Boston Tea Party and Salt Satyagraha

On December 16, 1773, American colonists, in protest of exuberant taxation, dumped 342 chests of tea into the harbor that the British East India Company had imported. Nearly 157 years later, in 1930, Mahatma Gandhi led a twenty-four-day march against the British monopoly and taxation of salt in India. In the end, Indians started making salt by evaporation at Dandi, a coast in the Arabian Sea. This march is known as Salt Satyagraha (Salt Protest). Even with advanced technology, many coastal villages in India still make salt through natural evaporation. They gather seawater in large fields and let the sun burn off the water molecules, leaving the salt residues behind. This was an ancient method of gathering salt practiced even in Palestine.

The Lord Jesus said to the disciples,

“Everyone makes salt by fire.” (Mark 9:49)

The Greeks called the sun elios and the sun rays fire because it burns (pur; cp. 1 Cor 3:13 – “each one’s work will be revealed when the day comes and the sunrays/fire shine”). Jesus referred to the usual way people made salt – by leaving the saltwater in an open field for the sun's rays to evaporate the water molecules and leave the salt behind.

Then he said,

“Salt is good.” (9:50a)

Salt has many uses. Besides making the food taste well, salt preserves food and even helps kill germs. In India, people soak meat bought in an open-air market in a mixture of salt and turmeric to kill bacteria and germs. Salt is good.

“But if salt becomes unsalted, how can anyone make it salty again?” (9:50a)

If salt is left open in a humid place, it becomes watery and leaves a bland residue. That residue can never be made salty again. Jesus knew this and was using it as an object lesson, which was:

“You have salt in yourselves.” (9:50b)

The disciples, unbeknown to them, had “salt” in them. They were like saltshakers. They held salt. But what was their salt?

“You bring peace among yourselves.” (9:50b)

On their way to Capernaum, the disciples were fighting among themselves, quarreling about who was the greatest (9:33–37). Such discussion only brought division. On the other hand, when they brought peace among themselves, they were salty, bringing taste and preservation.

In a sermon, Jesus said, “Blessed are those who bring peace; they are God’s children” (Matt 5:9). Here, he instructed his disciples they would be like salt – bringing taste to food and preserving life by killing germs – when they bring peace among themselves. When they lost such an ability to bring peace, they were like salt that had lost its saltiness and couldn’t be salted again.

But what made them salty in the first place was the sunray or fire, a metaphor for God (cp. “children of God,” Matt 5:9). Knowing that they had been made as salts, the disciples should sprinkle peace among themselves and wherever they were.

We, too, can have salt in ourselves. After all, we are God’s children. But the saltiness is evident when we sprinkle peace wherever we are and bring unity.