Back in June, I did a piece on the highly fashionable, but entirely unbiblical, doctrine of “spiritual breakthrough.” This teaching is all about how we might (but probably won’t!) break through all the barriers blocking our victorious life in Christ, over cancer, lack of a large house or car, miraculous spiritual gifts etc. I said there is actually no doctrine of breakthrough in the Bible. But I was wrong.
My enlightenment came courtesy of a short YouTube video explaining a difficult verse in Matthew 11 in a compelling way I’ve not come across before. It led me to search out more complete treatments. This is the twelfth verse, about the kingdom of God coming “with violence,” and being “laid hold of by violent men.” I’ve heard many unsatisfying attempts to account for this, and my two Matthew commentaries (by Carson aand Keener) are no more help.
The context is when the imprisoned John the Baptist sends to Jesus to enquire if he’s the expected Messiah, and Jesus tells the messengers to tell John about the Messianic healings and good news being preached to the poor, before adding a ringing endorsement of John in terms of the Malachi prophecy about the man like Elijah sent to announce the coming king. And then we get this weird verse about violence.
The video points out that the relevant Greek word, although sometimes referring to violence, really means “purposeful force” of any kind. And then he points out strong linguistic and thematic links from the verse to a passage in the prophet Micah ch2, and particularly verses 12 and 13. That passage is a condemnation of Israel’s false shepherds, and culminates in the promise that God will gather his mistreated sheep (aka “the poor of Israel”) into a holding-pen, when a man will break open the gate before them, at which point they will surge forcibly through the gap to follow their king, who is also, astonishingly, Yahweh, presumably into rich new pasture.
Any country dweller will recognise how, once one sheep breaks through a weak point in a hedge, or an opened gate, the whole flock will pour through, breaching whatever herbage is still obstructing the way. The sheep are not violent, but rather desperate and eager, in Micah’s passage, to follow the LORD to freedom from their oppressors.
And so in Matthew, from the time of John’s ministry, the kingdom has been “forcefully advancing” (NIV), and the forceful (sheep, rather than men!) break into it. The intertextuality with Micah points to John as the one who breaks open the way (there’s our “spiritual breakthrough”!), and Jesus as the king who, according to Micah, is also Yahweh himself. This is also the sense of Luke’s short parallel in Luke 16:16, and provides an Old Testament context for John 10, as well.
As one commentary states:
Jesus’ words are based upon Micah 2:13. This, then, is the “realized eschatology” of Jesus. He is the only Jew of ancient times known to us who preached not only that people were on the threshold of the end of time, but that the new age of salvation had already begun …”
Flusser, David & Notley, R. Steven Jesus (p. 110) Magnes Press, 1997
Another source adds some further context:
In an ancient Hebrew midrash or interpretation of Micah 2:12-14, the breach-maker (gate opener) is interpreted to be Elijah, and the “King” and “Lord” is identified as the Messiah to come. Thus, Jewish teachers and students of the Old Testament would have immediately equated the breach maker of Micah 2:12-13 with Elijah.
And:
[Jesus] is not only hinting at Micah 2:13, but also at a well-known rabbinic [midrashic] interpretation of it. The Kingdom of Heaven …‘is breaking forth’ [not ‘suffering violence’; the NIV translates it ‘forcefully advancing’], and ‘every person in it is breaking forth’ [not ‘the violent take it by force.’] …John the Baptist …makes the breach in the fence and goes through first. He has opened the way. He is the Elijah of Malachi 3:1 and 4:5-6, who goes before the Lord to prepare His way [see Matthew 11:10.] …Jesus …follows John. Jesus, in this picture, is the King who leads the sheep as they press through the gate.
Bivin & Blizzard, Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus, p 86
This insight confirms what I’ve been coming to see increasingly over the last few years: that Jesus, and also the inspired authors of Scripture, can only really be understood properly when we appreciate how thoroughly they are steeped in the inspired writings of the Tanach. Scripture forms the tapestry both of the words and the events of the New Testament. You may attribute it to the profound theological training of the NT writers – or else to the profound providence of God and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to the unlettered apostles (“agrammatoi idiotes“).
So in this case, a “problem passage” that jars in its context, seems to contradict the rest of the New Testament, and has eluded a consistent explanation, turns out to give John the Baptist (and us) a clear insight into the role of John, the Messiahship and deity of Jesus, the nature of the kingdom, and the eagerness with which the “lost sheep” follow their shepherd-king – all as the fulfillment of OT prophecy written over seven centuries before.
One lesson is that we really need to work up our “biblical chops” in a way that few churches now encourage to discern God’s wisdom.
A second lesson is that “breakthrough” is after all a biblical theme, but is the very opposite of what the Charismatics teach. We don’t have to pray, fast, confess, etc, etc, in order to “break through to God.” Rather, John the Baptist achieved the breakthrough long ago, opening access to the Shepherd and all the good pasture of the Kingdom, for all his sheep past and present.
The practical lesson is to heed the teaching of Matthew 12/Micah 2, in an age when the signs of spiritual hunger are everywhere: if the good news of Jesus is faithfully proclaimed by his people, the lost sheep will be breaking the church doors off their hinges to get in (even as the false shepherds and enemies of the sheep strive to keep them in the pen by persecution).
That would indeed be a breakthrough.
