I was reading the Sermon on the Mount recently. Now, I have read this passage over a hundred times. I have heard dozens of sermons on it. Read books about it. Watched YouTube videos about how we are to be the “salt and light to the world.”

I agree with that interpretation of the passage. As Christians, we are the salt that preserves the earth until the coming judgment by God, so that the gospel can be preached to the four corners of earth. And we are to shine the light of the gospel, both to bring the dark deeds of sinful men, bringing them to repentance and turn from their sin, and women in the full light of Christ and to light the way to heaven.

When I was recently read it, another parallel interpretation is also possible.

The nation of Israel was given the Law of God. Moses spent 40 days and 40 nights on Mount Sinai as God dictated to Moses what He expects of Israel. Israel was to keep the Law, but because of their depraved nature inherited from Adam, God provided a sacrificial system to cleanse them from their sin, but the cleansing wasn’t permanent. The blood of animals could not satisfy the wrath of God. All of this pointed to the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ the Son of God.

What Israel was also commissioned to do was to teach the Law of God to all the nations. It was their responsibility to teach the Law and to also teach about the mercy of God.

But they failed in this task. They became prideful because they had the Law. They became arrogant because God had chosen them as a nation. So they didn’t teach the Law of God to anyone. Instead they played the harlot with gods of the nations and God judged them. He removed His presence from the temple and used the nations they were supposed to evangelize to be the tool of His judgment on them.

In the passage about losing the saltiness and covering the light of the gospel with a bushel, Jesus is indicting the nation of Israel because they disobeyed God and chased after false gods. And at the time Jesus was on the earth, they had essentially weaponized the Law. They added manmade rules that superseded the Law of God. They laid burdens on the people of Israel that God had never intended.

This is what Jesus meant. Israel had lost their saltiness and hid the light of the gospel. They traded the righteousness of God for their own righteousness found in their man made traditions.

Jesus was passing judgment on them because the commission to spread the gospel was to be taken from them and passed on to the hated gentiles. God had said through His prophets that this would happen. And now a veil is over their eyes.