And he said to them, What discourses are these which pass between you as ye walk, and are downcast?
The risen Jesus catches up with two disciples walking away from Jerusalem. He does not announce Himself. Instead He asks about their conversation and their heavy faces. Why does He ask what He already knows — and why were followers of Christ sad on the very morning of His resurrection?
The verse ends with the two travellers halting in the road. That detail links them to the mood of the whole group of disciples that morning.
Here, in Mark, the disciples' unwillingness to believe Mary's testimony is given prominence, and also their unwillingness to believe the two who had travelled that day to Emmaus... The state of the disciples when Mary came to them we also learn only here. "They mourned and wept" (v. 10). This fits perfectly with the behaviour of Cleopas and his companion, who, when a Man they took for a stranger spoke to them, "stood still, looking sad."
Their direction of travel said as much as their faces. They were leaving the very place where the mystery would have been cleared up.
Their backs were toward Jerusalem. They had satisfied themselves that His body was not in the tomb. Their faces were toward Emmaus. It was the third day, and it was all over. No wonder their hearts were sad.
So what lay underneath the sadness?
What was the root of the disappointment of the Emmaus disciples? This — they were occupied with their own thoughts about Christ rather than God's thoughts. Their minds were filled with human thoughts, so they could not grasp divine thoughts. They were "slow of heart to believe" all that the prophets have spoken. Unbelief was behind their disappointment. Unbelief turned their feet away from the Lord's people. Unbelief set their tongues reasoning. It filled their hearts with sadness. It held their eyes shut, so that they could not recognise the Lord.
The problem was not that they had aimed too high in what they hoped from Jesus.
They had decided between themselves that it was no longer any use trying to stand for the One they had followed. Everything had failed. The One they supposed was to redeem Israel had been crucified like the worst of criminals. They thought that was the end, and so they had lost hope. But it was not that they had expected too much of the Lord Jesus — they did not expect enough.
He does not open with proof. He asks a question, and lets them speak first.
Notice the way the Lord deals with these two erring saints. It should be a great help to all who seek to shepherd the Lord's people, and to those who are pastors by a divine gift. He Himself knew all their thoughts and the cause of their trouble. Yet by His questions He draws out what was in their minds. In other words, He led them to empty their hearts before He speaks a single word. He might have said at once, "Here am I, risen from the dead." But first He sought to bring them into a right state of soul, so that they could take in the truth of His resurrection.
Even His follow-up, "What things?", is deliberate.
He replies, "What things?" How skilful His love is in drawing out their hearts! Well He knew, but there is nothing so skilful in this world as love, nothing.
He meets their sadness in person, not by sending word. And He comes while they are walking the wrong way.
He sends no messenger to call these straying saints back to His presence... Is there a wandering sheep — dejected and disappointed? Look: "JESUS HIMSELF" will draw near to restore... How different, sadly, is the way we often treat one another. Does a brother wander away from us? How quick we are to draw away from him. But on the day the Emmaus saints drew away, Jesus Himself drew near. What a Saviour! When we were far away He came near, and when we draw away He draws near.
Their sadness read the events wrongly. Even so, it was honest, and He valued that.
The Lord delights in reality, in truthfulness of heart. These disciples, as they walked, were sad. That sadness was real; it was the feeling that matched their circumstances, as they judged them to be... And Jesus loves that reality. Jesus loves that everything about us should have the stamp of truth in the inward parts. And He joins Himself to these sad ones. He shows them that the things which had happened at Jerusalem, as they were saying, were really for them, and not against them. He makes what was shaking their faith confirm it.
He meets their sorrow by opening the Scriptures to them.
This use of the Scriptures by our Lord is very significant. The word of God is the truest, deepest, weightiest testimony. That is so even though the risen Jesus Himself was there, the living demonstration of it in person... The word of God — here the Old Testament interpreted by Jesus — is the most valuable means for finding out the mind of God.
- Sad — They stood still, looking sad, their backs to Jerusalem. Their faces matched their feet.
