+ Don Lee Leifheit "

Valleys and Mountaintops

A coin has two sides. When you see one side, you don’t see the other. In a similar way the Bible gives us different sides or pictures of life.

In Psalm 23 David portrays his life on earth as he is blessed and guided by God toward eternity in God’s house.

John in Revelation 7 points to life going on right now in heaven.

Jesus tells us in John 10 that he is the link connecting the two realities, making them one reality with a great future.

David in Psalm 23 says, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death . . . ”

Our whole life is lived under the shadow of the enemy called death.

Life has its joys and celebrations—marriages and births, graduations and promotions, barbecues and banquets. Yet it is also lived under a shadow, an overcast sky, the pall of death that lies ahead and won’t go away even when we celebrate and laugh. Mark Twain said he would look in the paper each morning to make sure his name was not in the obituaries.

Don and Gwen spent 65 years of love together. Yet, during the last Don was not the same. His memory wasn’t was it was. He was changing. Whether we are 20, 50, or 80, our bodies suffer the effects of living in a world that is in bondage to decay. God did not create this world and us to suffer in life that way. But ever since the transgression of Adam and Eve, which caused this world’s fall into sin and death, human life—and indeed all life on earth—is lived out in the valley of the shadow of death.

And when that shadow creeps over a loved one, and the enemy called death has its way, we who are left feel torn apart as one life is cut off from the rest of us who yet live. The hope of enjoying another day together and of doing things tomorrow is taken away. We feel a void, an emptiness.

The journey through the valley in shadow can seem like a lonesome walk that ends in isolation, defeat, and despair. But we who are in Christ have God’s promise that we do not walk alone. With us walks a Friend who has trod this same path before us. He is the Good Shepherd who stands beside us today in our grief to give us guidance and direction.

The Shepherd whom David confessed as his Lord deliberately strode into the shadowy valley. He left the brilliance of heaven, descended to earth, was conceived by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and thus took upon himself our human form and became one of us, though without sin.

His perfect life was a display of God’s merciful love and care for all people.

He exercised his power to forgive sin and overcome death, disease, and the devil. He healed the sick, raised the dead, and cast out demons.

His ministry led to the cross. There, the sinless Lamb of God was made to be sin for us. God laid on this Righteous One the sin of all humanity. He died in our place as a sacrifice pleasing to the Father. God accepted his fragrant offering, and Jesus was raised to life.

After showing himself alive to his apostles and followers, he ascended to heaven and is now seated at the right hand of the Father. He has averted divine wrath from us and brought us grace.

David, the faithful king and a man after God’s own heart, looks to the Lord as his ever–present Shepherd, who walks with him through the valley.

“He makes me lie down in green pastures.” He grants times of rest—physical, emotional, and spiritual.

“He leads me beside quiet waters.” A serene lake or the smooth flow of a meandering river can quiet jangled nerves and soothe a tormented and troubled heart. The Lord gives tranquility, especially as we drop our line into our favorite fishing hole. It is here that He reminds us of the life-giving waters of Holy Baptism, poured over us in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to give us peace with God and hope for eternity. And one day these remains will be raised to new and eternal life in Christ. We are baptized into Christ’s death, and into his resurrection.

“He restores my soul.” There are times when we may feel alienated from God, as if he has forgotten us. Yet the Lord promises to restore and renew us. The Spirit poured out on us in Baptism renews our spirits.

“He guides me in paths of righteousness for the sake of his name.” In our pilgrimage of life, our sin and the principalities and powers of this present darkness threaten to lead us astray. But our Lord is at work within us, moving us to will and to act according to his good pleasure. God guides us past danger and temptation in our daily life.

The psalmist’s prayerful poem is directed toward Jesus Christ, the one who is preparing a place for us. As we are gathered here in Jesus name, He is present to hear our pleas for help in the hour of our grief. “Call upon me in the day of trouble,” he said, promising, “I will deliver you” (Ps 50:15). Again he said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28).

