Ray Pritchard - In the shadow of the cross : the deeper meaning of Calvary

TheDeeper Meaning of calvary

Raypritchard

Broadman & holmanpublishers

Nashville,Tennessee

2001by Ray Pritchard All rights reserved Printed in theUnited States of America

0-8054-2341-9

Publishedby Broadman & Holman Publishers, Nashville,Tennessee

DeweyDecimal Classification: 232 Subject Heading:SPIRITUALITY

Unlessotherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from theHoly Bible, New International Version, Other versions are identified bythefollowing acronyms: KJV, King James Version. NASB, the New AmericanStandardBible, the Lockman Foundation, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972,1973, 1975,1977; used by permission. NEB, The New English Bible, The Delegatesof theOxford University Press and the Syndics of the Cambridge UniversityPress,1961, 1970, reprinted by permission. NKJV, New King James Version,copyright 1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers. NLT, New LivingTranslation,copyright 1996. Used by permission ofTyndale House Publishers, Inc.,Wheaton, Illinois 60189.

Allrights Reserved.

Libraryof Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Pritchard,Ray, 1952-

Inthe shadow of the cross : the deeper meaning of Calvary /Ray Pritchard.

p.cm. ISBN 0-8054-2341-9

1.Jesus ChristCrucifixion. 2. Holy Cross. I. Title.

BT453.P752001 232.96dc21

00-052889

23 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 05 04 03 02 01

Dedicatedto Greg and Carolyn Kirschner and to Christine,Katie, Stephanie, and Jonathan, who have laid down their lives to takethemessage of the cross to the people of Nigeria.

Contents

9. He Became Sin forUs:
What theCross Meant to Christ

10.One LittleWord Shall Fell Him":
What theCross Meant to Satan

11.The Fool onthe Hill:
What theCross Means to the World

12. OurCrucified God:
What theCross Means to the Church

13. Freeat Last!
The Crossand Our Sin

14. Worthyis the Lamb:
The Crossin Heaven

AClosing Word:
Lingering at the Foot of the Cross

Introduction

Afew years ago my brother Alan purchased an unused churchcamp not farfrom the Natchez Trace in northern Mississippi. The site covered 110acres,including a fourteen-acre lake stocked with hundreds of fish. Becausetheproperty had been neglected for about five years, everything haddeteriorated.The levee leading to the conference center had washed out, windows werebroken,floors had buckled, and the cabins were falling apart. Weeds had takenover aonce well-manicured lawn. While on an inspection tour of the property,mybrother and I bumped into something lying on the ground. I thought itwas a logbut it turned out to be a railroad tie. We cleared away the brush anddiscovered a twelve-foot wooden cross that once stood sentinel by thelake. Noone knew or cared that the cross had fallen to the ground.

Thefallen cross stands as a symbol for thespiritual condition of the church of Jesus Christ in the early days ofthetwenty-first century. In many places and, sad to say, in many churches,thecross has fallen to the ground. Instead of boasting in the cross, wehaveneglected it, substituting in its place religious activity andtherapeuticlanguage designed to help us feel better aboutourselves.If the cross has fallen from the steeple of toomany churches, we have only ourselves to blame. A generation ago therewas amovement afoot to remove from our hymnbooks all the songs that spokeabout theblood of Christ. Thankfully, that movement has come and gone, but thetemptation is always with us to minimize or trivialize what happenedwhenChrist died one Friday afternoon on a hill outside the walls ofJerusalem twothousand years ago. It is precisely because the event seems so remotefrom ourmodern world that we are easily tempted to talk of anything else butthe crossof Christ.

Andyet, when the story is truly told, itmust be said that Christianity is supremely the religion of the cross.At thecenter of our faith a dying man hangs suspended between heaven andearth. Whois he? Why is he there? What are those words he is speaking? What doesit allmean? I wrote this book in an attempt to investigate those fundamentalquestions. Although I had been a Christian for more than thirty years,and apastor for more than twenty years, and although I knew the details ofGoodFriday quite well, I had given little thought to the deeper meaning ofthecross. That simple desire started me on a personal journey that led tothisbook.

Someoneonce complained to famed Englishpreacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon that all his sermons sounded alike."Andwell they should," he replied. "First I take a text," he said,"and then I make a beeline for the cross." A quick perusal of hissermons shows how true those words are. In the same way I am trying tomake a"beeline" for the cross by looking at it from manyperspectivesabove, below, from the side, and from the perspective offuturegenerations.

Ihave written this book in two parts. Part1, "The Voice from the Cross," deals with the seven sayings of Christon the cross.

SinceJesus knew he was dying, his last words convey aspecial meaning to us. They tell us what he was thinking and feeling ashislife ebbed away. Part 2, "The Deeper Meaning of the Cross,"investigates the cross from various perspectives in order that we mightbehold,as one might hold a diamond up to the light, the many facets of truththatshine outward from Calvary.

Iam keenly aware that the greatest mindsin history have pondered the meaning of the cross and have shared theirdiscoveriesin a river of books, hymns, paintings, and other magnificent works ofart. Ipossess no special qualification to join the ranks of those who havelingeredat the cross except that I too share their faith in the One who diedthere. In1825 John Bowring wrote, "In the cross of Christ I glory, towering o'erthe wrecks of time." Those words remain true today. The cross of Christendures while the wrecks of time come and go, vanishing into the mistofhistory.

Iam grateful to Len Goss of Broadman &Holman for his help and encouragement on this project. And specialthanks aredue to David and ClarLyn Morris, who loaned me the use of their cottageon theFox River while I was finishing this manuscript.

Thisis not a book of heavy theology. Itstone is scriptural, and its aim is practical and devotional. Christiansof alldenominations unite around the cross because, without it, our faith isjustanother religion. I hope by my writing to "lift him up" so that thereader will love the Lord Jesus and remember with new appreciation thatwe oweeverything to the work he accomplished when he died on the cross somany yearsago.

"Sothe soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross,he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is calledGolgotha).Here they crucified him, and with him two others one on each side andJesus inthe middle." John 19:16b-18