Salted With Fire

Sometimes strong language is necessary to really communicate just how serious the situation is! What is at stake is your very self!

When I was serving as a police officer in my 20s, one of the most challenging aspects of the job was dealing with the abuse and misuse of children. I simply lost the ability to see the perpetrator as a person. They had hurt a child.

I just found it almost impossible to keep perspective when it came to children being mistreated.

But I guess that’s understandable because when we so degenerate into excusing the mistreatment and even killing of the most vulnerable among us, we quickly approach more of an animal state than human.

This is at the heart of some of the Bible's most troublesome language and actions. God loves us and desires us to be authentically human.

When we allow our delusions, narcissism, and self-centered blindness to reduce us to our baser instincts, it will usually take something drastic, scary, loud, and unpleasant to get us to escape the downward spiral into animalism.

So, when we read that God will “judge” our actions, we are invited to allow that reality to wake us up to our need for repentance, or we will stomp our feet like petulant children and demand our way. That isn’t going to end well!

Look at our lesson today in Mark 9:42-50; 10:1:

The Lord said, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung round his neck and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. For every one will be salted with fire and every sacrifice will be salted with salt. Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.” And he left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, and crowds gathered to him again; and again, as his custom was, he taught them.

Jesus seems to reserve His most pointed and, frankly, scary language for those who cause “one of these little ones who believe in me to sin.” He sets a standard that it is better to “cut off” parts of yourself than to descend into the delusions of hell!

The Lord uses strong language and the imagery of “fire” and “salt” to bring the point home to us.

“Fire” here refers to unending torments.

But think about this for a minute.

Can you imagine anything more horrible than having an unquenchable desire that always grows stronger but can never be satisfied? That “burning” desire, untamed and undisciplined, will burn you up! A life lived based on being enslaved by our desires can only be described as “hell.” And Jesus warns us NEVER to cause others to fall into that slavery by our slavery to our passions!

It would be better to be drowned in the sea than to leave a legacy that causes others to believe the way to happiness is indulging all our desires without discipline and wisdom.

“Salt” refers to the seasoning and preserving nature of this very valuable commodity in Jesus’ day.

Isn’t it interesting that He says that everyone, including you and me, will be “salted” with fire?

Our myriad talents, abilities, and creativities give our lives flavor and preserve them. But the “salt” loses its purpose when these abilities, talents, and desires are untamed, undeveloped, and undisciplined by wisdom. Jesus tells us to “have salt” within ourselves and be at peace!

The only honest and serious reaction to the Lord's words here is, “Lord have mercy.” If you try to justify yourself, if you try to claim these words don’t apply to you or that your life is an exception, you only reveal just how far down you’ve allowed your life to slide toward destruction. Join me today in taking a moment to weep for our sins and self-centered blindness, and let’s start the climb out of the pit toward being genuinely human, like Christ!

Saint Haggai, the Prophet, was born when the Israelites were still in captivity in Babylon. His Old Testament book is filled with the “fire” of God’s truth to wake God’s people to their wrong priorities. The Lord delivers Israel from captivity, and they return to their homeland, neglecting the construction of the Temple to take care of themselves! Where is their gratitude? Where is their devotion? God’s house lies in ruins, and they ensure their houses are fine! St. Haggai confronts the people with this blindness because he is being “salt” and “fire” in their midst!

Today, is your life burning with untamed desires unsalted by wisdom and discipline? Our Orthodox Faith invites us to communion with Christ, which disciplines our desires AND seasons our lives with the true purpose of our gifts. Living a Normal Orthodox life sets me free to be truly alive!

P.S. Illumined in mind with streams of light from Heaven's heights, thou brightly didst shine in prophecy throughout the world; and in manifesting types of Christ's dispensation, which was to come, thou becamest illustrious, O Prophet Haggai, wise in things divine.

Fr. Barnabas Powell is the parish priest at Sts. Raphael, Nicholas, and Irene Greek Orthodox Church in Cumming, GA. He is also the founder of Faith Encouraged Ministries and produces the Faith Encouraged Daily Devotional on Substack. Watch the Faith Encouraged YouTube Channel here - https://www.youtube.com/@FaithEncouragedTV

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