In yesterday’s study, we concluded by saying that the first Mary that John mentions should be seen as the wife of Cleopas.
For one thing, John seems to be distinguishing between two different Marys in the second part of the verse—Mary, the wife of Cleopas, and Mary Magdalene. At least this is the most natural way of interpreting the sentence. Second, if this is not the case, then either there is an unidentified Mary in the story (making five persons) or else there is Mary who is the sister of the virgin Mary.
The first case is unlikely in itself as well as unlike John’s literary style. And the second is unlikely simply because it would mean assuming the peculiar situation of having two sisters both of whom are named Mary in the same family. These reasons seem to point to the wife of Cleopas being named Mary, a woman who (we are told elsewhere) was also the mother of James the younger and Joses and had been a follower of Jesus as well as a helper of Jesus and His immediate disciples (Mark 5:40-41; Mark 16:1 and Luke 24:16).
The whole of the argument means that, after His appearance to Mary Magdalene in the garden early in the morning, Jesus next appeared (not counting a private unrecorded appearance to Peter) to a man and his wife, Cleopas and Mary, and this before He appeared to any of the so-called “regular” disciples.
Now someone will no doubt be asking why this should have been so. But the answer is not at all mysterious. It is simply that at this time Cleopas and Mary were among the very few of Christ’s disciples who knew of the crucifixion and who were therefore ready to learn about the resurrection.
And we must remember at this point that the disciples, who were last seen in the garden where Jesus has stopped in the midst of His normal nightly return to Bethany from Jerusalem, had scattered and had no doubt returned to Bethany. The psychology of the situation demands that they would have fled away from Jerusalem, not toward it. Reason dictates that they would have hoped to collect again at the place to which they had been heading. At any rate, with the exception of Peter and John, who had followed those who arrested Jesus, none of the disciples are mentioned as being in Jerusalem until after the resurrection. They would not have traveled on the Sabbath. And it is likely, therefore, that until the day of the resurrection the fact of the crucifixion was known only to Peter and John, the women who were present at the cross, including Jesus’ mother, and whatever other acquaintances of Jesus were present in Jerusalem for the Passover.
Here we must reconstruct what had happened. Mary, the wife of Cleopas, we know, had been present at the foot of the cross. She had seen the Lord Jesus Christ crucified, the nails driven into His hands and the cross erected. She saw the blood. She heard Him cry out. She experienced the darkness. Finally, she saw the spear driven into His side. Mary would have had no doubt at all that Christ was dead. And neither would Cleopas, who may have witnessed many of these things also.
When the crucifixion was over Mary went home. The Passover came, and Mary and Cleopas observed it like good Jews. They waited in sadness over the holidays—from the day of the crucifixion until the day of the resurrection—for the same restraints that kept the women from going to the sepulchre to anoint the body also would have kept Cleopas and Mary from returning home to Emmaus. The morning after the Saturday Sabbath then came. Mary went to the tomb to anoint the body with the other women, leaving Cleopas to get their things together. She saw the angels, returned to tell Cleopas about it, and then—and now look how utterly remarkable this is—joined him to preparing to leave. So far from her thinking was any idea of the literal truth of Christ’s bodily resurrection!
