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Jesus said many things that cause us to ask, “What did He mean by that?” One of those is Matthew 11:12: “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.” John is an example of taking the kingdom by violence. He was a radical, spiritually intense man. The kingdom of God dominated him and everything about him.
The kingdom of God overturns the status quo. Jesus challenged people who thought that they could experience God’s kingdom and its power and then continue life as usual. For John, the kingdom was not just thought-provoking, not just encouraging and interesting—it challenged everything. It called people to repent. Casual interaction with the kingdom was not an option. The kingdom of God overtakes life violently, and only violent people lay hold of it and experience its power.
Obviously, Jesus is not calling His disciples to physical violence. Jesus is describing intensity and passion—a longing after God that is forceful, even violent. It is spiritual intensity, spiritual ferocity, and spiritual single-mindedness that is markedly consuming. As we sing in the hymn “Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart,” “One holy passion filling all my frame.”
This is the passion we hear in the Apostle Paul in Philippians 3. He is captivated by the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus. He says (and I paraphrase): “The fact that I have lost everything for Him does not matter. I want to know Christ; I want to know the power of His resurrection; I want to know the fellowship of His sufferings; I want to become like Him in His death. I forget all past successes and past failures and press toward the goal for which He has called me heavenward.” He is expressing a violent, single-minded, compulsively committed pursuit of God’s kingdom.
Knowing God cannot be a casual pursuit. It cannot be something we dabble in. It must be pursued with vehemence and even violence. In His earthly ministry, Jesus was forcefully pursued. People climbed trees and tore open roofs. The blind beggar of Luke 18 ignored the rebukes of the moderate crowd and called for Christ to show mercy. Multitudes stood in the wilderness all day, hanging on Jesus’ every word, mindless about where they would get food to eat. These were people of passion and zeal.
The true Christian says: “I know there is a God to serve, there is victory to experience, there is peace to know, there are joys unspeakable and glories to be experienced even in trials, there are eternal pleasures in the presence of God. I will give myself in pursuit of Him. My one desire is to dwell in the house of the Lord all my days to behold His beauty.”
Hebrews 12:1 captures the violent pursuit of God: “Lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and . . . run with endurance.” Jesus is the model of violently pursuing the Father’s will. Look to Jesus, who, for joy, endured the cross.