Gregoreo

In seminary, I had a dear friend named Gregory. Soon after graduation, he and his family went to Africa while my family and I went to Asia as missionaries. In our Greek class, we came across the word gregoreo, “to stay alert,” and realized the meaning of his name.

The Lord Jesus has been warning the disciples about the need to be alert, gregoreo. He said a parable,

“When a master goes away on a journey, he leaves his house with his servants giving them permission to do his work and assigning a doorkeeper saying, “Be alert” (gregoreo). (Mark 13:34)

Further,

“In the same way, you stay alert (gregoreo) since you do not know when the master of the house will return.” (13:35)

Jesus finished his end-time sermon (Mark 13) with the same exhortation:

“Stay alert” (gregoreo). (13:37)

Even with these repeated warnings, it would take the disciples more exhortation and time to understand the importance of staying alert (gregoreo). They reached Gethsemane within the Mt. of Olives, a place with a press to make olive oil (the meaning of the Hebrew name, gat shemanim). There, Jesus instructed his eight disciples, “Sit here while I pray” (14:32) while taking with him Peter, James, and John (14:33). To them, he shared his heart:

“My soul is greatly grieved, even to the point of death.” (14:34)

This was a common phrase in the psalms, referring to a psalmist’s unimaginable anxiety as s/he faced persecution, chasing, and death. Saying this, Jesus asked them for a favor:

“Stay here and stay alert (gregoreo).” (14:34)

If the three disciples were paying attention, they would have recollected what Jesus had repeatedly been saying: “Stay alert.” But they weren’t. While Jesus went a little further to pray, they fell asleep (14:37a). Returning to them, Jesus said to Peter,

“Simon, are you sleeping? Aren’t you strong to stay alert (gregoreo) for one hour?” (13:37b)

Then he said to the three,

“Stay alert (gregoreo) and pray so that you might not enter testing. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (14:38)

Jesus’s exhortation didn’t have any impact on the three; they were asleep again after two more times of appeals because their eyes were heavy, a side effect of three glasses of wine (14:39–41a). Finally, he woke them to say it was his time to be handed over to sinners and the betrayer (14:41b–42).

While the disciples were sleeping, unable to stay alert (gregoreo), the Lord was repeating a simple prayer:

“Abba, Father, all things are possible to you. Take away this cup from me, but not what I want but what you want” (14:36).

Trice, in an hour, the Lord Jesus said these words: a confession, a request, and a promise of surrender. The confession was that everything was possible for the Father to do, even bypass Jesus’s cross-death to bring salvation to the people. God wasn’t constrained by any theology, not even the OT law of requiring a blood sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. All things were possible for the Father.

The request was if he would remove that cup of suffering and death from Jesus. But that request was soon accompanied by a promise of surrender: “Not what I want but what you want.” In his life, the spirit and the flesh were willing to stay alert and submit to God’s will.

The Lord expects that of us: a willingness to surrender and stay alert.