By Ben Swift

What is truth? And where can we find it? While many claim to hold answers to this question, meaning and purpose can only be found in ultimate truth; truth that exists at the centre of all reality.

For Christians, this truth is rooted in the answer to the question, “Who is Christ?”

As Dietrich Bonhoeffer once suggested, “To speak of Christ means to keep silent; to keep silent about Christ means to speak. When the Church speaks rightly out of proper silence, then Christ is proclaimed.”

In other words, to seek the truth about who Christ is, and therefore who we are and all that surrounds us, we must fall silent before his Word through which he reveals himself to us, that is to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. We must silence our opinions, in fact silence the opinions of all of humanity, so that we may in silence, listen to Christ as he speaks of who he is, the centre and reason concerning all things. It is only from this place of silence, before Christ, before the Word, that we learn to speak and answer the question of all questions with confidence.

“Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15)

For surely, the only real answer to this question, is the answer given by Christ himself, the answer found in our silence before him, the answer we are to speak into a broken world.

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” (John 14:6-7)