GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 13:34
Awake and Alert
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), distracted driving led to 3,308 reported traffic fatalities in 2022. Distracted driving can come from too little sleep; drugs (legal and illegal); moving objects in the car (insects, pets, children); adjusting the radio or air conditioning; and eating or drinking. The leading cause of fatal distracted-driving accidents is mind-wandering (62%) or lack of attention. The second leading cause of distracted driving accidents (12%) is cell phone use. Traveling at 60 mph, one advances about 88 feet in one second—nearly the length of four parking spaces.
Jesus used the metaphor of a homeowner taking a long journey as he tried to describe for his disciples the period between his first and second advents. He said, “As a man going away on a journey, having left his house, having given to his servants authority, to each his work, and to the doorkeeper, he commanded that he stay alert and watch.” (Mark 13:34) The homeowner commanded the doorkeeper, a reference to all his followers, to “stay alert.” The word Mark used for “stay alert” (γρηγορέω, gregoreo) has no simple English equivalent, for it carries the double meaning of wakefulness and alertness. The two are not the same, for one can be awake without being alert. Every student knows that staying awake and staying alert are not the same, for the eyes can be open, the head up, and the face toward the teacher, while the mind is on the ball field, lunch, finances, or the person sitting in the next row. So, as Jesus described it here, alertness means being both awake and alert.
For me, and for every believer, Jesus’ message is to stay spiritually awake and spiritually alert, lest we experience the crash of a distracted Christianity.
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