{"id":9948,"date":"2021-10-29T06:37:11","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T11:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-matthew-27\/"},"modified":"2021-10-02T13:21:14","modified_gmt":"2021-10-02T18:21:14","slug":"devotional-on-matthew-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-matthew-27\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Matthew"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_15692\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15692\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5049347.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5049347-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" class=\"size-large wp-image-15692\" srcset=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5049347-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5049347-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5049347-768x576.jpg 768w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5049347-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5049347.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15692\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2014 &#8211; Looking out over Canyonlands NP from Dead Horse Point State Park, UT<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Mini-resurrection<\/p>\n<p>Matthew 27: Many bodies of believers asleep in their graves were raised.<\/p>\n<p>Like any normal person, I don\u2019t enjoy reading about the crucifixion.  I understand that it\u2019s the finest display of God\u2019s love possible and that my hope of salvation is right here in this event.  Still knowing it is all real causes me to read quickly.  I don\u2019t want to linger here.  Matthew states a detail that the other writers leave out.  I haven\u2019t thought much about this \u201cresurrection\u201d because, as I say, I\u2019m generally hurrying on to Easter morning.  However, Matthew says that as Jesus breathes his last that there\u2019s an earthquake that opens some sealed tombs.  Godly people buried there come forth, alive!  Apparently, these are not the long dead, but, like Lazarus, are people laid to rest more recently.   Residents of Jerusalem know them and respect them as people of God.  Matthew tells us that this \u201cmini-resurrection\u201d can be confirmed by many who saw them.  With that, the story hurries on to the burial of our Lord and then, hallelujah, to the empty tomb.  We don\u2019t know who these saints are, what they do and say, or what becomes of them.  I know I\u2019ve probably seen too much special effect filled TV but I can\u2019t help but imagine a spiritual tsunami being triggered by Christ\u2019s death on the cross.  In my mind\u2019s eye I see a shock wave emanating from the cross that\u2019s so powerful that when it reaches graves of recent dead believers that they\u2019re brought back to life.  After all, the cross is all about death and life.  A \u201cspill over,\u201d if you please, of the cross is this \u201cback to life\u201d event reported only by Matthew.<\/p>\n<p>Take Away: Christ\u2019s death on the cross was powerful in ways we can hardly grasp.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mini-resurrection Matthew 27: Many bodies of believers asleep in their graves were raised. Like any normal person, I don\u2019t enjoy reading about the crucifixion. I understand that it\u2019s the finest display of God\u2019s love possible and that my hope of salvation is right here in this event. Still knowing it is all real causes me [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1518,1428],"tags":[1188,678,921,1073],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9948"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9948"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15693,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9948\/revisions\/15693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}