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Holy Violence – Five Poems (Part 5)

A passage from Jesus’ commendation of John the Baptist has bothered certain believers. It’s from Matthew 11.12: “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” Did you feel that? That little cringe, that catching of breath when you heard the words “violence” and “violent”? What place, we wonder, do such notions have on the lips of Jesus?


But it gets worse, well, sort of. For the Greek word rendered “suffers”, which suggests such things as opposition to the Gospel or even persecution, can also be translated “employs”, that is, the Kingdom of God “employs” violence. And then, if you want to realize that Kingdom, you have to act violently yourself.


Like I said, this passage bothers some folks.


There’s help from our forebears here. Cyril of Alexandria, writing in the 4th century, cross-referenced this text in his commentary on Luke and wrote: “Whoever hears and loves the sacred message takes it by force. This means that he uses all his eagerness and strength in his desire to enter within the hope. He says in another place, ‘The kingdom of heaven is taken by violence, and the violent seize upon it.’”


In the 16th century, John Calvin’s interpretation of this text is even more pointed: “Let us also learn from these words, what is the true nature and operation of faith. It leads men not only to give cold and indifferent assent when God speaks, but to cherish warm affection towards Him, and to rush forward as it were with a violent struggle.”


Why is it appropriate to speak of violence with respect to the coming of the Kingdom and our laying hold on it? Because of the hardness of our hearts, a condition 17th-century metaphysical poet John Donne knew well, and which he invites us to consider in his sonnet, “Batter My Heart”:


Batter my heart, three-person'd God, for you

As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;

That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend

Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.

I, like an usurp’d town to another due,

Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end;

Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,

But is captiv'd, and proves weak or untrue.

Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov’d fain,

But am betroth’d unto your enemy;

Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,

Take me to you, imprison me, for I,

Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,

Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.


We must never forget that we who know the Lord Jesus are lamentably prone to allow some hardness of heart into our lives. A certain lack of seriousness or consistency settles on our disciplines. Zeal for the Scriptures wanes. Prayer grows tiresome, routine, and then practically non-existent. Love for others comes mostly as an afterthought and some vain resolution to better, which seldom happens. This continues and worsens until we end up in a downspin toward sclerosis of the soul, knowing inside that we are becoming shallow and indifferent to spiritual matters, but keeping up appearances, nonetheless.


Donne’s poem can be a prayer to help us break out of such hardness and know more true spiritual life and growth.


In the first image, lines 1-4, Donne sees his heart as hard as iron. Coaxing, soothing, and gentle persuasion won’t fix it; he needs God to come after Him like a divine smithy, battering at his heart and burning it in the fires of conviction and repentance until it begins to take on a new shape.


In the second image, verses 5-8, Donne sees himself like a town, taken over by an enemy, whose natural defender, reason, has quit his post. He wants God to have more control, but he just can’t make it happen.


In the sestet, lines 9-14, Donne lays it all out before the Lord. He wants to love God but can’t because he keeps loving the things the enemy presents to him. He needs God to divorce him from that wicked foe, to untie and set him free so that, ravished by God’s love and imprisoned to him, he freely and purely love the Lord once again.


We will all struggle with such contradictions of spirit at times. Donne knew his weaknesses and limitations. Do we? And are we, like Donne, eager for God to do holy spiritual violence to our souls, that we may return equal violence to Him, and live?


Today, spend some time in prayer, asking the Lord, first, to reveal to you any incipient hardness of heart in your soul, and then, second, to come after you with the hammer of His truth until He knocks away the dross and refines you to be more like Jesus.

 
 
 

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