Tasteless Salt

Luke 14:34-35

Jesus uses powerful rhetoric in his final imagery of salt to emphasize his point. To be a follower of Jesus means to have purpose, know that purpose and function for that purpose. Something is only deemed useless for its inability to achieve or fulfill its purpose. You would not condemn a car for not being able to take you across a lake or a coffee for not holding your monthly savings. These are things with a certain function and are limited in their usefulness to that intended function. Salt has a few and specific purposes, taste being the major one, and Jesus asks what would you do if it lost its main property of saltiness. The answer is of course that it is of no use because tied to its saltiness is its usefulness. In fact, one could argue that the salt Jesus speaks of would have ceased to be salt altogether because what is salt without its sodium content? Jesus is basically asking us a personal question of, "If disciples do not give up everything to follow me, then what use are you?" A very deep question to ponder indeed.