- Cause — They held their own thoughts about Christ instead of God's. Unbelief set them reasoning and kept their eyes shut.
- Question — He knew everything already, yet He asked. They emptied their hearts before He spoke a word of truth.
- Nearness — He sent no messenger. On the day they drew away, Jesus Himself drew near.
- Cure — He met honest grief with the Scriptures. They are the surest testimony to the mind of God, even with the risen Christ standing there in person.
And one [of them], named Cleopas, answering said to him, Thou sojournest alone in Jerusalem, and dost not know what has taken place in it in these days?
On the day Jesus rose, two friends were walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus. They were going over the events that had shattered them. A stranger falls in beside them and asks what they are discussing. Cleopas is amazed. He assumes this man must be the only person in the city who has not heard.
The Gospel names the speaker but tells us little else about him. One reference work gives the bare facts and a possible link to another name:
He was one of the two disciples walking to Emmaus on the day of the resurrection, when the Lord drew near and talked with them. He is thought to be the same person as Cleophas (or Clopas in the Greek), mentioned in John 19:25.
Before Cleopas spoke, the Lord had asked why the two were downcast. One writer traces both the sadness and the reasoning back to a single root:
He remarked on that sadness as He asked what they had been talking about. Sadly, unbelief was the cause of both. If only they had believed what they had so often heard, they would have escaped all of it — the reasoning, the sadness, and the weary walk.
Jesus answers Cleopas with two words: "What things?" Yet He knew those things better than anyone alive. Some have taken such questions as proof that He was ignorant of the answers. One writer rejects that, and points to this very exchange:
So Scripture gives no ground at all for the claim that when He "asked for information, it was because He wanted it" — that is, because He did not know. You do not need to study Socrates to know that a question can be put for the sake of the person questioned. Luke 24:18-19 shows it clearly. The Lord's "What things?" did not come from ignorance of His own recent sufferings. He asked only to teach the two disciples.
He questioned them to open their hearts before He gave them the truth:
He Himself knew all their thoughts and the cause of their trouble. Yet He used His questions to draw out what was in their minds. In other words, He led them to empty their hearts before He speaks a single word. He might have said at once, "Here am I, risen from the dead." But He sought first to bring them into a right state of soul, ready to take in the truth of His resurrection.
What drew Jesus on that road was not how much they understood, but how genuine they were:
The Lord sometimes puts Himself in our company so that we may learn just where we are in the history of our souls. He likes us to be real and genuine... And what does He find here? I have no doubt this was very attractive to His heart: a sad couple who understood little, yet a couple deeply interested in Him and in His things.
Cleopas could not imagine that anyone in the city had missed these events. He was speaking to the one Man who knew them from the inside:
Little did Cleopas know how deeply acquainted this "Stranger" was with these things. What follows shows it. Their hearts burned as the unknown speaker drew them like a magnet to the Scriptures they had overlooked in unbelief.
Where the ESV has "visitor," older translations read "stranger." The word was truer than Cleopas knew:
He truly was a "Stranger in Jerusalem." The city refused her rightful Lord, rejected Him, crucified Him. He, for whom there was no room in the inn, and who had nowhere to lay His head, was pushed aside for Barabbas the robber. For His love He received hatred... Yet He who is a stranger in Jerusalem seeks to be a resident in the hearts of His people.
Having drawn out their story, Jesus did not settle the matter by simply revealing Himself. He opened the Old Testament instead:
The accuracy and light of the Scriptures showed where men, and even believers, had overlooked much. The Jews had been content with the general testimony to the nation's hopes and the glory of the kingdom. But, as the Lord showed them, they had passed by what was deeper and now most essential — the sufferings of Christ. He drew the evidence from the written Word of the Old Testament, rather than resting on present facts alone or on His own fresh revelations.
- Stranger: Cleopas thought this man knew least about the events. He knew them best. He had lived them.
