A Light on a Hill: A Meditation on Matthew 5 for the 5th Sunday of Epiphany

Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour,

wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing,

but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

Ye are the light of the world.

A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel,

but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

Let your light so shine before men,

that they may see your good works,

and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

 

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets:

I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass,

one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments,

and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven:

but whosoever shall do and teach them,

the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

For I say unto you, That except your righteousness

shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,

ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

 

As Jesus spoke to His disciples upon that mountain, His questions held a particularly sting.  God had very intentionally given to the Jewish people His Word, delivered them from slavery in Egypt, led them to the Promised Land, sustained them through the time of the Judges, and eventually set His servant King David upon the nation’s throne in Jerusalem around 950 BC.  It was the Word of God which gave the Jewish people their preservative salt, maintaining them down through the centuries, chastening them for their rebellion and restoring them by faith, repentance, and grace.  It was also the Word and Wisdom of God which made Jerusalem shine like a light set high over the earthly landscape, drawing envoys and inquirers from majestic courts as far away as Egypt, Ethiopia, and Babylon.  Jesus made it clear that the Jewish people were not endowed by God’s Word so that they would be hidden, but rather that the Word of God might be made known far and wide, both by proclamation and by lives conformed to its righteousness.  This is why Jesus could also declare that He had not come to destroy the Word of God which came to them in ages past, but to fulfill every jot and tittle in Himself, and to make the emphatic statement that no one who was aiming to match the righteous hypocrisy of the Pharisees and Sadducees was aiming high enough to enter the Kingdom of God.

 

Like the Jewish people Jesus addressed, His words strike home for Christians today, as well.  The Church was also gifted with the Word of God Incarnate, and the testimony of the Apostles to make complete the prior testimony of the Prophets.  While the Jewish people were given the Holy Spirit in only particular times and places, the Christian Church received the gratuitous outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon every baptized believer, and in every preached witness to the Word of God, which has continued now for nearly 2000 years.  Even as Jerusalem was set upon a high hill in the land of Judea to enlighten the world, the Church was set upon countless hills all over the world, carrying the Light of Jesus and His Word to every tribe and tongue under heaven.  The preservation of the Jewish people was added to the Gentile believers in Jesus with His promise that He would never abandon nor forsake them to the end of time.  And to the Church today the same Words of Jesus interrogate and inquire:  if your salty preservation by His Word be lost through apostasy, how shall it ever be useful again?  If your light given through His Word is hidden or darkened by a lack of faith, what shall make your reflected light helpful again?  And if your hope of salvation is to imitate the hypocrisy of your popular, well dressed, but feckless clergy, neither you nor they will enter into His Kingdom.

 

It is a jarring and illuminating Word which the Lord gives to His people, and one we must consider in every age.  Worldly trappings of purported holiness mean nothing to God.  Big, fancy hats, ornate vestments, jewel encrusted sanctuaries, pomp and flair from performance artists, stage shows and smoke machines, overhead screens and viral videos—all are worthless apart from the Word of God.  Those who think they can create a new business plan to grow their church membership or fill their coffers to support new programs, or perhaps who think the latest sociological survey of generational attitudes and proclivities will yield the hidden formula for renewal of the church in their place, are missing the crux of their own existence.  The Church is not empowered to make its own salt salty, or its own light brighter, or to define its own terms of righteousness, or the standards by which any soul is reconciled with God.  On the contrary, it is God alone who gives salt to His people, makes them a light to shine in the darkness, and gives to them the righteousness of faith, so that they might be vessels of salt, light, and salvation to the world around them.  The Word of God forms every authentic Christian by the power of His Holy Spirit, and grafting them into the living vine of Jesus Christ—this is the preservation, the witness, and the grace of the Church set as a bulwark against the machinations of vain men.

 

Into the darkness of our delusional age, Jesus comes to His Church as He came and sat with His people in Judea.  He reminds us that His Word is all that matters, both as it is written in the testimony of the holy Prophets and Apostles, and as it lives in Him as the Eternal Word of the Father.  There is nothing in heaven above or on earth beneath which holds a candle to that most brilliant of Lights, nothing which we savor below which is so fulfilling as that Bread from Heaven, and no philosophy of men which reconciles to God as the Word of God Himself.  Where the Church has lost its luster and become a tepid witness to the King of Glory, it is Jesus alone who can restore her by the glory of His Word.  Where Christians have lost their sense of preservation by abandoning their faith, it is Jesus who speaks His Word to them so that His people might be made sure again.  When the people of God feel distant from God because of their sin, their suffering, and their own fallen nature, it is Jesus who seals them in Holy Baptism, feeds them by His Holy Supper, and forgives them through His Holy Absolution.  It is Jesus who affirms them in their confession of His Word by Holy Confirmation, and blesses their families in His gift of Holy Marriage.  It is Jesus who establishes and empowers them according to their myriad vocations and the gift of Holy Orders, where His Word has sanctified their every good work of love and service be they laity or clergy.  It is Jesus who comes to heal body, soul, and mind through His Word of grace in Holy Unction, with the faithful laying on of hands and prayer.  The Eternal Word is the life and light of His people in every age—even ours, and until the end of this world.

 

Hear the Word of the Lord as it comes to you again today, to preserve, enlighten, and reconcile you to the King of the Universe.  It is Jesus who has done all things necessary for you through His Incarnation, His Cross, and His Resurrection, and it is Jesus who shall be your life and hope and strength until He comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead.  He has given you His Word and Spirit that you might always be sustained in every day of your life, and that forgiven and free, you might shine forth the Light of His saving Word to all you meet.  It is His Word which has made you, His Word which has saved you, and His Word which has made you His witness in your time and place.  Let go every impotent idol, theology, or philosophy which draws your mind and affections away, and receive again the power of the Eternal Word by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.