The Word Made Flesh: A Movement Into The Wilderness Space

Why does understanding John’s intent on reflecting a new Genesis and a new Exodus important for grappling with the idea of the incarnation?

John 1:1-5
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.

Genesis 1:1;3
1 When God began to create…3 God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Some observations
The Word is something that is described as being spoken, meaning it emanates from the source (God). As scholar Carmen Imes points out in her book Bearing Gods Image, in the ancient world, which functioned according go Patriarchal terms, they understood a son to bear the image of the Father, meaning a son is an exact likeness of the Father.

A Word however also, as it says in the verses above, creates. In gives life. It gives light. It is the animating property of creation. Gods speaking is Gods presence. It has Power in and of itself. And in the Hebrew terminology it is often personified, something John is playing off of in writing His Gospel to a Greek world.

If such a “Word” then “becomes flesh”, what does this mean? That God simply procreates? Gives birth to a son? Although Jesus takes on bodily form, this would be misapplying the language of flesh. One of the key questions is, what did “flesh” mean to an ancient Jew? Unlike common perceptions, N.T. Wright notes in his book Into the Heart of Romans that flesh meant not fleshly body in contrast to the spirit, but rather the reality enslaved to Sin and Death itself. Flesh means to be present where Sin and Death dwell, or it means the presence of Sin and Death. Thus for the Word to become flesh, it means the Word takes up its presence where Sin and Death hold reign. Occupying this space means that he experiences the result of Sjn and Death- decay, suffering.

The Son in this sense is not a created being but the very Word that emanates from God and dwells among us in a world defined by the presence of Sin and Death. The reason why this does not divide God into different natures is because the Word emanates from the source itself. It is the very Word of God, meaning the very presence and lifeforce of God that takes residence in the wilderness space with us.