Can salt lose its saltiness? The Google answer is "no." Table salt, sodium chloride, is a stable compound. It doesn't get old or stale.

So why did Jesus warn about salt losing its saltiness? (Luke 14:25-15:10)

Imagine you were there listening to Jesus that day. Large crowds are following Jesus. But are they really following him?

He tells four memorable stories and riddles to make them think... to make each of us think... am I really ready to follow Jesus? 

• What does it mean for me to "hate" my family and my own life? Jesus uses a powerful, memorable word for us to ponder throughout the day. Is my relationship with him more important than any other relationship I have? Am I willing to bear that cost? 
• Do I have the willingness to finish "the building"?
• Do I have the strength for the "battle"?
• Am I losing my "saltiness"?

Jesus doesn't give the answer. They are riddles intended for us to make us search our own hearts. 

As I ponder this for myself, I feel Satan's hand on my shoulder. "The cost is too high," he whispers. "You will never make it. You are losing your saltiness?"

Then I appreciate the anew that our Savior never loses his "saltiness." In the parables of Luke 15:1-10, we see that no cost is too high for the Savior to reach out to me and claim me. 

He invites me to ponder the riddles of the lost coin and the lost sheep. I feel the Savior's hand on my shoulder, "My dear son Pete, I know all the times you have been lost. I will keep sweeping and find you. I will search high and low to find you when you wander. No cost is too high for me to pay for you." 

It is that "saltiness" of my Savior that leads me to pray: "Make me like King David in 1 Chronicles 28-29." 

David had been lost... right at the site of the future temple. He had trusted in the number of his soldiers rather than in the LORD. There, on the threshing floor of Araunah, the LORD had shown mercy. There David said the temple would be built (1 Chronicles 21). 

Where are those places in your life that you lost the battle. You failed to be "the salt of the earth"? There you can see the LORD's mercy most clearly. There the Lord Jesus placed his cross and said, "For this I have died. Justice has been satisfied. Forgiveness is yours."

And it is at that very place where I have lost the battle that I can pause and ask myself... what more can I do? No cost is too high. 

Like David, let us dedicate our lives, our treasure, our all to the Savior who loved us and rescued us.

This morning I noticed the recurrence of the word "willing." The Hebrew word appears seven times in this chapter. Where does that willing heart come from? 

• Go back and confess the times we weren't ready to pay the cost of following Jesus. 
• Go back and see that at everyone of those times, Jesus was willing to pay the cost of you.

And then let us join with David and ask ourselves... what more can I do so that the next generation knows the Savior's forgiving love?

This is a riddle that each of us has to answer for ourselves.