The Shepherd of Hermas: Hope for Repentance | Tom Kruger

Lesson Transcript

And he asks the angel, the church, "Hey, what's up with these stones?" And the angel replies, uh, "These are the ones who have something against one another in their hearts and are not at peace among themselves. Instead, they have only the appearance of peace, and when they leave one another, their evil thoughts remain in their heart." O Lord, restore your ancient ways, and make your people new. Uh, good afternoon. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Tom, Tom Kruger.

My family's here—my wife, my three kids—and I reign from Boston, coming from Boston, about an 8-hour drive. And I want to give you, first, a hello. We have, I don't know, maybe 20 or so people from our church here, but many more Christians that are definitely here in spirit. And so, if you're ever in Boston, definitely come, come say hi to us. I have the great pleasure to introduce you to a book in the early Christian writings. There's many, many books, but I wanted to pick one that's very close to my heart.

One of the first books that I ever read in the Anti-Nazene writings. I didn't want to just give you it too easily, and so I wanted to quiz you a little bit, but I'm going to give you 3 clues. Now, bonus points if your last name isn't Berso and you get this. I'll be even more impressed. The first clue is that this book is behind only the Gospels of Matthew and John in the number of ancient manuscripts that still survive today. One of the most widely distributed and used books in the early Christians.

The second clue is that this book was included in the Codex Sinaiticus, which is one of the first complete New Testament compilations that we have that survives today, roughly around the year 400. That's all 27 books, plus 2 extra books, and this book that I'm going to introduce you to was part of that 29 books in that canon. And the third clue is that it's the origin of the popular illustration for having an angel and a demon on your shoulder. Now, that book is The Shepherd of Hermes.

This book, just a quick overview, was written around, you know, first late 1st century, early 2nd century, between the years of, like, 70 and 140 AD. There's roughly 114 chapters. That means it's about as long as all of Paul's writings plus the Book of Hebrews, and I only have about 15 minutes to introduce it to you, so definitely a challenge. And the style of it's very much an allegory.

There's short visions, there's parables, and it's prophetic in nature but also apocalyptic in nature, and so there's very many themes that are expressed through this writing. It also appears in many early Christian artworks. There's examples of it on the chalices, the cups that they would use in their services. It's in the catacombs, it's in many different places, and you can see this depicted.

You know, if you know me, I'm a data nerd, and if you compare all of the sentences of Shepherd of Hermes with the sentences in the chapters of the New Testament, Shepherd of Hermes is saturated with New Testament. All but 5 chapters of the New Testament can be thematically compared to writings in the Shepherd of Hermes. Now, there are some nuances to that, but it's very much saturated with the teachings of Jesus and the apostles. Now, let me give you a quick book outline. It's broken into 3 sections.

The first is the visions, the second is the commandments, and the third is the similitudes. And the book starts with what's, you know, known as the visions. And the visions start through a first-person narration from a guy named Hermes. He was a former slave that was sold to a woman in Rome, and many of the visions take place in and around Rome. And it says that as he's walking along a river, he sees the woman that was his former owner. He sees her, not much happens, walks away.

But later, it says, "As I walked on the road to the villages, praising God's creatures and thinking about how magnificent, beautiful, and powerful they are, I fell asleep. The Spirit carried me away and led me through a pathless place." And it's in this dream that he realizes it's a vision from God, that this woman, who he saw in the river, comes into his vision and actually accuses him of an impure thought. Now, that woman doesn't stay long. She goes away, and he is in despair.

And he is in despair of, "How can I have repentance? How can I have forgiveness from God for this sin that I'm being accused of?" And it's at that moment that we meet a second woman. And this woman, she actually explains that God is not angry in accusing him of this impure thought, but God is angry about something else in Hermes's life.

The thing that God is angry at, as it reads, is, "Rather, it is in order that you may convert your family, which has sinned against the Lord and against you, their parents." It says, "But you are so fond of your children that you have not corrected your family, but have allowed it to become terribly corrupt. This is why the Lord is angry at you.

He's neglected his own family and hasn't converted his own family to the faith." And this angel, this woman, goes on to then explain that just as a blacksmith hammers out his work to make whatever he wants, speaking what is right every day will defeat all evil. Therefore, never stop warning your sons. I know that if they repent with all their heart, their names will be written in the book of life with the saints.

And this opens up, really, the central theme of the entire book, the three sections of Hermes, which is that it's really all about repentance. Jason did a beautiful job earlier talking about repentance in the early church. And I think the Shepherd of Hermes lays out such a beautiful illustration and depiction of what repentance meant to them. It goes on, and later on we actually find out that this woman, who shares all these early visions with Hermes, is actually the church.

And that this church, this woman in the depiction, was very old, and it's because that she was created first by God and the world was made for her. One of the visions, though, that she gives, one of the central visions that actually appears twice, is a vision of a tower. And this tower is not any ordinary tower. This tower is the church. And every stone in that tower are members of that church, are us as Christians.

And it talks about how there's all of these different people and angels and elders that are helping to build and carry the stones and chisel them into their place. It talks about the waters that surround the tower, and those waters are the waters of baptism. And it gives a really beautiful depiction of all the different types of stones that it sees.

First, it gives a depiction of these stones that it says, "Were so closely put together that the joints were not visible." And the structure of the tower looked as if it were built out of a single stone, that when they put it in, you couldn't even see the seams. And this depiction, we learn, this is the apostles and the bishops and the teachers and the deacons who have walked accordingly to, according to the holiness of God. Beautiful depiction. Stones that form just one, one seamless stone.

