23/06/2024

SALT, SOIL, MANURE & FOOLISHNESS

  1. How many different uses of salt can you think of?
  2. Read Mark 9:50, Matthew 5:13, and Luke 14:34-35 alongside each other. What are the similarities and the differences between the three authors?
  3. What was your understanding of being the “salt of the earth” before hearing Sunday’s message? How (if so) has this changed?
  4. How does the idea of salt being used for the soil (farming) and for the manure pile (disinfectant) change your understanding of being “the salt of the earth”? 
  5. What does it mean for us to be like “fertilizers” or “disinfectants” in the world?
  6. What are the consequences for the world if we do not act like a “fertilizer” or “disinfectant”? 
  7. How does this way of thinking influence our reading of the man and the fig tree in Luke 13:1-9?
  8. The greek word for salt becoming “tasteless” or “loses its saltiness” is moraino which is predominantly translated in the New Testament as “make foolish”, “turn to foolishness” or “become foolish”. How does this change the way we understand Jesus’ analogy of being the salt of the earth? 
  9. If salt refers to wisdom, or the wisdom of God’s word, and losing one’s saltiness refers to becoming foolish, what does this mean for us? 
  10. Lastly, let’s bring things to a close by discussing the quantity of salt, quality of salt, and placement of salt, for us to effectively be the “salt of the earth”. 

The word for losing one’s saltiness is possibly:

“double entendre in Hebrew and Aramaic, where the verb tāpēl can mean both to be tasteless and to be foolish” (R.T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, The New International Commentary on the New Testament, p. 175).