“And the WORD became Flesh and dwelt amongst us.” John 1:14
The Word that God sent… was His Son. The Word was Jesus and Jesus did not return to the Father “empty”, but He accomplished everything the Father sent Him to do.
The thing that sets Christianity apart from all other world religions is that the Bible tells us that
God stepped down out of heaven.
He lived among us and taught and healed and prayed with people.
He died on the cross for our sins.
He rose from the grave and conquered death so that we would know that the grave could no longer hold us.
Without that truth… we have nothing to offer. Without Jesus, our Bible is just an empty book filled with rules and regulations... just like everybody else. But because of Jesus, we have something the world and all its world religions can NOT offer. We have the story of a God who loved us so deeply He gave us His only begotten Son that whosoever should believe in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life. John Stott had this to say about the power of simply being religious vs. the power of Jesus. He wrote:

I have looked on the lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in god forsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us.

In Matthew 1:21 the angel told Mary “… you are to give Him the name Jesus (meaning Savior), because He will save his people from their sins.”  That is the Word that makes all the difference.  

Jesus.
The Word that saves us from our sins.