Week 37 Matthew 27
At the Lord’s trial Pilate was the presiding judge and a couple of things were perking in Pilate’s head. For one he was perplexed that Jesus refused to defend himself. And for two Pilate suspected that envy was the big motivator driving the religious leaders. So he sensed that something fishy dubious & questionable was going on.
But there was an added factor. Pilate’s wife told him about a dream she’d had the night before. Because of that dream she had – she told him – suffered a great deal today.
She also told him a) her own opinion about Jesus and b) what action she figured Pilate should take: don’t have anything to do with that innocent man.
So this left Pilate with his own suspicions and added to that was his wife’s dream.
It’s hard to know how seriously Pilate took the dream. On the one hand he did make a weak effort to cut Jesus loose (he publicly said he couldn’t find any crime Jesus was guilty of). But on the other hand he did turn the Lord over to the lynch-mob in the end.
Dreams are a bit tricky. They can have a pretty powerful psychic impact when they occur. Then the sun comes up and they can lose some of their punch.
I don’t figure there’s a general lesson here to act-on-your-dreams. But in retrospect his wife’s dream-advice was something Pilate should have paid more careful attention to.
Note: quotes from Matthew 27:19 (NIV)