Cleopas was amazed that anyone could have missed what had happened. Barnes calls it "an expression of surprise that he should be unacquainted with an affair that had made so much noise." Gill says the events were "so notorious, that every one must know them." To Cleopas, the stranger must be the only person in Jerusalem who had not heard. He did not know that he was speaking to the very One the news was about, because "their eyes were holden" (Luke 24:16).

Jesus answered with a short question: "What things?" (Luke 24:19). That opened the way for the two to tell the whole story: Jesus of Nazareth, "a prophet mighty in deed and word," condemned and crucified, their hope that He would redeem Israel, and the women's report that He was alive (Luke 24:19-24). Jesus then explained from the Scriptures why these things had to happen (Luke 24:25-27).

"Art thou only a stranger" combines monos (alone, only) with paroikeis, a verb meaning to live somewhere as a foreigner or sojourner. Barnes explains that the word "stranger" here "denotes one who had come to reside at a place only for a 'time.'"

"These days" are the days of the trial and crucifixion. The two said, "to day is the third day since these things were done" (Luke 24:21). Cleopas is named only here in the Gospels' account of the walk, and his companion is not named.

Cleopas knew all the facts. He could tell the story of the cross from beginning to end. What he did not yet know was its meaning, and he did not see that Jesus was walking beside him. Matthew Henry writes, "Those are strangers in Jerusalem, that know not of the death and sufferings of Jesus." Yet these two, who knew the events, still needed Jesus to show them why "Christ" ought "to have suffered these things" (Luke 24:26).

God was at work in a way they could not yet see. The One they called a stranger was the risen Lord, and He did not correct Cleopas's question. He used it to lead them to the Scriptures and, at last, to recognize Him (Luke 24:27, 31).