Matthew 28:11-15

Matthew 28:11-15 
English Standard Version (ESV)

  All it would have taken would be for one of the disciples to confess that they had made the whole thing up.  Most of the disciples died violent deaths under persecution -- any of them, at any time, could have said that it wasn't real, that they hadn't really seen Jesus, that this story wasn't worth dying for.  The whole movement would have foundered.
  But none of them did.  I believe it was Pascal who said, "I believe the witnesses who get their throats cut."  The people willing to die for what they claimed to have seen and experienced are compelling evidence that Jesus rose from the dead, that he was who he says he was.
  If you're interested in reading more about the reasons why resurrection is the most likely answer to the questions about what really happened in those days, Lee Strobel's The Case for Christ series is a great resource for people wondering about the evidence (and counterclaims) for the historical reliability of the resurrection.  He takes a journalistic approach to the claims of Christianity and comes away with the conclusion that to believe that, in light of the facts, it's a stretch to believe anything other than the resurrection. 
  Now, as we're learning every day, the facts aren't always winning the day now, and I'm sure it wasn't terribly different back then.  Someone once said that a lie can make it halfway around the world while the truth was still putting on its shoes.  The chief priests were counting on this when they dispatched the soldiers with a fabricated story about the disciples stealing the body. 
  But the truth wins over time, and the power of the Gospel and the resurrection could not be contained by human hands.  The Good News of life emerging victorious had started to spread, and it continues to this very day!