Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

Is there a man alive whose wife has never said, "You should have listened to me?"

The pages of history are red with the blood of men who should have listened to their wives.

Calpurnia pleaded with Caesar on that fatal Ides of March not to leave the house.

She had a restless night, and three times she cried out in her dream for help.

It was a sign to her, and she urged her stubborn husband to heed her warning.

But Caesar was not about to join that pathetic minority who give credence to the silly feelings of their wives.

He would rather die than admit a woman's intuition had any validity, and so he went out for the last time and died.

In our text we are looking at another Roman leader who was equally heedless of his wife's warning.

Claudia Procula was her name, and she was the wife of Pilate.

She was the only person who came to the defense of Jesus while he was on trial.

Jesus would not defend Himself, but Claudia had a dream about Jesus, and she sent word to her husband not to have anything to do with this innocent man.

In typical macho fashion Pilate ignored the message and made the biggest blunder of his life.

He sent Jesus to the cross.

Because he did not listen to his wife he has been despised all through history on a level next to Judas.

Jesus would have died anyway, for it was His plan to do so, and the Jewish leaders would have defied Pilate.

Nevertheless, by listening to his wife he could have become a noble hero.

There could have been St.

Pilate churches all through history, and Pilate could have become a popular Christian name.

But Pilate blew it because he would not listen to his wife.

Her lone voice said to Pilate, He is innocent, and it is wrong to condemn an innocent man.

Don't do it.

But the loud voice of the mob mobilized by the enemies of Jesus cried out for His blood.

Who do you listen to-a mere wife or mean crowd?

The majority of men in Pilate's sandals would probably make the same choice.

What does a woman know about the ways of the world and political maneuvering?

Am I supposed to make major judgments based on her dreams?

Nonsense!

I have to deal with political realities, and this clamoring crowd is no dream.

These people are out for blood, and if I don't give it to them it may be mine they will be after.

I know the man is innocent, and nothing He has done is worthy of death.

Yet what is to be gained by sparing one innocent man and making a mass of people mad at you.

Better one innocent man dies unjustly than risk many being hurt or killed in a riot.

Pilate did resist the injustice before him.

He tried to get Jesus released, but they choose Barabbas instead.

He did wash his hands of the whole ordeal and say I am innocent of this man's blood.

But in the final analysis he refused to listen to his wife, and handed Jesus over to be crucified.

He is now infamous for being the man who sent the Savior of the world to the cross.

From the beginning of the second century Christians have recited the Apostle Creed which begins, "I believe in God the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ His Son who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate."

Caesar only died because he did not listen to his wife.

Pilate lives forever in infamy because he did not listen to his wife.

It is high risk to ignore your wife.

If this verse tells us nothing else, it tells us that a wife may have insight that a husband lacks, and, therefore, it is wise to listen to her.

This dream Claudia had spoke to her, and she made it clear to Pilate, but he did not listen.

It speaks to us also and we are wise if we give heed.

This dream did not come to Pilate himself, but came through his wife.

God could have just as easily had Pilate dream the dream, but He did not do so.

He gave the dream to Claudia, and she, because she was a loving and concerned wife, sent the message of it to her husband.

God makes it clear that we do not get all truth and guidance directly.

Often we get it through others who love us and want God's best for us.

It is a terrible pride that keeps men from listening to their wives or others who care about them.

If God wants to tell us something a man thinks, he can talk to me directly, and not go through my wife, mother,grandmother, or any other person in my life.

Claudia obviously loved her stubborn husband or she would not have sent him the warning.

But Pilate was not open to advice and guidance from such a source.

Woe to the man who will not listen to the dreams of others as possible guidance for him.

He would not go to school

Where the teacher was his wife.

Thus, he became a fool,

And missed his greatest chance in life.

Pilate did not pay any attention to the dream, and the fact is, most people pay it no attention, but we want to focus on it, for it was the only positive note in the journey of Christ to the cross.

Harold Bell Wright in, The 13 Truly Great Things Of Life says, "Of the 13 truly great things of life, dreams are first."

He goes on to say that what many of us become begins with our dreams.

This is certainly true for Pilate's wife.

She would have been a famous lady of her day, but her lasting fame for all time was due to this dream she had that put her into God's revelation.

It is a mystery why God allowed the record of her dream to be recorded by Matthew.

It almost seems totally irrelevant, for Pilate does not seem to have been impressed, and as far as we know it had no effect on the outcome of the trial of Jesus.

We would not expect it to prevent the cross, for that was the goal of Jesus.

He would not inspire a dream to prevent His own goal.

The seeming irrelevance of the dream is what lead Martin Luther to the conviction that the dream must have been inspired by Satan as a last ditch effort to stop Jesus from going to the cross.

The evidence will not support such a conviction.

Pilate already knew that the Jewish leaders had handed Jesus over out of envy.

He was working for the release of Jesus, but gave in to the persistent demands of the Jewish leaders and their rabble-rousers.

The dream of his wife only confirmed what he already knew, but it did not altar the outcome because of the bitter hatred of the leaders of Israel.

The point is, whether God or Satan inspired the dream, it does not seem to have had any measurable impact on the situation for good or evil.

So why is it here?

For one answer we can look at Matthew's interest in dreams.

He is the dream collector of the New Testament.

The word for dream here is ONAR, and it is used just six times in the New Testament, and all six come from the pen of Matthew.

If not for Matthew's interest in dreams we would have none of the four references to the dreams of Joseph by which he was guided to receive the baby Jesus as virgin born, and by which he was led to flee to Egypt, and later to bring Jesus back to Israel.

The wise men were also warned in a dream to flee from Herod.

Five of the six dreams deal with the birth and childhood of Jesus.

Only the dream of Pilate's wife deals with the other end of his life-his trial and death.

What are we to make of these facts?

1.

It is the only dream in the Bible of a woman.

2. It is the only dream concerning the end of Christ's life.

3. It was a disturbing dream that was more like a nightmare.

It is only speculation, but here is what Edwin Markam, the poet, felt Claudia's dream was all about.

It appeared first in 1902 on the cover of an American magazine called Success.

It is to long to share it all, but here is the essence of it.

Oh, let the Galilean go, strike off his cruel bond:

Behold the fathomless silence and those eyes that look

beyond.

There's more than mortal in that face, -than earthly in this

hour:

The fate that now is in the bud will soon be in the flower.

O Pilate, I have suffered many things in dream today.

Because of this strange teacher of the strait and mystic way.

I saw Him hanging on a cross, where the stones of Golgoth

are:

Then laid, at last, in a guarded tomb, under the evening star.