The second stone that we learn about is this depiction of these stones that are carried out of the water, from deep within the water, and carried up to the tower. And we learn that these stones are the stones that suffered for the name of the Lord, that these are the martyrs who died in the name of Jesus, that did not deny their faith. The third stone, one that hits me really powerfully, Hermes sees these stones in the field with cracks right down the middle.

And he asks the angel, the church, "Hey, what's up with these stones?" And the angel replies, "These are the ones who have something against one another in their hearts and are not at peace among themselves. Instead, they have only the appearance of peace, and when they leave one another, their evil thoughts remain in their heart." We learn about the stones that are unused, the stones that fell along the side that never made it into the tower.

And the angel explains that this great number of stones are those who have known the truth but did not abide in it, and therefore they are useless for the building of the tower. We learn about these round stones.

And these round stones, it says, and he asks the angel, "And who are the white and round stones that do not fit into the building?" And the angel replies that these are the stones that had faith but also the riches of the world, and when the persecution comes, they deny their Lord because of their riches and their business affairs. Now, it doesn't just stop there. The stones are still there. And Hermes says, "Well, well, when can they be used?

Will they make it into the tower?" And this angel, she replies beautifully, that, "For just as the round stone cannot become square unless it is trimmed and loses part of itself, that God has to trim away and chisel this stone to get rid of that sin so that it can be brought back into the tower. That repentance is that trimming.

Repentance is bringing them back to be a part of that church, that tower." And lastly, one of the last depictions that we get of this tower, really beautiful, it says that there were certain stones that were falling into fire and burning, and those are the stones that completely rebelled against the living God, and that the thought no longer enters their heart to repent. Not just that they're living in wickedness, but they've given up on repentance completely.

It also goes on to say that there are stones that didn't fall into the water, and that those stones are the ones that heard the word and want to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then, when they remember the purity of the truth, they change their mind and return again to their evil desires. And all of these stones had the chance to repent. All of these stones, God is still working on and chiseling and hopefully getting them to a place where they can be brought into the tower, but not all do.

Now, it is a beautiful work, and this is just the first section, the visions. And I'll share a personal favorite of mine. It's a bit comedic, but it says, Hermes asks a question, he says, "Hey," to the angel, "Who are the white and round stones that do not fit into the building, lady?" She answered and said to me, "How long will you be foolish and stupid, asking about everything and understanding nothing?" I love this dialogue. I'm sure my own church leaders have felt that way about me at times.

But just a very honest and real response. So that ends the first section. The second section, I'm not going to go into too deeply, is the commandments. And in the commandments, we meet the angel of repentance, who's depicted as this shepherd. This is a very early Christian art. This is just my own rendition of it. And this shepherd, the angel of repentance, is depicted as the good shepherd. And there's a huge array of topics that I'm not going to go into.

There's about 12 different commandments, from belief in God, avoiding evil speech, the sins of the tongue, avoiding falsehood. One that I've gotten a lot of value out of, though, is the topic of divorce and remarriage. In it, Hermes is wrestling with the angel of repentance, the shepherd. And as we wrestle with it today, he's asking questions. And one of the things that come up is what to do in a situation where your spouse was unfaithful.

And he says, "Let the husband live by himself, but if after divorcing his wife he should marry another, then he too commits adultery." And he goes on to say, "If the husband does not take her back, the one that was adulterous that left, he himself brings a sin upon himself." And I think what's beautiful is, this is my favorite portion here, is that the angel of repentance gives a beautiful explanation as to why this is a commandment from God, why we have to follow this.

And in the heart of the shepherd, right, in the heart of our good Lord, he says, "Because of the possibility of her repentance, the one that was unfaithful, the husband ought not to marry." And then goes on to say, "This is why you are commanded to remain single, whether husband for wife, for in such cases repentance is possible." And, you know, it brings me to tears when I first read it, just thinking that God holds out the hope of repentance for all of us.

That, you know, that's why in such a difficult circumstance, so difficult to remain single the rest of your life, God commands the one in that situation, "Hold out hope," that there is still the chance of repentance. And if there's the chance for repentance, we have to leave room for that work to occur. Section 3 goes on, and this is the similitudes. I don't have enough time to go through all of it.

There's about 12 of them, all really powerful, different parables, very much thematically close to the parables of Jesus. But I want to end with this just shortly, which is, how does this apply to us? You know, I think it's easy to look at the early Christians and think, "Wow, they're dense. There's so much information to take in. How can this apply to my heart?" And for me, when I think about this tower, I just am reminded that I can't give out hope for repentance.

That if God, who's the giver of repentance, holds out so much hope for us that someday we can repent and go back to that tower, that I can't give up on my brothers and sisters. I can't give up hope for my neighbors who have yet to repent and come to Christ. I can't give up hope for my family that have left the Lord. That there's always the chance, under our good shepherd, that we can repent and be chiseled into that stone that someday makes it into that pure, white, and beautiful tower.

And with that, I'll just encourage you. It's a powerful work. Let it work in your own life. It's a great, great work to read alongside scripture and really engage with it yourself. Please find it, go read it, and it's a beautiful work that I hope can also inspire you to hold out hope for repentance. Lord, restore your ancient way and make your people new.