Pilate's wife

While Pilate was sitting on the judge’s seat, his wife sent him this message: “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal in a dream because of him.” But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed. Matthew 27:19-20

Only Matthew tells us about Pilate’s wife. Not Mark, not Luke, not John. He devotes precisely one verse of his Gospel to her, though without mentioning her name.

Pontius Pilate was the Roman governor of Judea, and it fell to him to conduct Jesus’ trial on that first Good Friday. It was while he was doing this that he received a message from his wife: “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man!” And why not? “Because I’ve had a dream about him today, and it’s giving me a really bad time…”

Wouldn’t we love to know more!

What exactly was her dream about? Was she genuinely concerned about Jesus, and keen to save him from an unjust death? Or was it just a case of pagan superstition – if my husband executes this man, something bad will happen! What did she know about Jesus anyway? Surely the governor’s wife wouldn’t have stood in a crowd listening to him preach?

Whatever, her dream obviously affected her deeply – though it didn’t have much of an impact on her husband. He seems to have made a half-hearted attempt to get Jesus off, but it didn’t work. No, he did that usually-fatal thing (you know the guilty feeling?) – he “went with the flow”: “Then he released Barabbas to them… had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified”. Oh well, all in a day’s work…

It would be wrong to build too much on just a single verse of scripture. (Later traditions have done exactly that, to the extent that Pilate’s wife has become “Saint Claudia” in certain churches, and even Pilate himself is regarded as a saint.) But I think this tantalising little story does suggest certain things from which we can learn.

First, God can shine his truth into very dark places.

Make no mistake, centres of Roman government were dark places – full of superstition, cruelty and appalling immorality. Yet somehow something of the light of Jesus – even if little more than a glimmer – had penetrated those murky depths. Someone at the highest level believed not only that Jesus was an “innocent man”, but believed it so strongly that she was prepared to intervene.

We tend to think, very naturally, that no-one can know anything about Jesus unless they have received some form of teaching, whether through preaching, through some kind of class or group, through a book, or through one-to-one witness. But no! God has his ways and means…

Missionaries sometime report stories, from among peoples who have never heard the Christian message, of a strange person who came to bring them blessing and showered them with forgiveness and love. The task of the missionaries then is simply to fill in the gaps – and to share the name of the “strange person”.

I would be fairly confident that within our social circles – family, friends, work colleagues – there are people that we have never thought of as  remotely “religious”, but who have some kind of faith, or just an interest in “spiritual things”, people who perhaps never go to church, but who pray. Perhaps, without even knowing it themselves, they’re just waiting for you or me to come along and fill in the gaps – and to share that name…

Second, can this story tell us anything about how we should treat dreams?

We are told by the experts that we all dream, even if we don’t remember it. Personally, I only ever remember my dreams if I’m not too well – have a bit of a temperature perhaps. And when that happens I do vaguely mull over what I’ve dreamed about in case it might be significant in some way.

But no – it generally seems to be just an odd muddle brewed up out of my own fears and insecurities, so I don’t pursue it. (My wife once dreamed that she was married to the cricketer David Gower – make of that what you will.)

But in the Bible, both testaments, dreams can be very important. So I think it would be a mistake to completely rule out the possibility of God speaking to us in such a way. Perhaps it’s the kind of thing that is more likely to happen to Christians suffering extreme circumstances, like imprisonment or torture, Christians who have no Bible, or preaching, or Christian fellowship.

What matters is this: if we do go looking for some kind of divine message in a dream, let’s be very careful to “test all things”, as Paul said about “prophecies” (1 Thessalonians 5:21): it’s easy to be deceived.

A footnote… The story of Pilate’s wife reminds me of those old, corny, bad-taste wife-jokes. You know the sort of thing: “Any man who listens to his wife gets what he deserves – har-har-har!” But on the basis of this story, surely no: Any man who doesn’t listen to his wife gets what he deserves…

A word some of us married men need to hear?

Thank you, Father, that the light of Jesus can penetrate even the darkest places. Help me to see anyone in my life who, like Pilate’s wife, is sensitive to your truth – and to be ready to share with them the name of Jesus. Amen.