Cross on a Hill: A Personal, Historical, and Biblical Search for the True Meaning of a Controversial Symbol

By Slavko Hadzic, Joshua Irby and Michael Green

A devastating war, a burning cross, a crime network, and a victorious general--these are some of the many threads Hadžić and Irby weave together to clarify one of history's most misunderstood symbols: the cross.

The authors interweave Hadžić's story with that of the cross in a way that seeks to rescue the true meaning of the cross from its misrepresentations and misuses throughout history. The result is a compelling tapestry that illuminates the transformative power of one of the most complex and controversial symbols in today's global community.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Release date: Oct 31, 2018
• ISBN: 9781532663581

Slavko Hadzic

Slavko Hadžić is the pastor of a local church in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, a regional coordinator for Langham Preaching International, and a frequent speaker on university campuses throughout Europe.

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Cross on a Hill

A Personal, Historical, and Biblical Search for the True Meaning of a Controversial Symbol

Slavko Hadžić and Joshua Irby

Foreword by Michael Green

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Cross on a Hill

A Personal, Historical, and Biblical Search for the True Meaning of a Controversial Symbol

Copyright ©

2018

Slavko Hadžić and Joshua Irby. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers,

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Resource Publications

An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

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www.wipfandstock.com

paperback isbn: 978-1-5326-6356-7

hardcover isbn: 978-1-5326-6357-4

ebook isbn: 978-1-5326-6358-1

Manufactured in the U.S.A.

10/05/18

Table of Contents

Title Page

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Pronunciation Guide

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Madness of Youth

Chapter 2: The Spite Cross

Chapter 3: Beautiful or Ghastly?

Chapter 4: The Thunder of War

Chapter 5: The Fiery Cross

Chapter 6: Inclusive or Exclusive?

Chapter 7: Refugee Days

Chapter 8: The Red Cross

Chapter 9: Necessary or Unnecessary?

Chapter 10: Signs and Wonders

Chapter 11: The True Cross

Chapter 12: Life or Death?

Chapter 13: Homecoming

Chapter 14: The Pilgrims of the Cross

Chapter 15: Burden or Calling?

Chapter 16: New Priorities

Chapter 17: The Sign of the Cross

Chapter 18: Victory or Failure?

Chapter 19: The Storm after the Calm

Chapter 20: The Shame of the Cross

Chapter 21: Honor or Shame?

Chapter 22: He Is Everything to Me

Chapter 23: The Merciless Cross

Chapter 24: Suffering or Glory?

Chapter 25: Retrospect

Conclusion

Foreword

He is tall, broad, dark, and strong. You would be wary of crossing him on a dark night. You would not be surprised to hear that he had been a boss in the Mafia, a soldier, a refugee, and a convinced atheist. But that could be your introduction to Slavko Hadžić, the gentle giant who is now a pastor in war-torn Sarajevo. He has been a friend of mine for several years: we tend to partner up in evangelistic missions in universities in UK and Europe. He is one of the most effective evangelists I know, a reaper in God’s harvest. I have never heard him give an evangelistic address where people have not immediately been drawn to Christian commitment. Such is the author of this book.

Published in Bosnian in 2017, it has been speedily translated into English. He has written it in partnership with an American friend who has long lived in the Balkans, Josh Irby, and together they have produced one of the most fascinating approaches to the cross of Jesus Christ that I have ever read—and I have read scores. Drawing on the biblical proverb A threefold cord is not quickly broken, they set before us and skillfully interweave three threads. One is the astounding story of Slavko himself. A second is an historical appraisal of what the cross can mean to different cultures and peoples. And the third strand is a closer look at what the Bible teaches about its variegated meanings.

The style is immensely attractive. It’s the sort of book that grabs you: when you pick it up, it is hard to put it down. It is immensely accessible—a real page-turner for atheist, agnostic, Christian, or anyone else. It simply bristles with intriguing stories and scintillating illustrations but never deviates from the main purpose of trying to find out and explain what the cross of Jesus means. The very fact that it brings a Bosnian perspective makes it very fresh for the English reader, who will often be surprised by the learning in its pages—always offered with a light touch. There is nothing pious or churchy about the book. It is warm, honest, wide-ranging, and disarming, and it draws you into its story. I commend it very warmly and can hardly think of any type of reader who would not be hooked by it.

Rev. Dr. Michael Green, Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University

Acknowledgements

It has been a long journey from the initial idea for this book to its realization. We believe it was God who inspired the concept, who strengthened our hands for the work, and who guided our steps from the first thought to the final product you now hold. Above all, we thank God that this book has seen the light of day.

