Quite a number of explanations of the passage, “The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force” (Matt. 11. 12), have been put forward and may be summarised thus:
The kingdom suffered violence by the persecution, imprisonment, torture and death of John and his followers, as well as those following Jesus, both at the time of the utterance and in the future.
Zealots and revolutionaries against Rome saw Jesus as a popular king and to suit their own ends sought to establish the kingdom by force, using a rabble of violent men to aid them. Thus they ravaged the kingdom.
Men of spiritual vision saw Jesus as the Christ and, being acutely aware of their need, eagerly and enthusiastically accepted him: literally taking him by storm, sparing no endeavour to make their salvation sure.
The word “biazomai” occurs again once only, that being in the parallel verse in Luke 16. 16, where we read that every man “presseth into” the kingdom. The word is descriptive of attackers storming a city and, again, of the violence of an hostile warship entering a harbour by ramming and breaking the boom stretched across the harbour mouth. Whilst it is difficult to say dogmatically which was the meaning that Jesus wished to convey, we can be sure that this saying contrasts the previous age, with the new and speaks of violent power in connection with the kingdom.
All three explanations have a lesson for us. As aspirants to the kingdom we may yet be subject to the violence of persecution. Only those of steadfast faith stand under such opposition and now in present peace and prosperity is the time to build up such a faith. The second explanation scarcely applies, although the temptation to make capital or political gain out of the Truth is still as strong as ever; human nature remaining unchanged in twenty centuries.
The bold, third explanation does strike home to each one of us. One commentator says, “The kingdom is not for the well-meaning but for the desperate”. The measure of our desperation determines the “violence” with which we seize the way of salvation. Paul’s desperate cry, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”, must be fervently and utterly ours before we can say, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord”. As Jesus contemplated his ordeal on the cross he “sweat as it were great drops of blood”. In contrast, we generally prefer to sidestep the matter of our own death, inevitable though it is. Or perhaps it seems less dangerous because of the hope we have of eternal life.
In our very preoccupation with eternal life there is the danger of underestimating the horror of eternal death. With this horror permeating us as it did Jesus, we will be desperate to escape and, seeing the way of salvation, will spare no effort and make any sacrifice to seize the precious prize. In short, the kingdom will suffer violent assault by those desperate ones who violently seek to force their way into its safety.
The Solution