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Posted by: thepinetree on 08/08/2009 11:00 PM
Updated by: thepinetree on 08/09/2009 08:50 AM
Expires: 01/01/2014 12:00 AM
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"Mrs. Pilate"~by Connie McCamey
We have had many requests for a Religion section on ThePineTree.net. So here you go. We would like to give a warm welcome to Connie and Shawn McCamey. Shawn is the Pastor of the new church in Angels Camp, Refuge. Refuge recently expanded and moved to the Glory Hole Center. They meet every Sunday at 10am. All are welcome. This lovely couple have offered to write inspirational columns for our viewers to enjoy. Thanks to both of you. “While he was sitting on the judgement seat, his wife sent to him, saying, ‘Have nothing to do with that just Man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of Him.’” Matthew 27:19... Most of us do not enjoy hearing the biblical account of the trial leading up to Jesus' crucifixion. It is full of evil people doing evil things. To list just a few; there is His betrayal by one of His trusted disciples, His cruel treatment by the Roman soldiers, the lies spoken by the high priest and by Peter, one of Jesus' closest friends, the beatings, the spit, the nakedness and shame and Pilate who, .....
though he knew Jesus was innocent, did not have the guts to stand up to the angry mob. Yet in the middle of all this ugliness one verse stands out to me, one person who had the courage to speak up. A woman, a wife who could not remain silent, though her words would not change the final outcome.
Maybe Pontus Pilate kept her up late needing to talk, maybe the kids were awake during the night or maybe there had been a late night party. For what ever unknown reason, Mrs. Pilate was tired that morning and headed back to bed for a brief nap. Her nap was not restful. She awoke deeply disturbed by her dream. She had dreamed about a “just” man whose fate lay in the hands of her husband.
We don’t know any details about the dream, only that it was about Jesus and that Mrs. Pilate “suffered many things” because of the dream. Knowing full well what was happening in the court room that day, Mrs. Pilate sits down to write a note to her husband. Certainly she had no idea whether or not he would read it. Would someone be willing to interrupt to proceedings to deliver the note? In the stress of the moment would the note be simply tossed aside without even being opened? Would Pilate be too embarrassed to receive a letter from his wife in the middle of the trial? Surely he would be angry at her for “butting in” to his work life. But she took the risk, she had too. She knew that the life of an innocent man hung in the balance and no one seemed to be willing to take a stand for Him. So she did.
Governor Pilate was a busy, important man and this was a high profile case. It was not a good time for his wife to be sending him notes. But something compelled him to break the seal and read it, maybe he was expecting a love note and needing the encouragement. But what was this? “Have nothing to do with this man.” Who did she think she was? What in the world did she know about this Jesus? In his anger and guilt he tossed the note aside and quickly forgot it’s warning.
But someone had noticed it. Years later Matthew remembered that Mrs. Pilate knew something no one else did on that day. As he wrote his account of the day of Christ’s death he included that fact that amidst all the evil someone did stand up for Jesus’ innocence. It was not one of the 11 remaining disciples, they had all fled, it was not the hight priest who know the scriptures and prophecies about the Messiah, it was not Governor Pilate, who could not find any fault in Jesus and had the authority to set Him free. No, it was a woman, wife to the very who could have changed things that day and didn’t.
Ultimately though, I wonder, what good Mrs. Pilate’s message did? It did not change the outcome. Pilate still gave the death sentence. Jesus’ pain and sufferings only got worse after the delivery of Mrs. Pilate’s note. Scripture tells us that Pilate made the choice to free a condemned robber and have Jesus flogged, immediately after receiving the warning form his wife.
So what was the point? Why bother mentioning it at all if it was such a mute point? Why is it recorded in history that this wife’s warning to her husband went unheeded?
Mrs. Pilate’s dream certainly came from God. God chose her to deliver a simple message. Not a message to Pilate only but a message to God’s own beloved Son and a message to us. God knew that Mrs. Pilate (how I wish I had a more personal name for this courageous woman) would be unable to sit by silent while an innocent Man suffered. She was taking a stand for justice and speaking for the One who would not speak in His own defense. From this one verse in Matthew, I learn that Pilate’s wife was no ordinary woman for her time. She was sensitive to spiritual matters and able to discern that her dream carried an important message, she cared about the plight of the innocent, she was courageous and willing to risk her own position with her husband to give him the message that had been given her. But that is just about all we know about her. Did she go to bed discouraged that night? What did Christ’s death mean to her? We can only imagine the agony she must have suffered.
What is more important here though, is not what we can learn about her, but what we can learn about Jesus. The Bible tells us that every verse contained in it speaks of Him. Jesus knew that even though she was pleading His case the day would end in His death. It must have been a comfort to Him to know that there was one who was willing to step up for Him. Looking to the future, thinking of you and I He knew that, in this chapter of anguish, we needed to have some hope. I love the fact that the vessel He chose to deliver that hope was a heathen and a woman.
This verse is all about hope. Hope that in the darkest day there will be someone to stand for those who are unjustly harmed. Hope that God will use those who seem so unlikely to us, to work His perfect will. Hope that, even as women, we are not expected to sit silently and watch others suffer. Hope that our good work that seems to be a complete flop may one day touch thousands. Most importantly there is hope because Jesus was “just,” completely innocent, and yet still went to the cross to take pay the price for our disobedience.
Isaiah 53:4-6
“4 Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
“For He [God] made Him [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Cor. 5:21
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