Show Don't Tell: Matthew 28:11-15

Instead of saying "The guards were bribed to lie," count the money changing hands. While the women are on their way, some of the guards go into the city and report to the chief priests everything that had happened. The guards saw it all—the earthquake, the angel, the empty tomb. The chief priests meet with the elders and devise a plan. They give the soldiers a large sum of money: "You are to say, 'His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.'" Sleeping on guard duty is a capital offense. "If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble." So the soldiers take the money and do as they are instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day. The same leaders who paid thirty pieces of silver to buy a betrayal now pay to suppress a resurrection. Some truths can't be bought off.