We are not alone as we traverse the valley of the shadow. The Lord Jesus has walked it before and is walking it with us today.

Let’s change scenes now. We move from the valley to the mountaintop, to the other side of the coin, where people are living with God in the next life. John takes us there.

We see a great multitude that no one can count, from every tribe and nation, people and language. They are standing before the throne and before the Lamb. Revelation 7:9

And who are these people, this great multitude? They are those who have come out of the great tribulation—that is, out of the sufferings of this life, through the valley of the shadow of death. They are those who have passed through and are now on the other side of the valley. We cannot see them, except in memory. But through the apostle John, God has given us a vision of their joyful glory. Your loved one—Don—has laid aside the burdens and battles, the stresses and strains of valley—walking. Your loved one has joined the great multitude in the throne room of heaven.

What enables them to stand in the unveiled presence of God? Those who enter before the throne have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb (Rev 7:14). They have been washed in Baptism. That washing applies to them the cleansing power of the shed blood of Jesus Christ. They have been given faith by the power of the Holy Spirit poured out on them, and with that faith they have received the forgiveness of sins achieved by Jesus on the cross for all humankind. They have received the Savior and his new resurrection life. He died in the valley that they might live on the mountain.

If there were a window into heaven, we might see Don standing there among the white—robed saints. He believed in the Lord Jesus, the only Savior from sin. His robes were washed in the blood of Jesus. Upon death last Thursday, he came out of the valley of tribulation into eternal life on the mountain top.

And these white-robed saints are singing with special, sevenfold exhilaration: “Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!”

They sing because the Lamb at the center of the throne is their Shepherd. He leads them to springs of living water. He wipes away every tear from their eyes. The process of dying produces many tears, both by those who are passing onward and by those left behind. But Jesus, the Good Shepherd, will wipe away all tears with his love.

And these saints, they sing because they have been freed from all pain and sorrow. Their place in glory is secure forever.

We can join them in singing. By God’s grace, our destination is with the white-robed saints. We are confident in God’s promise that soon we too will join all of God’s saints in glory, and remain with them forever and ever. We look to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. His position is before the throne of his Father as our advocate, our mediator. He pleads for us. He has prepared a place for us among the throng gathered before the Father.

We started in the valley and then moved to the mountaintop. Now we come to Jesus’ words in the gospel of John.

He has a word about the present age in which we live. Jesus said, “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd” (Jn 10:16).

When he first spoke those words, his apostles and most of his followers were Jewish believers. Jesus spoke of a time when many from the rest of the world’s nations—Gentiles—would be brought into his flock. In this age of the Christian church, all people—of every nationality, ethnic origin, race, and language—are now welcome in the flock of his followers.

In the Creed, we confess that we believe in the one holy Christian church. That is an article of faith, rather than something we can observe now. Nevertheless, in Christ all believers comprise one flock with one Shepherd. Paul the apostle reminds us, “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called—one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Eph 4:4–6).

Don has that one true faith in the Lord. On earth he listened to the Shepherd’s voice. We can look forward to seeing him again, since the saints alive on earth and the white—robed saints of heaven will one day be together in a new heaven and earth united under Christ, the Head (Eph 1:10).

Jesus looks forward to the time of his return. He will come down out of heaven (1 Thess 4:16; Rev 21:2) with all his holy angels. In a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, at the sound of the last trumpet, the dead will be raised with imperishable and immortal bodies (1 Cor 15:52), and all those still in this vanishing valley of the shadow of death will also be changed. And all of us who are in Christ Jesus will be gathered into one flock, united with our Shepherd and Lamb, Jesus.

The 23rd Psalm beautifully portrays our life today, but the rest of our readings today show us the other side of that coin, what is going on in heaven right now. And what is happening around the throne of God right now, Don is experiencing for himself. Don has left this valley of the shadow of death, and is now in that place all believers will one day enjoy, in the very presence of God, where all tears are wiped from our faces.

I pray that these words of the Lord may encourage you in your living faith and also in your hope that we will all be together with the Lord Jesus forever.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.