Fifth Sunday after Epiphany – Year A

Welcome to the Fifth Week after Epiphany. We remain with Jesus on the hillside, listening as the Sermon on the Mount continues to unfold. Last week, we heard the Beatitudes, where Jesus relocates God’s favor among those being ground down by the machinery of the world — the poor, the grieving, the worn thin — and names them blessed.

In this week’s text, he turns to these same people and speaks directly. “You are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.” Blessed. Salt. Light.

If Jesus was preaching to the choir, the choir didn’t know it. This crowd likely didn’t respond with amens or hallelujahs. More likely, they were confused, wondering if Jesus had mistaken them for someone else. Many had come to see their suffering as proof of God’s judgment. But Jesus persists, tapping into a deeper intuition, a knowing that settles somewhere deep inside the heart, beyond the known facts and outward circumstances.

Then Jesus says, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” Is Jesus exchanging the velvet glove of mercy and compassion for the iron fist of God’s demand for moral purity?

There are two Greek words for “good.” Agathos points to moral correctness or intrinsic virtue. Kalos speaks instead of beauty, transparency, and the manner in which something is done, regardless of how “good” the one doing it may be. Jesus chooses kalos to describe the works of the blessed. He is not asking the wounded to become morally superior to those who wounded them. Nor is he saying virtue is what makes them salt or light.

Instead, Jesus is saying that whenever we bear witness to God’s unmerited favor poured out on all flesh, especially those put through the grind, we restore God’s true reputation. The goal of kalos is not to dazzle with virtue, but to live transparently, honestly, vulnerably, in ways that draw attention to the One who keeps raining down blessings. This is how God is given glory.