True Story
When you are not sure what is true, you may need to tell a little story instead.
While they were going, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests everything that had happened. After the priests had assembled with the elders, they devised a plan to give a large sum of money to the soldiers, telling them, "You must say, "His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.' If this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble." So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story is still told among the Jews to this day. Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." - Matthew 28:11-20
The chief priests knew what people were telling them must be true, that the body of Jesus was gone, but what could the reason be?
Surely, he could not have raised himself from the dead. That just wasn't possible.
So, something else must have happened. Maybe the disciples wanted people to believe Jesus was raised, so they took the body.
It is a logical assumption of what must have happened.
Once we settle on a belief, in this case that resurrection is not possible, the possible solutions to the puzzle all fall within the realm of reason.
To the chief priests, there had to be trickery and foul play involved, since nothing else made sense.
We sometimes fall for the same logic, don't we?
What we believe about someone helps us shape the set of possible outcomes, and we settle on the most logical, when actually it is the solution that best fits our perception of the truth.
To some, the story must be true since nothing else makes sense.
But there will come a time, when the solution doesn't make sense. Then what?
More to come...