John the Baptist grew up in the desert, appearing on the scene shortly before Jesus began his ministry. He traveled the countryside near Judea preaching repentance and baptizing those who confessed their sins. As prophesied by his father Zechariah, John was to go before Jesus and “prepare the way for him, to give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins.” (Luke 1:76-77)

Because John was widely known and had a great many followers, the Jews sent priests and Levites to him to find out his identity. Some thought he was Elijah and others thought he was the Christ. When asked who he was, he “confessed freely, I am not the Christ.” (John 1: 20) He drew the attention away from himself and pointed directly to Jesus. When he saw Jesus, he said “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” and then sent his disciples to follow Jesus (John 1:29) He knew Jesus must become greater, and he must become less. (John 3:30)

He understood his purpose as “the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.'” He knew that for people to accept Jesus and His’ gift of salvation, they must first prepare their hearts. Isaiah 40:3-5 is a call for just that:

A voice of one calling:
“In the wilderness prepare
    the way for the Lord
make straight in the desert
    a highway for our God.
 Every valley shall be raised up,
    every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
    the rugged places a plain.
 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
    and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

Make straight in the desert a highway for our God

Prior to eastern princes marching through unchartered territory, it was common for men to go ahead of the royalty and prepare the highway. John the Baptist was the voice of the one calling his people to prepare their hearts for the Lord Jesus. He was calling them to repentance. In the same way, we are called to prepare the highway of our hearts for Jesus so that we can receive Him and the salvation He offers all who believe in His name.

Every valley shall be raised up

Some of us struggle with raising up the low places in our heart. We are mired down by shame and guilt and that shame and guilt keeps us from making a straight way for Jesus. We think we must stop sinning before we come to Him. This is not true. Jesus came for the sinner. Jesus himself said “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28) We do not have to be free from our sin before we come to Jesus. We simply must be willing to go to those low, desolate valleys of our heart and bring the sin up and place it at Jesus’ feet. It does not matter what the sin is, the cross had made us flawless.

Every mountain and hill made low

For some of us, our pride raises us up and keeps us from making a straight way for Jesus. We think that we do not need Jesus or his forgiveness. We do not see the true nature of our sin. We think we are good enough. Only until we realize the true nature of Jesus and His absolute goodness, can we see our sin. We must be willing to bring our mountain of pride down and bow low at the feet of the only perfect One.

The rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain

And for all of us, there are other things keeping us from making a way for Jesus. These things are the things in life that we love more than Him. These are the things that become rough ground and rugged places on the highway of our heart. These things can include selfishness, love of money, love of worldly things, unbelief…for each of us, these are different. We must be willing to dig these things up, leveling and smoothing the highway of our heart for Jesus.

And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
    and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken

John the Baptist came calling in the wilderness for his people to repent and ready their hearts. He was just a voice, a witness to Jesus, testifying that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. He could have reveled in the praise of the people, but instead he pointed them to the Lamb of God. He made every mountain and hill in his heart low and bowed at the feet of the one who came after him, but was greater than him, Jesus.

Not only should we continually prepare our hearts for Jesus, but we, as John the Baptist was a witness, should be witnesses for Christ. We should be the voice of one calling into the wilderness of lost hearts “Make straight the way for the Lord.” Although we may not have John the Baptist’s lineage or the seal of a miraculous birth, we can still be credible witnesses by how we live our lives. Like John the Baptist, we should direct the attention from ourselves to Jesus: we should point to the One who we owe everything to, the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world and then and only then will the “glory of the Lord” “be revealed, and all people will see it together.”