Hello my friends,

As we continue on into this Christmas season, we encounter John's introduction to Jesus entering the world at the beginning of his gospel. It is one that holds profound meaning and mystery, especially for our world today. I hope you find it encouraging and illuminating.

Before we get started, I wanted recommend the book Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself By Dr. Kristin Neff. I just recently finished it for the first time and plan on reading it again very soon. One of the trademarks of high controlling religion is the expectation to not only see the self as worthless but to be treated with suspicion and even contempt. I have come to believe that loving ourselves is part of Jesus' greatest commandment, along with loving God and our neighbors as, that's right, ourselves. If we constantly mistreat and hate ourselves, that makes it virtually impossible to love others well. If you have also struggled with constant self criticism and perfectionism, I highly recommend giving this book a try.

Before the Manger.

John 1:1-18

The Word Became Flesh

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

(John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

Cosmic Nativity

Compared to the other gospel accounts, John does not begin the story of Jesus where we might expect. Especially in this Christmas season. There is no manger, no shepherds, no star caught in the corner of the night sky. Instead, we are carried back before memory, before time, before the ache and beauty of human history, all the way into the deep waters of “In the beginning.” John stretches our imagination beyond sentiment and nostalgia, asking us to see Christmas as something far more expansive than a single holy night. This is not merely the story of God coming to one place, but of God holding all things together from the very start.

“In the beginning was the Word.”

The Greek term John uses here is Logos. It is deeply layered with meaning. It is speech, yes, but it is also more than speech. It is reason, coherence, pattern, and deep meaning. It is the divine logic through which reality itself is spoken into being. For Jewish hearers shaped by the Hebrew Scriptures, this would have sounded familiar. The Logos of John echoes Sophia, which is God’s Wisdom, which is often personified as a woman (Prov. 1:20). In the book of Proverbs, she stands beside God at creation, delighting in the world as it comes into being (Prov. 8). Wisdom is not an afterthought in Scripture, she is present at the foundation of things, ordering all chaos into life.

John’s Gospel quietly gathers these streams, Logos and Sophia, Word and Wisdom, and then proclaims that this divine wisdom is not distant. The logic of God does not remain abstract or inaccessible. The Word through whom all things were made enters the story.

Became Flesh​
​

Again, this is where John presses us further than our Christmas instincts often allow. “The Word became flesh.” Not man. Not male. Flesh. The Greek word for flesh (sarx) carries weight and vulnerability. Flesh is frailty. Flesh is interconnectedness. Flesh is the shared condition of creaturely life. John’s claim is staggering: God does not merely visit humanity, God joins the web of embodied life itself.

This matters deeply for how we understand incarnation. If we imagine “flesh” too narrowly, as only one body, one gender, one culture, we miss the breadth of what John is proclaiming. Flesh is all of humanity in its diversity. Flesh is life lived in finite limits. Flesh is breath and blood, joy and grief, strength and exhaustion. The Word becomes flesh not to sanctify one kind of body, but to honor embodied existence itself.

Before the Word becomes flesh, John tells us that “the light shines in the darkness.” This light is not introduced first in Bethlehem, but in creation itself. Like Genesis, John reminds us that light precedes order, hope precedes form, and grace precedes deserving. The cosmos itself is already illuminated by God’s presence before human eyes ever behold it. Christmas, then, is not God’s first entry into the world, it is the most intimate one.

A God Who Enters In For All

This reshapes our imagination in a season so often reduced to sentiment. Christmas is not about God favoring a few, but about God committing to all. The incarnation is God’s refusal to abandon the world God loves. It is grace that does not hover above suffering but takes it on. Grace that moves toward the vulnerable, not away from them.

John closes the prologue with breathtaking promise: from this fullness, we receive “grace upon grace.” Not scarcity. Not fear. Not competition. Grace layered upon grace, gift flowing from gift. In a world organized around us-versus-them, domination, and control, this is a radically different vision of reality.

If all things were made through the Word, then nothing is outside God’s concern. If the Word became flesh, then no human being is disposable. To follow Jesus, then, is not simply to believe the right things, but to learn how to see rightly, to look for God not only in sanctuaries and Scriptures, but in neighbors, strangers, enemies, and the wounded places of the world.

This understanding of the incarnation must sit at the center of our theology, our beliefs, and our relationships. It calls us to resist every narrative that reduces people to categories, threats, or problems to be managed. It invites us to recognize that when we encounter another human being, we are standing on holy ground—ground created by the Word who became flesh.

To confess Christ is to commit ourselves to a way of life marked by reverence rather than rivalry, presence rather than fear, love rather than control.

​
​Practices for Living the Incarnation

• Practice holy attention. Each day, intentionally notice one place where God’s presence is reflected in another person, especially someone different from you.
• Resist dehumanizing language. Refuse speech that flattens people into labels or enemies.
• Practice embodied love. Let your faith take form through hospitality, generosity, and care for those whose dignity is overlooked.
• Widen your imagination. Read Scripture and live your life with the assumption that God is already at work beyond the boundaries you can see.

A Prayer

Word of God,
Before time, you were.
Before fear, you spoke light.
You became flesh and made your home among us.

Teach us to see what you see.
Soften our hearts where we have learned suspicion.
Expand our imaginations where they have grown small.
Help us recognize your presence
in every face, every body, every story.

In a world addicted to division,
make us witnesses of grace.
In a culture of control,
shape us by love.

May the light that no darkness can overcome
shine through us for the healing of the world you so love.

Amen.

Now I'd like to hear from you! Did you find this helpful? What thoughts came to your mind as you read? Feel free to respond to this email and share your thoughts with me. I look forward to reading them. A 30 Day Devotional: I recently wrote a daily devotional in hopes to provide a companion for people seeking to follow Jesus in our world today. You can read more about it here: $20.00 Following Jesus In A World Obsessed With Empires: 30 Days of reclaiming the hope, compassion, and justice of Jesus. Today, our world can often feel overwhelmed by darkness, division, and despair. I created this 30-day devotional to... Read more Get it now! ​ Ways to support: If you'd like to support this project, you can do so through one-time-gift of any amount you feel is right. You can also subscribe through a $5/mo, $15/mo, or $25/mo. Several others have also asked for a recurring gift option that is different from the ones offered here, like this one. If you'd like me to set up a different option for you, please just send me an email with the word "support" in the subject line. As always, I really want to thank all of you for reading and for all the ways you support me and this project every single week. I'm thankful for the ways we are building this together and hope it creates a lasting, positive change in our world along the way! I sincerely appreciate you all, Ben Remember, you can now view this and all previous newsletters as well as invite friends to join through this link: https://benjamin-cremer.ck.page/profile.

​