“Price of Deception”

Matthew 28: 12, 13: “And when they had assembled with the elders and counseled together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, and said, ‘You are to say, “His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep.”’” So much trouble to maintain the deception—the bribery, the lying to Pilate—wouldn’t it have been simpler for the chief priests to just believe the soldier’s story; believe in the resurrection? And the worst part: Unlike the resurrection, their deception was powerless to save their souls.