- Sadness: their downcast walk and endless reasoning had one cause. They did not believe what they had already been told.
- Questions: the Lord asked what He already knew. A question can serve the person answering it. He empties the heart before He fills it.
- Honesty: what drew Him was not their understanding but their honesty. They were sad and confused, yet still deeply interested in Him.
- Residence: the One treated as a stranger in His own city asks to be no visitor but a permanent dweller in the heart.
And he said to them, What things? And they said to him, The things concerning Jesus the Nazaraean, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people;
A stranger joins two travellers on the road to Emmaus and asks what they have been discussing. Their answer sums up all they knew about Jesus — and all they thought they had lost. What they say about Him is true. But it stops far short of the whole truth.
The Lord already knew the whole story. He asked anyway. One writer sees a purpose in that: He wanted them to speak their sorrow out loud before He answered it.
Everyone who seeks to care for the Lord's people, and everyone who is a pastor by a gift from God, should find great help in watching how the Lord dealt with these two straying believers. He knew all their thoughts and the cause of their trouble, yet He used questions to draw out what was in their minds. In other words, He led them to empty their hearts before He spoke a single word. He could have said at once, "Here am I, risen from the dead." But He first wanted to bring their souls into the right state to understand the truth of His resurrection.
Another writer hears love in the same question.
He answers, "What things?" How skilful His love is at drawing out their hearts! He knew well enough, but there is nothing in this world so skilful as love, nothing… Now you can see how much they knew, and what their hearts were tied to concerning His Person.
Scripture gives a plain test of a true prophet, and Jesus met it in full.
What abundant testimony we have in Scripture that the Christ was the Prophet (see Luke 24:19; John 3:2; 4:19; 6:14; 9:17; 7:40; Acts 2:22; 3:22). Now, a prophet was known by two things — what he said, and what he did. No one ever spoke like Christ. He spoke as one who had authority, and His word was always with power. No one ever did such miracles as He did.
They do not only report what the crowds thought. They add God's own estimate of Him, and then they name who was to blame for His death.
They simply stated the facts about Jesus of Nazareth. He was a prophet mighty in deed and word, not only in the eyes of the people, but "before God" — something no honest mind could fail to see. They also knew that the chief priests and rulers were fully responsible for handing Him over to be condemned, and for crucifying Him. They did not mention Rome or Pilate.
Their confession was true. It was also too small to carry them through His death.
To them Jesus of Nazareth was "a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people," and there their faith stopped. They did not yet see in Him the Son of God whom death could not hold. So to them His death was the sad end of His story… Their disappointment grew out of hopes they had cherished that the Word of God never gave them. They expected the glory without the sufferings.
They had hoped for rescue by power. He was about to teach them a redemption of another kind.
He drew out their thoughts to lead them into the truth. The sorrows of His rejection seemed to them impossible to explain, and quite against what they expected. He wanted them to see that the Word of God required those very sorrows. Then those sorrows would confirm their faith instead of endangering it. They had looked for redemption by power. Now, in His suffering to the very end, the Just for the unjust, they learn redemption by blood — and not only that, but a new life out of death, and greater than death.
The problem was not that they had no thoughts about Christ. It was whose thoughts they were.
But what was the root of the disappointment of the Emmaus disciples? This — their minds were full of their own thoughts about Christ instead of God's thoughts… Unbelief turned their feet away from the Lord's people. Unbelief set their tongues reasoning, filled their hearts with sadness, and held their eyes shut, so that they could not recognise the Lord.
- Question — He knew every detail, yet He asked. He wanted them to empty their hearts before He filled them.
- Confession — A prophet was known by what he said and what he did. No one ever matched Him in either.
- Ceiling — Their faith stopped at "prophet". They had not yet seen the Son of God whom death could not hold, so the cross looked to them like the end.
- Correction — They looked for redemption by power. He taught them redemption by blood, the Just for the unjust.
- Cause — Under the sadness lay their own thoughts about Christ in place of God's. That unbelief kept their eyes shut.