In Matthew 11:12, Jesus makes a statement that has been found difficult to interpret. He said, “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it.” I’m not sure to what he’s referring to, but here’s one idea.
Suppose you are having a quiet evening sitting and reading a newspaper. Your child is asleep on the sofa. You are so engrossed in a story line that it is only upon hearing a strange noise that you lower the paper to look. There before you is a man standing over your unsuspecting child with a raised knife. Would not everything in you react in utter shock and horror? Why you would instinctively and instantly spring into action and act with as much violence as necessary to stop what you see unfolding.
That must be our reaction to temptation. Something exceedingly precious to us stands to be destroyed or stolen. No way. That must never happen.
It could very well be that it’s those kind of “violent” people who are the ones raiding the kingdom.
