Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany Matthew 5:13-20

Preaching Commentary

Restored or Thrown Out?

Having grown accustomed to the redemption theme that permeates Scripture, I find the answer that Jesus provides to his own question in v. 13 unexpected and unsettling—like getting to the end of a Disney movie and having the princess be eaten by a dragon. “How can it be restored?” I expect: “For mortals it is impossible, but nothing is impossible for God,” or “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ!” But instead the implied answer is that it can’t be restored: “It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under foot.”

At one time I tried to redeem this apparent lack of redemptive possibility by arguing that at least it is good for…