Good News to the Poor by Tim Chester

Author:Tim Chester [Tim Chester]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4335-3706-6
Publisher: Crossway
Published: 2013-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Some Christians want to reduce Christianity to a message of personal piety and individual salvation. Others go to the other extreme, reducing Christianity to a message of political liberation or liberal causes. Neither does justice to the good news proclaimed by Jesus.

We can and should proclaim the good news of liberation to the poor. We can and should promise them a kingdom of justice, peace, and blessing. We should express this in terms that connect with their experience of slavery and oppression. But we cannot and should not promise too much. To proclaim liberation within history is to promise what we cannot deliver. Liberation is a future reality. In the meantime we are not to lose heart. We are to keep faith with God.

3) A Message of Community

But it is not only in the future that the poor experience the good news. Through the gospel, the poor become part of a community of love and care. Justice is a present experience for the people of God.

We have seen how the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount should be read as an announcement of liberation and an end to exile. Jesus continues by saying, “You are the salt of the earth” (Matt. 5:13). He is talking to his disciples (v. 1). Salt in the Old Testament was a sign of covenant faithfulness. In the Old Testament salt was to be added to every sacrifice (Lev. 2:13). The reason given is that salt is a sign of the covenant with God. Numbers talks of “a covenant of salt forever before the LORD for you and your offspring with you” (Num. 18:19; see also Ex. 30:35). Salt is a sign that the covenant will last, a sign of covenant faithfulness. Adding salt was a way of saying: “I bind myself to the agreement.” It was our equivalent of shaking on it. This was how the contract was signed. Still today some Arabs throw salt to seal an agreement. “Ought you not to know that the LORD God of Israel gave the kingship over Israel forever to David and his sons by a covenant of salt?” (2 Chron. 13:5). Salt was a sign that the covenant would last forever. It was sign of faithfulness and commitment.

So when Jesus says, “You are the salt of the earth,” he is not saying they were to act as a preservative, upholding the morality of society. Rather, Jesus is saying to his followers: “You are the faithful ones; you are the ones who are part of the covenant.” When he talks about salt losing its saltiness, he is talking about the nation of Israel. They have not been faithful to the covenant, so they will not enjoy liberation from exile. They have been and will be “thrown out”; in other words, they have been exiled. They have been and will be “trampled under people’s feet” (Matt. 5:13); in other words, they have been judged by a conquering army.

Remember the context. The place is crawling with Roman soldiers and Roman officials enforcing Roman rule.

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