Seizing the Kingdom

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

One of Jesus' sayings it's hard to understand is Matthew 11:12: " From the days of John the Baptist
until now the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force."  (NASB)

I'm still not understanding that saying, which came to mind as I was pondering what Jesus taught
about the Kingdom of God.  But there are some things about it I'm storing for future meditation.

First, that Jesus speaks of the Kingdom of Heaven as present on earth.  That's where John the Baptist
was. That's where Jesus is as he speaks,  That's where the men who wish to seize the Kingdom are.

Second, that He speaks of a specific period of time regards the Kingdom on earth: " From the days of
John the Baptist until now..."  So I'm not sure how much we can rightly characterize any other time as
being one in which "violent men take  [the Kingdom]  by force."

It's worth noting, and pondering, the parallel saying of Luke 16:16: "The Law and the Prophets were
proclaimed until John; since that time the gospel of the Kingdom of God has been preached, and
everyone is forcing his way into it."

Jesus seems to emphasize in the latter the "dispensational" change from "the Law and the Prophets"
to "the gospel of the Kingdom of God."  But in both verses, the action of men towards the Kingdom is
the same: that men "seize it" or "enter it by force" is the same Greek verb, biazetai.  And maybe that
verb was the most surprising thing about Jesus' teaching.

One lexicon says that the Greek verb is used "both times positively" in these verses.  Strong's agrees
that it means "...the most ardent zeal and the intensest exertion" by those who desire to enter into the
Kingdom: and that any sense of the Kingdom's being forcefully taken by its enemies "...agrees neither
with the time when Christ spoke the words, nor with the context."

(I'm curious now why the Bible's translators found "violent" a suitable English word for Jesus' charac-
terization of those determined to enter the Kingdom ?  They had to have known that, in English, the
primary sense of the word is of a "hostile take-over.")

The word translated in Matthew as "violent men" (biastai) is related to the verb in both verses.  Again,
the lexicon gives this unique occurrence of the word the sense of "forceful," and Strong's glosses it as
one who "...strive[s]...with the utmost eagerness and effort."  And Luke may present an illuminative
difference between the two verses, in putting no emphasis at all on the character of those who lay
hold of the Kingdom: rather, "everyone" is.

But Jesus' other teaching about entering the Kingdom comes to mind, where He says people must enter
"like a child" (Luke 18:17, Mark 10:15, Matthew 18:3).  It's another strike against the "enemy" reading
reading of biazetai.

My 10-year old grandson came to mind.  We've only recently gotten to see him for any length of time, and
at the moment he's all about crawdad-traps.  I'm not quite sure how that became his obsession, or why.
I had to think about catching crawdads to eat when I was a kid, but I think he's wanting to sell them to
local bait-shops.

When we saw him, he showed me online the wire crawdad-traps his stepdad had ordered for him.  I told
him how impressed I was with their simple functionality, and that they were fairly inexpensive.  Told him
too that some people build their own crawdad-traps: and he had to hear what those looked like, and how
they worked.

Immediately he was determined that we build our own crawdad-traps.  I couldn't dissuade him with any
arguments: that his "professional" traps were already on their way and would be here within days, that
it was a waste of money to buy wood and wire to build our own, that the wire "professional" traps were
more durable than any we could make, that I'm the most unskilled carpenter there could be...

When his siter was driving him home, he was able to persuade her to stop in a hardware store and buy
him wood and wire-mesh to build his own traps.

My grandson gives me some insight on desire that's simultaneously "violent" and child-like.  He's com-
pletely, maddeningly, single-minded in what he wants.  He won't be turned from it by any other consid-
erations.  And he wants everyone around him involved with him in it.

"The Kingdom of God belongs to such as these."