“ You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden” (Mt 5:14)
Jesus uses the metaphors of salt, light, and a city on a hill to emphasize the identity and influence of the church. And he makes the very important point that when the church loses its identity, it also loses its influence in the world.
In the very beginning of the Gospel of Matthew Jesus presents his followers as a group of people who are radically different from the world around them. The beatitudes describe this ethical and spiritual quality of life that marks those who have entered into the forgiveness and life of Christ. This is the church that Christ came into the world to build.
Indeed, it is surprising after reviewing the characteristics that would mark his followers such as, poor in spirit, mourning, meek, righteous, pure, peacemakers, and persecuted, that they
would be identified as the salt and light of the world. Note the all encompassing scope of their influence. It’s not just a Jewish thing, but the influence of the church is for all people, everywhere, in all times.
This radical and beautiful life and light of the church is not to be sequestered or hidden from the world, but rather rubbed into the world like salt, and shining brightly upon the world like a lamp on a lamp stand or a city on a hill.
But what if the salt has lost its property of being salty? What if the light has been covered so that it does not shine? In other words, what happens when the church loses its clear ethical and Gospel identify? The answer is that instead of connecting, confronting, and conforming the world by means of its Gospel light and message, it is conformed and reduced by the world and finds itself ineffective and meaningless.
John Stott is right to point out that the church and the world are “related to each other, but their relatedness depends on their distinctness.” Our effectiveness in terms of our influence in the world is not only a matter of clear strategies and structures to mobilize the church (as important as these strategies and structures are), but upon understanding and accepting our identity as being separate from the world and yet sent into it.
May God grant the church a clear vision of her identity in Christ so that we may influence the world around us to look to Christ and his life changing Gospel.
