"Salt of the earth" and "light of the world" — Matthew presents us with two of Jesus' well-known sayings. One of them is relatively easy to understand while the other is rather obscure.

We can relatively easily understand "You are the light of the world" by having recourse to John's Gospel (John 8:12), where Jesus proclaims himself to be the light of the world." As disciples of Jesus we are sent to continue his mission to bring the light of God's truth to the world.

Jesus, however, apparently never said "I am the salt of the earth." So we are left to our own reflection and understanding, guided, of course, by the Holy Spirit, to seek a meaning of "salt of the earth" that adds to our understanding of faith and mission in our own context. "Salt of the earth" is used to describe a very good person with integrity. That is an obvious implication of what Jesus is saying, of course, but why the idiom of "salt" precisely?

The best option, it seems, is to turn to Paul's letter to the Colossians (4:6), where he teaches us "Be tactful with those who are not Christians and be sure you make the best use of your time with them. Talk to them agreeably, seasoned with salt. It appears that "salt" probably signifies either "wisdom" or "good humour"

Can we as Christians be the wisdom that the world needs or at least the chosen vehicle of God's wisdom?