Impossible Dream - Pilate’s Wife - The One Year Women in Christian History Devotional

Impossible Dream - Pilate’s Wife

Matthew 27:15-26

Courage. It’s tough to summon sometimes. Imagine this scenario: you’re the wife of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. Things are incredibly tense in Jerusalem. A man with many followers and even more enemies, Jesus, is being brought to trial before your husband.

The chief priests and the elders of the Jews were jealous of Jesus. They trumped up false charges against him and whipped a crowd into a frenzy against him. As the trial is described in Matthew 27, Pilate completely understood what was happening. Jesus was innocent of the charges. The governor asked the crowd what crime Jesus had committed. They couldn’t answer because he had committed no crime. They simply screamed, “Crucify him.”

In the middle of this frenzy, Pilate received a message from his wife. She was a Roman citizen and not a Jew. She probably never met Jesus, but it would have been impossible for someone in her position not to have heard of this wonder-worker and the excitement he inspired in his followers. She knew about Jesus, and she dreamed about him.

“Leave that innocent man alone,” her message said. “I suffered through a terrible nightmare about him last night” (Matthew 27:19).

That took courage. Would her husband be upset by her meddling? Or what if the message was intercepted by the angry, unreasonable crowd? Still, she knew Jesus was innocent, and she had the courage to speak up. Perhaps because of this message, Pilate looked for a way to let Jesus go: releasing a prisoner for the holiday. But the crowd chose freedom for a common bandit and demanded that Jesus be crucified. Pilate washed his hands and said to the crowd, “I am innocent of this man’s blood! The responsibility is yours!” (Matthew 27:24).

Did Pilate’s wife take an unnecessary risk? Or should she have pressured her husband even more? The fact is, doing the right thing isn’t always going to lead to the desired outcome, but it’s still important to do.

By the way, some early church literature suggests that Pilate’s wife, named Procula (or possibly Claudia), became a Christian just before or after this.

As Pilate was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him this message: “Leave that innocent man alone. I suffered through a terrible nightmare about him last night.”

Matthew 27:19

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The One Year Women in Christian History Devotional
By Randy Petersen and Robin Shreeves
Tyndale
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