In Isaiah 40:4, the Lord promises that there will be a great flattening when the Messiah comes. He says that the valleys will be lifted up and the mountains made low.
The World is Flat
In this Western city it can be seen in one way that, as Milton Friedman wrote, “The World is Flat”, meaning that a global culture can be found everywhere. So here, there is a billboard of Leonardo DiCaprio selling watches on one side of the street and Kentucky Fried Chicken on the other.
But this is not the way that the world is flat according to the gospel. Now as John the Baptist prepared the way of the Lord, he cried out in the desert to “make his paths straight” (Mark 1:1-3). The arrival of Jesus Christ as the long awaited messiah means that this Western city is not merely flattened for global McDonaldization. It is flat because the highway of holiness (Isa 35:8) has been made by Jesus Christ, God Incarnate who said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but through me” (John 14:6).
Opening the City Gates
In this city that was an ancient stopover on the caravan routes trading silk and spices, there has always been a flattening of peoples and cultures from north south east and west.
But today, according to the gospel, the rough places are made a plain, and the city gates are welcoming the King of glory, the LORD of hosts (Psalm 24:1-10).
Today we live in a flat world with open gates. Who knows where the message of good news in Jesus Christ will go?
