Yesterday, we had said that while Mary had gone with the other women to the tomb with their spices, Cleopas stayed behind to get ready to leave Jerusalem. At the tomb, Mary had seen the angels and returned home to tell Cleopas what had happened.
What is more, during the time that Cleopas and Mary were getting ready to leave, the women as a body told Peter and John what they had been told by the angels. Peter and John then set out for the garden sepulchre. They entered the tomb. John believed in the resurrection. Peter and John returned, told Cleopas and Mary and the others what they had seen, and then—again it is most remarkable—Cleopas and Mary went right on packing. And as soon as they were ready, they left Jerusalem.
Did this Palestinian peasant couple believe in Christ’s resurrection? Certainly not! Did they come to believe, as they eventually did, because of their own or someone else’s wishful thinking or a hallucination? Not at all. Here was a couple who were so sad at the loss of the Lord Jesus, so miserable, so preoccupied with the reality of His death, that they would not even take twenty or thirty minutes to investigate the reports of His resurrection personally.
Now if someone should say, “But surely they must not have heard the reports; you are making that part of the story up,” the objection is refuted by the very words of Cleopas. For when Jesus eventually appeared to them on the road and asked why they were so sad, Cleopas answered by telling Him first about the crucifixion and then adding, “Yea, and certain women also of our company amazed us, who were early at the sepulchre; and when they found not his body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. And certain of those who were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even as the women had said; but they saw him not” (Luke 24:22-24).
What is it that accounts for a belief in the resurrection on the part of Christ’s disciples? The answer is nothing but the resurrection itself! If we cannot account for the belief of the disciples in that way, we are faced with one of the greatest enigmas in world history.
If we account for it by means of a real resurrection, then Christianity is understandable. It is genuine. And it offers a sure and certain hope to us all.
At this point Cleopas and Mary had not yet believed, and they were going home. It was all over. The dream was dead, and they were sad. As they made their solitary way along the road to Emmaus Jesus came, but they didn’t recognize Him. The last time they had seen Him He was beaten, marred, and bleeding. Here He was in a glorified body, and they didn’t know who He was.
So as they went on their way Jesus drew near to them, as He does to all who walk the Emmaus road, and asked them why they were sad. Now, if there was ever a reply that was filled with misconceptions and misunderstandings, it was this one. What did they say? They said, “Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?” Jesus said, “What things?”
They answered, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people; and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. But we hoped that it had been he who should have redeemed Israel” (verse 18-21).
He who should have redeemed Israel! How odd that they should have used that word. For, of course, that was precisely the reason for Christ’s death on the cross. He was redeeming men. However, they were thinking of a different kind of redemption. Jesus Christ was redeeming them from sin, and all they were thinking of was a deliverance from Rome.
