Old Testament
Isaiah 40:3-5
3 The voice of one who calls out, “Prepare the way of the LORD in the wilderness! Make a level highway in the desert for our God.
4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain.
5 The LORD’s glory shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.”
New Testament
Matthew 3:1-3
1 In those days, John the Baptiser came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying,
2 “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!”
3 For this is he who was spoken of by Isaiah the prophet, saying, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, make the way of the Lord ready! Make his paths straight!”
Isaiah speaks to a people who have learned the taste of exile. Into that wilderness comes a voice, not offering cleverness but a command: “Prepare the way of the LORD.” Valleys lifted, hills made low, rough ground smoothed. The image is not cosmetic. It is repentance made public: obstacles removed so that God’s coming is not blocked by our crookedness. The landscape changes so that the King’s coming can be seen.
Matthew shows John the Baptist taking that prophetic cry into flesh and voice. He stands in the wilderness, calling for repentance, as though the first preparation for the King is not pageantry but honesty.
We are used to thinking of “the way” as our private spiritual life. Yet the prophets speak of pathways that whole communities walk: the habits that become normal, the structures that become unquestioned, the shortcuts that become expected. There are roads that keep some neighbours out of reach.
So we ask God to straighten our ways: not only our secret sins, but our shared evasions. We pray for public life where burdens are not quietly shifted onto the vulnerable. And we pray to become a people ready for Christ: less defensive, more truthful, more willing to make room for his glory among us.