What Did Jesus Mean When He Said “The Kingdom of Heaven Suffers Violence”?
- Peter McLean
- 12 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Teachings Of Jesus - Matthew 11 Series
Few sayings of Jesus have produced more confusion than Matthew 11:12.
Matthew 11:12 contains what is commonly called a difficult Scripture—one of the most difficult Scriptures as many people regard it in the New Testament.
There’s another way of saying it as well—not just a difficult Scripture but a hard saying. These are hard sayings. They are hard to understand. They are hard to apply. They are hard in terms of their level of difficulty of application and complexity in our lives, at least the way that we view them.
Here is the verse:
“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” - Matthew 11:12
Why This Verse Is Considered Difficult
This verse is the subject of what particularly is called the difficult Scripture because some of the Greek there can be taken a couple of different ways.
In most of your Bibles you will probably have a translation rather similar to what I just read. In some translations it says something like "the kingdom of heaven progresses and the violent take it by force."
But here's the interesting thing. Despite those versions, you will hear preachers and commentators say again and again that what this verse means is that people have to take the kingdom as though you are a violent warrior and you go and chase after the kingdom.
There is even an old sermon by Charles Spurgeon from the nineteenth century called “Holy Violence.” In that interpretation the idea is that when you approach the kingdom you must not let anything get in your way. You must launch into it aggressively and take the kingdom and not let it go.
I have heard this interpretation through many decades.
Two Problems With That Interpretation
There are two problems with that interpretation.
One, it does not really make sense with the context, with the surrounding verses.
And two, Jesus uses the words violent, violent twice in there. That word is exclusively used for aggression and violence and something bad throughout the New Testament. It is consistently negative. It never says that you can be violent in a good way if you simply have the right intentions.
You could take the grammar that way, but it does not work in terms of the usage of these words of violence, and it does not work in terms of the context.
A Distortion of the Gospel
The problem is if you take it that way, you end up with a distortion of what the gospel is because you start to think the gospel and the kingdom of God is all about me going and grabbing hold of that and then being part of that.
If I storm the gates of the kingdom of heaven, then I can enter.
But who is the gatekeeper to the kingdom of heaven?
It is Jesus.
Can you storm Jesus and take Him out of the picture and say, “Hey Jesus, you know what? I’ve figured it out. You’ve got to let me in because I kind of came up with the formula and I just really want it”?
No.
You can say:
“Lord, Lord, look, I cast out demons in Your name. I did good works. I fed the poor. I gave myself to be burnt. I did all these wonderful things for You, Lord. Let me in.”
And He said He would say:
“Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness, for I never knew you.”
It is all about Him knowing us. That is the only way. That is the only entry. That is the only way.
“You cannot storm the kingdom of heaven and force your way in. The gatekeeper is Jesus Christ.”
Violence Against the Kingdom
It is not about people taking the kingdom by force.
Rather, it is what was happening around Him.
People objected to John the Baptist and his preaching of repentance. They imprisoned him and eventually killed him because he did not meet their standards for what they thought the kingdom should be.
John excoriated the Pharisees and Sadducees. He even said, “Who told you to come to me and get baptized? What are you doing here? You guys practice all these evil things and you're not repenting of it. You are not turning to God.”
And then they imprisoned John because they hated him and they thought we are going to establish our kingdom our way.
And guess how you establish your kingdom your way when you want to do that?
Violence.
“And guess how you establish your kingdom your way when you want to do that? Violence.”
This confusion about violence and the kingdom of heaven still appears today.
(The deeper spiritual roots of this problem—Greed, Anger, and Pride—are explored further in the article “Violence And The Kingdom of God.”)
Establishing a Kingdom Through Violence
Look at the world around us. Look at the people.
Here’s the risk.
Look at people who call themselves Christian and then say the way that we are going to establish utopia and the kingdom of heaven on earth is if we bomb the life out of this nation or that nation or this nation. If we go in and take out that leader, we kill him. Then we can establish it.
Well, one, it doesn’t work. All of history tells you that that doesn’t make a difference.
But two, all you're trying to do is to establish your kingdom through violence.
“All you're trying to do is to establish your kingdom through violence.”
The Kingdom of God Is Not Violence
Paul says this:
“For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” - Romans 14:17
The kingdom of God is righteousness. It is peace. It is joy in the Holy Spirit.
It is not violence.
Watch the Full Sermon
This article is excerpted from the sermon:
He Who Has Ears
▶ Watch the full message below or at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEgbWeL4cbE
In the message, Jesus’ difficult saying about violence and the kingdom of heaven and the startling truths about Jesus are examined in the light of Scripture.
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