Terry,
Jesus is referring to the way that the world is reacting to the appearance of the Kingdom of God on earth — it rejects it with violence. Christians are persecuted and often murdered. He mentions John the Baptist, who was beheaded.
Essentially, he is drawing a distinction from the old way, where people were simply born by blood lines into the faith of Israel, but now in essence, one is almost born of the blood of martyrdom, because there is a great battle between dark and light.
We can see that going on in the world today, with Christians around the world being persecuted and slaughtered by ISIS and other extremists. They enter the kingdom with violence.
I hope that helps.
Peace,
Bob Kirby
|