The violent! They are the opposite of the men who are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to their fellows, “We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented.” Those children are the men of “this generation” (vv. 16–17).

Those men were perverse! Over against the kingdom of heaven, they always had an excuse why they would not enter. Were they not present even when the law and the prophets painted beautiful images on the door of the kingdom of heaven, which was closed during their time?

Then John the Baptist came. He preached that the kingdom of heaven was near at hand. The door of the kingdom was ready to be opened. In John’s appearance and preaching he called to the children of his generation to go out of the world. But John irritated them, and they went and stood before him and played the flute and said, “John, you must dance!”

But John remained in the desert and said, “I cannot dance. I am not the bridegroom. I am a Nazarite.”

And they said that John had a devil. And they went not into the kingdom.

Then the bridegroom came! He ate, and he drank. He was not a Nazarite. He had overcome the world. He stood in the midst of death and said, “I am the resurrection and the life!” He did not mourn, but he danced. He came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance! He had no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Over the sinner he rejoiced.

But the Lord irritated the Jews, and they stood before him singing lamentations and said, “Jesus, you must weep.”

But Christ said, “I cannot weep. I am the bridegroom. The kingdom of God has come.”

And they said, “Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.” And they went not into the kingdom.

Such men had no spiritual power to enter into the kingdom of heaven. They were lovers of this world. It makes no difference how you preach the kingdom, whether you weep as the Nazarite or whether you rejoice, standing in the liberty of victory; these people never go into the kingdom. John wept, and the people said, “If you do not dance, you have a devil.” And Jesus danced, and the people said, “If you do not weep, you are a devil!” But they went not in.

The violent are the true seed of Israel, who had long looked for the fulfillment of the promise. They stood in the old dispensation at the door of the kingdom. On the door of the kingdom, the law and the prophets had painted many pictures of what lay behind that door. John came, and the door stood ajar. It was but a moment then—the cross, the resurrection, the ascension, the Pentecost Spirit—and the door would be flung open. The violent were men of faith and hope who could wait no longer. They rushed in by force. There were many obstacles: their own flesh, the devil, the wicked and apostate church, and the rejection of the kingdom by the multitude. There was the slander and ridicule that they must share with the king of the kingdom. And with violence they rushed the door of the kingdom. They put their feet in the door. They said, “If the door opens completely, we will certainly go in.” Such they were. Such they are always.

What a contrast! The perversity of the men of this generation with their many excuses for never entering the kingdom over against the violent ones who storm the kingdom of God!