When was the last time, or how often do
you find yourself looking at the nutrition facts on the back of the label of
whatever it is you’re eating? What do you notice about what you’re eating? You
notice the healthy things that you should be eating – proteins and the like. Or
you’ll notice the things you shouldn’t be eating too much of – sodium or fats.
You read through the labels b/c you want to know exactly what you are eating.
You want a healthy diet – and not a diet full of junk foods.
Imagine you walk into the doctor and you
told him what you were eating and what was in your diet, and you said, “Doctor,
I’ve found the perfect recipe for a healthy diet. My diet consists of a cup of
water and a whole lot of salt.” The doctor would be thrilled to hear the first
half of your recipe for a healthy diet. In fact, he’d tell you don’t stop at just
one glass of water – be sure to drink a lot more. But when you tell him about
the salt, he’d get a funny look on his face wondering what you’re talking
about. Salt in large quantities is not good for us. It raises blood pressure.
Did you know that was the exact recipe for
a healthy diet that Jesus gave to his disciples and that he shares w/ you and
me this morning? You see, Jesus cares about our diet to maintain physical
health, but he’s even more concerned about us having a spiritually healthy diet
– and what that looks like. In verse 41 a few lines down in our lesson, Jesus
says, “I tell you the truth, anyone who
gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly
not lose his reward.” And then in
the very last verse, verse 50, Jesus says, “Salt
is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with
each other.”
The point that Jesus is making this
morning that we want to well remember is that in order to have “The Recipe Of A Healthy Diet”,
we need to have a cup of water to
keep the parts of your body; and we want to have a lot of salt to keep peace in the body.
