You may not realize it, but you’re faced with a decision that will define your life. Everyone around you is screaming for you to do something you know isn’t the right thing. You want peace, though you realize it comes at a high price.

But one person, one whose opinion should carry significant weight, begs you to ignore the crowds and act justly. 

This is the story of Pontius Pilate, whose wife tried to stop him from killing an innocent man. And history is forever marked by Pilate’s choice.

The Case That Defined Him

Pilate, a Roman governor over Judea, was proud, shrewd, ambitious and murderous. Those who opposed him sometimes met a permanent end. 

Then one day his leadership was put to the ultimate test as Jewish leaders demanded justice, Roman-style, against a man they said had violated their laws. That man was Jesus.

Pilate said to them, “Take Him yourselves and judge Him by your own law.” The Jews said to him, “It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death.” This was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to show by what kind of death He was going to die. —John 18:31-32 (NIV)

The governor knew envy was behind the Jewish leaders’ call for Jesus’ execution (Matthew 27:18). He himself declared Jesus was without guilt (John 19:6). But his own thoughts on the case were being drowned out by the raucous crowd.

A Fateful Dream

As Pilate weighed his decision, he received a warning from a most unlikely source.

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 today in a dream because of Him.”—Matthew 27:19 (NIV)

What kind of a dream would leave her so terrified that she would muster up the courage to interrupt her husband at such a critical moment? Whatever she saw, she knew it to be real and true and of the utmost urgency. She was compelled to speak.

As Charles Spurgeon theorized, “She may have seen in a vision the Just One coming in the clouds of heaven. Her mind may have pictured Him upon the great white throne, even the man whom her husband was about to condemn to die. She may have seen her husband brought out to judgment, himself a prisoner to be tried by the Just One, who had previously been accused before him.”

Choosing Pacification over Justice

Pilate was faced with a hard choice. If he let Jesus go, word of the ensuing chaos under his rule would reach Rome. His good standing hung in the balance. But if he succumbed to the cry of the masses, he would be killing an innocent man—maybe someone greater than a mere man.

He made his choice.

So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.”—Matthew 27:24 (ESV)

So the soldiers crucified Jesus, and He died. 

Though Pilate proclaimed otherwise, the blood of Jesus was on his hands. He knew he was doing the wrong thing—his wife’s dream reinforced that belief—but he was too weak to stand up for justice. Self-interest won over righteousness. 

Whose hands were clean? His wife’s were. Her name isn’t recorded, but her righteousness and courage are.

Yes, Jesus was born to die. But woe to the man who sent Jesus to His death. 

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.—1 Peter 3:18 (NIV)

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This is Part 4 in a series about biblical women—some named, some not, some honorable, some less so. But all have earned a place in scripture, and all have important lessons to teach us.