“Make straight the way!” is the cry of St. John the Baptist. “Make straight the way of the Lord.”

This way is a new exodus. Just as God led his people out of Egypt through Moses, now Jesus is coming to lead us out of our sins. He has to “straighten the way” because it is filled with hills and holes that we can’t level alone:

In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
    make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up,
    and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level. (Isa 40:3-4)

The way of repentance is difficult. It is filled with obstacles like our past habits, our own pride, our friends who might expect us just to keep living the way that we always have. Besides, there are real persecutions, hatred, mocking, and public disadvantages for living justly. It is hard to live rightly. It is hard to move forward on the journey.

This brings us to the tension. Jesus has already come, so why should the way still be so difficult? Did Jesus fail to make our way straight?

Jesus gives us a hint toward an answer when he walks on the water. One of the important ways that God “straightened the way” for the Hebrews in that first exodus was in the crossing of the Red Sea. God made a way through the sea, letting his people cross on dry ground in the midst of the sea (Exod 14). But when the Lord sends his disciples across violent water, when they are rowing, struggling in the middle of the sea, in the deep of the night, he helps them in a different way. He comes to them, walking on the sea, wanting to pass by them, to lead the way to the other side (Mk 6:45-52).

In that first exodus, God straightens the way quite literally by removing the obstacle. The sea parts, leaving dry land. In our new exodus, Jesus straightens the way more mysteriously: he makes the way passable even though the obstacle remains. Jesus’ way leads straight across the choppy sea.

Jesus is coming—the expectation grows in these last days of Advent. We await the one who makes straight the way. But he isn’t coming to change the way under our feet—he comes to transform us, to make us able to walk with him through the dark and storm. Only with his help can we make this journey, but he has promised to give this help to us:

But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
    they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
    they shall walk and not faint. (Isa 40:31)

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Image from the book, Jesus of Nazareth (1869), by Lyman Abbott