Ryan, these are notoriously difficult texts to interpret. If the words biazetai and biastai are to be read negatively (so in Matt. 11:12 ‘the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and violent men seize it’), which seems most likely, then we can at least say that Jesus is not speaking here about a normative or approved understanding of what it means for the kingdom of God to come. The idea would appear to be that something is being done violently in the present to force (or perhaps oppose) an event that belongs to the future.

Having said that, I’m not sure it’s too problematic to suppose that Jesus regarded the kingdom of God as having begun in some sense with his ministry or with the preaching of John the Baptist. The point is that if the announcement of the coming of the reign of God refers to a process that has already started rather than an entirely future event, it nevertheless culminates in the victory of the believing community over Rome, which is the coming of the Son of man on the clouds of heaven to receive the kingdom from the Ancient of Days.