"The man who is God's own Word, does not send forth His radiant light from afar, encountering the "darkness" of other men as a king, hero or sage; but the Light that "shines in the darkness" is an ordinary man and gives light to ordinary people. … The Word of God is where we ourselves are, not where we should perhaps like to be, on one of those heights to which by some luck and strong effort we might attain; He is where we really are, whether we are king or beggar, in our torn condition in which we who face death appear—in the "flesh.""
— Karl Barth
Source: Christmas (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1959), on John 1:14