Sermon Text: Matthew 5:13-20
Date: February 8, 2026
Event: The Fifth Sunday after Epiphany, Year A

Matthew 5:13-20 (EHV)

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its flavor, how will it become salty again? Then it is no good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled on by people. 14You are the light of the world. A city located on a hill cannot be hidden. 15People do not light a lamp and put it under a basket. No, they put it on a stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16In the same way let your light shine in people’s presence, so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

17“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy them but to fulfill them. 18Amen I tell you: Until heaven and earth pass away, not even the smallest letter, or even part of a letter, will in any way pass away from the Law until everything is fulfilled. 19So whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever practices and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20Indeed I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and experts in the law, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Live What You Are!

How often do you learn something about yourself that you didn’t know? Maybe you tried a new hobby and found you have a great aptitude for it. Maybe you read a type of book that you normally would avoid and found out that you really enjoy that genre. Maybe you are going through a really difficult time and surviving in a way you never dreamed you could. Maybe the reverse is true—you found that something you thought you could handle just fine was way more difficult than you thought—perhaps even beyond your ability.

But any of that information is good to have. Knowing who you are, discovering your strengths and challenges, and exploring new interests and curiosities are ways to grow and change, helping you venture into areas you had never explored, and perhaps fulfill more of what you want or can do.

In our Gospel for this morning, Jesus continues his Sermon on the Mount, which we began last week. As he is teaching his disciples, he lets them know who they are. Again, today’s Epiphany revelations are perhaps more about who we are than who Jesus is, but we are who we are because Jesus has made us that way. Jesus compares believers to salt, light, a prominent, visible city, and a lamp in a dark house. All of those have a connected theme: they provide help in a situation that is otherwise bleak: light in darkness, preservation where food may otherwise spoil, and a clear place of refuge in an otherwise hostile environment.

To get the full extent of what Jesus is getting at, it’s helpful for us to review what we were before he made us what we are. Before Jesus, we were dead in our trespasses and sins, or to use Jesus’ picture in our Gospel, we were like salt that has lost its flavor. Now, the cooks among us may be wondering, “How can salt lose its flavor?” And it’s true, the container of table salt in your pantry isn’t going to not taste salty no matter how long it sits there unused. But, in Jesus’ day, they did not have the purity of salt that we are familiar with. To increase the volume of their salt supply, merchants sometimes mixed it with other materials, such as sand or even dirt. Water might be used to thin things out a bit and spread the salt more evenly among other materials. You can imagine that the more the salt was diluted, the less effective it would be at preserving or even pleasantly flavoring food. And since there was no real way to extract the salt from the mixture, once it hit the point of no return on usefulness, it would be worthless for anything salt-related. Instead, as Jesus said, you might as well just throw it out on the walking path because it has no use for your food, and it would be a danger to any soil where crops grow.

Spiritually speaking, that’s what we were: useless, tainted salt good for nothing but to be trampled on by people. The messed-up salt couldn’t make itself better, and no one else could either. In the same way, you and I couldn’t change our spiritual condition, nor could anyone else. Jesus said that only those who were better than the Pharisees and the experts in the law could enter eternal life through their works. Given that these religious leaders were viewed as the most upright people alive, Jesus point is that no one, not even those praised for their piety and good works, was able to change their spiritual condition. On our own, we were unsalty salt—and, actually, even less useful.

But this is God’s work: changing us from what we were to what we are. We had been this worthless salt, but Jesus changed that. When Jesus lived his life in our place, when he died on the cross to pay for our sins, and when the Holy Spirit worked faith in our hearts to trust in Jesus as our Savior, there we were changed from worthless salt to pure salt, from what God hated to exactly what God wanted. Jesus has made us perfect; now we are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.

It’s fascinating that Jesus calls us by one of the titles that he had used for himself. In John chapters 8 and 9, Jesus refers to himself as the Light of the World. But here in Matthew, he calls us the light of the world. Jesus has made us the light; he has made us as himself in this dark world.

What does it mean to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world? The world is blessed by your presence. You bring a preservative quality to this world, as salt does to food. You bring light to this otherwise dark place. You show that there is safety and refuge outside of ourselves. Because you, dear Christian, point to Christ. You are the salt, light, and refuge of the earth when you bring the gospel to people who don’t yet know it or who have taken it for granted.

But in order to bring those blessings to the world around you, you need to actually act. You can’t be a lamp lit and then placed under a basket—what a waste and pointless thing to do! No, to be these things that God has made you to be, you need to act, you need to share, you need to live your lives in a way that reflects Jesus’ love to the world around you.

How can you be salt and light? How can you live what you are? It’s in how you treat people. Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. When you see someone in need, or even simply claiming they are in need, help them.

This is not the way the world naturally operates, or at least not for the same reasons. The world would largely recommend that you keep to yourself, take care of you, and ignore others. The world would have you think that your problems are too great to ever be concerned about anyone else. The world pushes you inward to focus on yourself at the exclusion of everyone else.

But Jesus did not say you were your own personal salt and light. No, he’s made you to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. We are here for others, we are here to let our light shine and to be a blessing for other people because that’s what Jesus has done for us. We can, in very tiny ways, be little Jesuses to other people in this life, reflecting just a little bit of his selfless love in how we speak and act.

But the amazing thing here is that God doesn’t just let that bright and salty work be for the moment; God attaches a greater, grander plan and blessing to it beyond merely addressing some immediate needs. Jesus says, “In the same way let your light shine in people’s presence, so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” By acting like this, you will be as different among the people around us as a light bulb is to the rest of a dark room. But the goal is not personal glory, praise, or recognition. No, the goal is that others will glorify God, that through you, people will see not just how to live but the reason you live that way. The goal is that they will not just see the reflection of Jesus love or a faint reflection of his care, but that through you, they will see Jesus as he is, their Savior as well as yours.

You look different, noticeably different, when you live as you are. When you don’t ignore the guy outside the grocery store looking for handouts, but see if you can grab him a sandwich inside, you look different. When you spend those extra minutes (or hours) with someone going through a very difficult time, you look different. When you speak and act in a way that communicates you care for all people, not just people who you know personally or who live the way you think people should live, you look different. You will look as different as someone turning on all the lights in a dark room—it is unavoidable! And all of that looking different is going to make people notice and ask, “Why?”

And there’s your moment, either directly or indirectly, you can make clear that you do this not to get a pat on the back, not to be praised in this world, but because Jesus has already made you an heir of eternal life. You can share the blessing of Jesus’ forgiveness, the certainty of his love, and the promise of perfection in heaven. Ultimately, living as you are is not just about bringing blessings to people in the immediate term but, God-willing, in the eternal term as well. The smaller things can lead to the bigger. Good works can lead others to praise God, not for you, but for his forgiveness.

So, my dear Christians, live as you are, as Jesus has made you. Actively love all people and share that love in little ways and big ways, and ultimately in sharing Jesus, our Savior. Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria