Well seasoned?

I don’t know about you, but when I watch a programme like the current MasterChef series, I’m inspired to try something new.

If I’m honest though, this inspiration hardly ever makes it to the kitchen.

One thing I learnt early on in my marriage was that trying something new when you’ve invited people over for dinner is never a good idea. I remember sitting around the table thinking, ‘This is terrible!’ as our guests struggled to find something positive to commend me on. Awkward.

Of course, our dinner guests were nothing like the judges on MasterChef who hold nothing back when it comes to critiquing the contestants’ food. When the judges are unimpressed, words like ‘unrefined’, ‘bland’ and ‘ordinary’ are used to describe dishes. When they are impressed, they describe a dish as having ‘bold flavours’ and being ‘well seasoned’.

Well seasoned. Salt is one of the key seasonings used when cooking. It has a distinct flavour and enhances the flavour of other ingredients when added to food. A friend who is a chef told me that a pinch of salt added to any baking helps all the other ingredients work together to improve the end product. Salt is also used in the preservation of food.

In what is perhaps the most famous sermon in history, known as ‘the Sermon on the Mount’, Jesus tells his followers, ‘You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.’ (Matthew 5:13)

This statement sits within a larger message about the kingdom of God (God’s reign and rule) that Jesus came to establish on earth. Jesus is saying to those who follow him, ‘You are an essential ingredient and part of my kingdom here on earth. One that will enhance and preserve my rule.’

Jesus then goes on to make a pretty full-on point: salt that isn’t salty is good for nothing. If his followers aren’t doing the job of enhancing and preserving God’s kingdom, they aren’t fulfilling their purpose. They aren’t achieving what Jesus has called them to.

The Message paraphrase puts it like this: ‘Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavours of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.’

So, what does it look like to be salt in the world?

In a world saturated by consumerism, materialism, corruption, lack of integrity, power seeking, injustice and poverty, we have an opportunity to be salt—to make a difference, to be the difference. In the hands of God, we are considered a key ingredient in his plan of redemption and restoration, in God’s plan to see his kingdom established on Earth as it is in Heaven.

We can be the ingredient that enhances, improves and develops the world for the better. We can be a seasoning that brings out the good God flavours and preserves the kingdom Jesus came to establish on earth. That’s a kingdom built upon purity, truth, faith, hope, justice and love. Tastes pretty good to me.

By Sammy Millar (abridger from War Cry 1 June 2013, p3)