The Kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent are taking it by force. We don’t associate Jesus with violence so this saying seems a bit odd. Of course Jesus frequently used exaggeration to make a point. (E.g. “If you eye is your problem, pluck it out.”) My mother used to say, “Hyperbole added for emphasis.” The point seems to be that the kingdom of heaven cannot be reached by the lukewarm. The enthusiasm that John the Baptist and Jesus provoked showed that people were eager for God and willing to sacrifice for it. Today we must not treat the faith as like being in a club that you work in as you can but as something which completely reshapes how we think and act.
