Savory Surrender to the Savior of our Souls
Luke 14:31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?
Luke 14:32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.
Luke 14:33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
Luke 14:34 ¶ “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?
Luke 14:35 It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Jesus is still explaining why the best thing in the world for a person to do is to commit to following Him with all of their heart and soul.
Think of it. If a king is about to get pommelled, he would seek out a peaceful resolution with his attacker. Just like when you’re trying to sell your car and the potential buyer hears that awful sound from the engine. You know some negotiation has to happen.
So Jesus gives us His terms. Absolute surrender to the King of Glory, and in return, we share in His glory. That’s the hard thing about ‘surrender.’ Our connotation is that we surrender to an occupying force and we’re losers. It’s not like that all. It’s more like we become a part of His kingdom and are adopted into His family.
The part that has to do with warfare and conquering kings is the wisdom and foolishness of it. If a king had a chance to make peaceful terms, it would be foolish not to. Since God has given us a chance to be united with Him and to have our sins forgiven, it would be foolish for us to not take Him up on the offer.
The other example here is salt. mmmmm. Salt. Take a minute and go eat something salty and then come back.
Go on.
Salt was even more important before refrigerators and high fructose corn syrup. It was critical to preserving meat (and by preserving I mean making it edible) and to bringing out the taste in things. It was an expensive commodity, but it also had some symbolism. In some middle-eastern cultures, taking a pinch of salt and sprinkling it over a shared loaf of bread was a symbol of unity. In Leviticus, God said to include salt in all of their offerings.
When salt went bad, it was used kind of like sawdust. They would sprinkle it on the floor of the temple to absorb blood like a janitor cleaning up puke at a high school. That was all used up salt was good for.
So salt is good. (Being salty and sarcastic is not!) Preserving, bringing out the flavor, making things wonderful and enjoyable is what salt does.
If we have lost the preserving, making things wonderful powers that Christ gives us, we are worthless. We don’t have to wait for a miracle or inspiration, we can change today. Consider the coming King and throw off every single thing that takes the life out of our Life. He’s worth it.
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