Yesterday I read Scott Bessenecker's How To Inherit the Earth. Great book. Challenging book. As I read through these verses, they say the same thing as his book, i.e., somehow along the way we have allowed corporate America to invade the church. We don't think like Jesus but rather we think like the apostles on the road. We still do not recognize true servants and pursue last place.
When I was in college the book that drove us all to achieve was The Pursuit of Excellence. It was classic 80s literature for forming yuppies. We all came away desiring to be the best at everything . . . except at being last. Whatever happened to forming ourselves by the literature of the first century which calls for just that?
I have to admit that when I read this section on being salted, I really wish Peter had pulled one of his verbal blunders that would have spurred Jesus on to a longer explanation. Yet what I can walk away with is simply this -- causing innocent people to sin is bad. Ignoring innocent people while we pursue "excellence" is bad. The ultimate reward for both is really bad. Being touched (salted) by Jesus is good. So we should be content with being touched by Jesus and learn to be at peace with the position (or lack of position) in life that results from that touch.
So maybe we didn't need Peter to ask questions after all. The hard part is not understanding; what's hard is contentment as opposed to pursuit.
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