Salt of the Earth

     The greatest speech ever given was Jesus' Sermon on the Mount Speech, no other speech as stood the test of time as well, and even to this day it is one of the most quoted writings. Even though the speech is still popular, some parts of the speech may be confusing, such as the part that follows the Beatitudes, Matthew Chapter 5, Verse 13, which says, "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 be trampled underfoot." Nowadays, to say to someone that they are the salt of the earth sounds like an insult, but for most of world history this would have been seen as a complement. Salt use to be extremely valuable and the word salary actually comes from the Latin word for salt (salis). The question arises, who is the salt of the earth? Jesus says "you", but who is the you that he is talking about. Is it the people in attendance at the speech, or is it human beings in general. I believe that it is human beings in general, because those in attendance at the speech were probably not only limited to the followers of Jesus, but probably people who were neutral towards him, or some who even disliked him. This is the same audience who reads the Bible today, but the Bible is for everybody. So what Jesus means when he calls us the salt of the earth is that we, humans, are good, valuable, and useful. Jesus says that if we were to lose our saltiness, there is no way how we can regain our saltiness. But salt does not lose its saltiness unless it changes its chemical compound, and then it is no longer salt. Thus, if we lose our goodness, we are no longer humane, and are worthless and ought to be trampled underfoot. When I hear the phrase trampled underfoot, I think of two things: first, the Led Zeppelin song; and second, someone being buried after death. When we die, we lose our saltiness, so to speak, and can longer be made salt.