 - 23:01 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin moves to the second part of the text, explaining the common observation about salt losing its savor due to impurities in ancient Palestine. He interprets this as a warning…

Martin contrasts chemically manufactured, pure sodium chloride (Morton's salt) with the impure salt gathered from the Dead Sea, which was mixed with gypsum. This explains how ancient salt could 'lose its saltness' when the sodium chloride was washed away, leaving only tasteless gypsum.

Now again, we don't grasp this as quickly as they do because the salt most of us use is salt that was manufactured chemically and is in that sense pure sodium chloride. But that isn't the way you got your salt. You didn't go and get a box of Morton's. The salt that would have been used in Palestine was salt that would have been cleaned from evaporated water, that had splashed up on the shores of the Dead Sea, sea water, and the salt that they would have gathered would have been mixed with what we would call today gypsum.

36:45 - 37:26 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin moves to the second part of the text, explaining the common observation about salt losing its savor due to impurities in ancient Palestine. He interprets this as a warning…

Martin illustrates the worthlessness of salt that has lost its savor by describing how it would be thrown out and used to pack down a beaten path, rather than being used to salt fish, reinforcing Jesus' point about uselessness.

When you want to preserve some fish, do you go out and get some real salt and then put it on that stuff that used to be salt and is now nothing but tasteless gypsum? Well, why do you go through that process? You just take that stuff, throw it out the back door, and it becomes part of the beaten path out to the street. If you want to salt your fish, you don't take salt that no longer is salty and salt it.

37:56 - 38:19 Read in full sermon

The point: Take comfort from the words of Jesus that 'everyone shall be salted with fire,' knowing that God will preserve true disciples through the purifying influence of His Spirit.

Martin uses the vivid imagery of a 'tractor wheel' sized millstone and being thrown into the sea to be consumed by 'barracuda and sharks' to emphasize the horror of causing a 'little believer' to stumble, making Jesus' warning more visceral.

I have felt my spirit tremble before them. That grotesque, that gruesome imagery. Better that the big millstone the size of a tractor wheel be hung around our necks and we be thrown alive and kicking into the depths of the deepest sea and there sink to the bottom and remain until the barracuda and the sharks pluck our flesh from our bones. Better opposed of than cause one little believer to stumble into sin.

49:53 - 50:29 Read in full sermon

The point: Measure your spirituality not by emotional 'tingles' in worship, but by your conduct in intimate interpersonal relationships, such as thoughtfulness and consideration with family.

Martin humorously suggests that many people would be 'super saints' if they lived on an island with only monkeys and birds, illustrating how easily people blame external circumstances (spouses, elders) for their lack of peace and spirituality, rather than looking inward.

with his brethren. You see, many of you would be super saints if we could ship you to an island with no one but you, the monkeys and the birds. And you say, I could be so holy if it just wasn't for my wife. I mean, if I just had a different wife, I could be so holy, but I could be so holy if I just had a different husband.

57:21 - 57:49 Read in full sermon