We also want to thank our families, without whom it would have been impossible to write this book. We are grateful for the love, understanding, and advice of our wives, Sanja and Taylor, and our children, Jovana, David, Israel, Elijah, Adeline and Zoe.

The eight chapters of this book that explore the Biblical perspective of the cross were adapted from eight sermons we preached, over the course of two months, in the Evangelical Church Koševsko Brdo in Sarajevo. We thank the members of the church for their feedback that allowed us to improve and transfer those sermons onto the pages of this book.

We also want to thank our dear friends who read the chapters of this book as they were forming and gave us helpful input. Among those are Mark Meynell, Karmelo and Ivon Kresonja, Michael Brent, Jelena Miličević, Jennifer Bliss, Ante Miliša, Matt Henning, and Rick and Katie James.

Finally, we are thankful that God has brought the two of us together. As Dr. Petar Kuzmić wrote in an endorsement for the Bosnian edition of this book, it is rare that a Bosnian and American write a book together. It has been a journey of mutual encouragement and support, one lifting the other through discouragement and difficulty. God has given us the love, patience, and understanding required to bring this book to completion.

Even though only two names are on the cover of this book, we gratefully acknowledge the many others—family and friends, brothers and sisters—who contributed to this work. Thank you for helping make this moment possible.

Slavko Hadžić and Joshua Irby

Sarajevo, August 2018

Pronunciation Guide

Throughout the book, where possible, we have maintained the local spelling of names and places. Since the Bosnian language is based on a phonetic alphabet, it is fairly easy to pronounce once the sounds are mastered. Here are a few of the special characters you will encounter in the following pages:

c as in the ts in cats

č as in the first ch in church

ć as in the second ch in church

dž as in the j in joke

đ similar to the j in juice but softer

j as in the y in yellow

lj similar to the l in volume

nj similar to the ny in canyon

š as in the sh in ship

ž as in the s in measure

Introduction

It was a foggy winter day, February 2015, and we were on a hill outside of Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina. For a moment, the clouds parted and we could see the city far below in the valley. It was in this city that we met—Slavko, a transplant from the southern region of the country, and Josh, a transplant from the southeast region of America. We were unlikely friends, from two countries, two cultures, and two languages. Yet, we were brought together by what some consider the most controversial and misunderstood symbol in the world—the cross.

That day we had escaped the busyness of the city to reflect and discuss the idea of writing a book together about the cross. As we stood on the hilltop looking down at the city, we could not ignore the challenges of such an endeavor. Two decades earlier, the same hill was used as a bunker from which soldiers lobbed grenades into the city below. In the 90s, Yugoslavia was pulled apart by nationalism and ethnic division. Battle lines were often drawn by religious distinctions—Serbian Orthodox versus Croatian Catholic versus Bosniak Muslim. Sarajevo, like many other cities, was caught in the middle. Over 100,000 people in the country died in a war that is still misunderstood and debated today. As we walked among the ruins of the bunker, we acknowledged that the cross was also a victim of the war. Its meaning has been distorted and maimed. We decided, for the sake of the cross that brought us together, we must write this book. But the question remained, can the true meaning of the cross be rescued from its misuse and misrepresentation throughout history?

Because of historical and personal experience, people have vastly different reactions to the cross. Some people fall to their knees in reverent worship, while others react with anger and repulsion. Some make crosses of gold and wear them around their necks, while others ban their use from the public arena in the name of tolerance. How do you approach a topic as complicated as the cross?

There is an ancient proverb that says, A cord of three strands is not easily broken. To strengthen the discussion of the cross in this book, we have woven together three strands. In the first strand, Slavko tells his story of life upended by tragedy and war. In the second strand, Josh traces the historical evolution of the cross as a symbol from an instrument of death to a sign of identity. In the third strand, together we turn to the Bible in search of the true meaning of the cross. We hope these strands create a three-dimensional picture of this controversial symbol and illuminate the true meaning of the cross.

To guide you along these three paths, we have given each thread a unique symbol to help you distinguish whether you are reading story, history, or theology. As you weave in and out of time periods and tones, we hope you realize how the past influences the present and how the present influences the future. While Slavko’s story follows the natural chronological order of a memoir, we have taken a different approach with the historical thread. Starting with today, we work backwards through time, uncovering the events that shape current perspectives on the cross. Finally, we examine these ideas related to the cross—the cross as a sign of victory, suffering, exclusivity, life, shame—through the lens of the Bible. We have provided footnotes for biblical references so it will be easier to read the relevant stories or passages in context. While we have worked hard to weave these strands together in a way that builds the argument, we understand that some readers may prefer to read one strand at a time. We leave it to your discretion and hope we have made it easier with the formatting.

