Contemplative Bible Reading

Luke 20:20 (New Living Translation)

Watching for their opportunity, the leaders sent spies pretending to be honest men. They tried to get Jesus to say something that could be reported to the Roman governor so he would arrest Jesus.

Jesus had told a story to illustrate what God wanted and didn’t want in our lives. The leaders were upset because they knew the story showed their, what shall we say, less-than-right lives.

The leaders sent “spies”—people pretending to be honest me, but who were really trying to find something wrong with Jesus. Something that would cause the ruling Gentiles, a.k.a. occupying army, to shut up this Jesus fellow once and for all.

Imagine being one of these spies. “Go spend a lot of time in the presence of the Son of God. Ask the Son of God questions. Listen carefully to what the Son of God says. Take detailed notes for the record about the Son of God living among us.”

In a few verses we are told that these spies were amazed by what Jesus said.

What else? We aren’t told. Were the spies so dedicated to their mission that they ignored Jesus? Were the spies human enough to be touched by the love and words of the Son of God? I suspect the latter. After all, billions of us have been touched and changed by the recorded words of Jesus. These spies heard them first hand.