In this book we write, unabashedly, from the vantage point of the Balkans. This is the region we both call home and the location that inspired us to write this book. Over the last two decades, large crosses have appeared on hills above cities in this area. Each time a new project is undertaken and a new cross planned, part of the community cheers while another part protests. If the true meaning of the cross can be unraveled in the Balkans, a place long associated with division and disagreement, then perhaps the cross can rise above the confusion clouding it. The issue of the cross is a global one. It is a symbol that cannot be avoided. And understanding the true meaning of the cross might just open the door to a new perspective on life.

That February day on a hill outside of Sarajevo when we decided to write this book we knew it required honesty and courage. We want to ask the same from you. When you turn this page, you will join a conversation about the most controversial symbol in history. While it is natural to avoid such difficult conversations, we often find the most meaningful discoveries arise from them. That is our hope for you.

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1.

The Madness of Youth

When a man stays overnight in Mostar, it is not the sound that wakes him up but the light. I know this from my own experience. The light welcomed me before I arrived, followed me during my stay from morning till evening, and later after I had departed it stayed with me as the main characteristic of my memory of Mostar . . .

—Ivo Andrić

In the spring of 2000, I stood at the window of the apartment in Mostar I had inherited from my parents. I looked up at Hum, the hill rising above Mostar, and watched as workers erected an enormous cross. The Catholic church was building it to mark the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Christ. It would be large, 33 meters high (108 feet), symbolizing the 33 years of Jesus’ life on the earth. Passions in the town were enflamed: Croat Catholics supported the construction of the cross but Bosniak Muslims in east Mostar signed a petition against its construction and Serb Orthodox, though nominally Christian, opposed the project, as well. The vice president of the Mostar city council, Milan Jovičić, a Serb, wrote to Bishop Perić and asked him not to place a cross on Hum.

As I watched the workers, I remembered looking up at Hum from the same window eight years earlier, during the spring of 1992, when the dark clouds of war hung over Mostar. War was encircling us (in Slovenia and Croatia) and closing in on us, but we had hoped it would bypass Bosnia and Herzegovina. The conflicts began in Slovenia in 1991 and lasted only a short time—ten days with several dozen victims on both sides—but then war seized Croatia, lasting much longer and resulting in many more casualties. We watched the reports on TV and hoped it wouldn’t spill over into Bosnia and Herzegovina. This hope wasn’t completely unfounded. Mostar was a modern, cosmopolitan city, one of three cities in the former Yugoslavia, including Sarajevo and Vukovar, with the most mixed marriages. Most of the city’s people were against the war and ethnic division. It had been that way for as long as I could remember, and I had lived in Mostar since my birth, long before, in 1969.

I was born in May and received as the long-awaited son (my sister was seven years old) into an extended family with few male children. It was the time of Communism when equality among ethnic groups and the erasure of ethnic differences was encouraged. My parents were in a mixed marriage—my father was Serb and my mother Croatian. Our surname, Hadžić, is the second most-common in Bosnia and Herzegovina (the most common is Hodžić) and the majority of people with that surname are Bosniaks, although there are a few Serbs and Croats. My parents raised me in the spirit of brotherhood and unity, and I, like most people I knew, never paid attention to ethnic differences. Through my childhood and teenage years, I always had friends from different backgrounds, and for some of them, I didn’t even know their ethnic identity. I believe it was the same for most of the people in my community.

Not even my mandatory military service changed this. I served in the military in Split, in the Navy School for Reserve Officers. I always loved ships and the sea, so my time in the Navy wasn’t difficult. First in the school, and then on the ship, we were from every republic of the former Yugoslavia. In military school, I had three best friends, the first was Daniel from Slovenia, the second was Frano from Montenegro, and the third was Milutin from Croatia. When I got transferred to a ship, my best friends were Igor from Macedonia and Abdulah from Zenica, BiH.¹ After returning from the Navy, I started to study at the College of Mechanical Engineering in the Aeronautics Department because, besides ships, I loved airplanes. My plan for life was simple: finish a good college, find a good job, have a good salary, find a good wife, have a comfortable life . . .

In my first year of study, I got an offer through my friend Oleg to work in a newly-opened casino. Because I had a plan for my life, I didn’t seriously consider the offer, that is, until I heard about the salary. My first paycheck would be many times greater than what my mother received as the director of a hotel in town, where she worked at that time. It seemed I had found a shortcut to my dreams of a good and fulfilled life. I didn’t have to study for years to find a high-paying job; it found me without a diploma.

Although, at first, I thought I could continue to study and work at the same