Welcome to the Young Life Global Day of Prayer! We invite you to take the morning to linger with Jesus using the Solitude Guide as a help and to gather with your team in the afternoon or evening to pray for kids in your community, using the Guide for Teams. Thank you for joining thousands of leaders and friends around the globe as we gather before the throne of grace. Our Father is leaning forward to listen, ready to rise to show compassion to those who call upon Him. As soon as He hears, He will answer (Isaiah 30:18,19). Thank you for lifting your voice today on behalf of kids and the mission of Young Life.
GETTING SETTLED
As you enter into this time of solitude and silence, we invite you to find a place that welcomes you into the presence of Jesus and sets you free from interruptions and distractions. We practice a “ministry of availability” in Young Life. During this time, we choose to practice a “ministry of unavailability” to everyone and everything except God. We seek to give Him our undivided attention, as best we can. The best gift you can offer kids who need Jesus is a life steeped in His presence and transformed by Him.
Once you have found your place, take a few deep breaths, and let yourself begin to settle. Become still and aware of God’s presence within you and all around you. The invitation from Jesus is simple: Come as you are. Stay as long as you like. I am so very glad you’re here.
Today we will linger in Matthew 26, dwelling most deeply on the account of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane in vv. 36-46. Begin by reading Matthew 26:1-46. Read generally to gain a sense of context and the timeline of events. If it helps, imagine you are sitting across the table from one of the disciples who is recounting the last two days in the life of Jesus to you. Imagine you are hearing this account for the first time. Again, listen generally, but with great interest.
The reflection below begins with verse 36 as Peter, James and John follow Jesus into the garden. It then looks back through the events of the past 48 hours before picking up again with the passionate scene about to unfold.
GLANCING BACK
It had been a long night. In fact, it had been a long few days. It was hard not to notice the weight pressing down upon Jesus. Just 48 hours earlier He had said plainly to His friends:
“As you know, the Passover is two days away — and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”
This was not the first time Jesus had spoken of His impending death with His disciples, but they had not yet seemed to fully accept His sober assessment. Maybe if He marked the calendar and set the clock they would wake up and pay attention. His days were numbered. Powerful people were making dark plans in high places in the name of God. Who would keep company with the Lamb of God as He walked the lonely road ahead?
There was at least one person who seemed to understand where Jesus was headed and the urgency of the hour.
While the chief priests and elders gathered in a fine palace, Jesus gathered with His friends in Simon the leper’s humble home. While the rich and powerful set the miserly price point for the life of Jesus at 30 pieces of silver, an unnamed woman gave all she had to honor a leper’s faithful friend. She broke an alabaster jar of expensive perfume and poured it over the head of Jesus.
The fragrance seemed to soothe the Savior’s soul, but it provoked anger in others, so Jesus spoke plainly once again. “She has anointed me for burial,” He said frankly to a room full of scowling faces. Did they still not see and understand? Then, as if to underscore the importance of the moment, Jesus staked a claim for the woman across the vast landscape of history. She would never be forgotten. We stand on this hallowed plot of ground again today, remembering this woman, just as Jesus said.
REFLECTION:
Can you recall a time when you felt alone in a crowd, maybe even in a crowd of friends and family? What was that like for you? How did you feel? What weight were you carrying within you?
The Chief Priests priced the life of Jesus at just 30 pieces of silver. His own friends seemed to think He was not worth an alabaster jar of expensive perfume. Can you recall a time when you were devalued by others or maybe even assessed as worthless? What happened? How did it make you feel? What did you do?
Reflecting like this is not simply an exercise in self-absorption. It can help us begin to identify more deeply with the sufferings of Jesus. As we do, we are reminded He chose to identify with us in every way.
Is there something you would like to say to the Lord before moving on? Is there something He is offering to you?
BEING SEEN
Before we return to the garden with the disciples, let’s take a trip to the desert with an outcast. Let’s remember for a moment another woman who made her mark in history in Genesis 16:13.
Read Genesis 16:1-13.
Hagar was an Egyptian slave, pregnant with the child of her master and mistreated by her mistress, so she fled to the wilderness for refuge. The Lord came looking for Hagar, however, and found her downcast in the desert beside a spring. The Good Shepherd that He was, the Lord called Hagar by name, asked her a thoughtful question, offered her clear direction and covered her with a blessing. Her response suggests Yahweh had touched upon her deep desire and concern. Hagar made her mark in history by becoming the only person in Scripture who dared to name God. “You are the God who sees me,” she said. “I have now seen the One who sees me.”
REFLECTION:
Abram and Sarai used Hagar — in God’s name. God had promised them a son and now, tired of waiting, they were going to push the plan through. In their minds the end justified the means. Hagar’s dignity and well-being were of little consequence, a necessary sacrifice in service to a higher plan.
What stirs in you as you consider this account? In what ways might you identify with Abram and Sarai? Take a moment to be as honest as you can be in God’s presence. Ask Him to reveal to you anything He would like you to see.
In what ways might you see yourself in the downcast slave? Are there any ways in which you feel mistreated, forgotten or unseen?
Take a moment to allow the Lord to see you, deeply, His eyes filled with compassion, His heart filled with tender care. What comfort would the Lord like to offer you in this moment?
Most of us are a mixed bag of Abram, Sarai and Hagar. We use others, sometimes in God’s name, and we sometimes get used. Meanwhile, God is not “The One who Disregards our Dignity to Achieve His Plan.” He is consistently The One who Sees Us. He is always the One who hears our cry and searches for us in our distress. He is the God of All Comfort who consoles us and gives us cover. Just like He did for Adam and Eve in Genesis 3, He did again for Hagar in Genesis 16.
And yet, in Matthew 26 we discover something about Yahweh, maybe for the first time. He is also The One who Longs to be Seen. He is also the One who welcomes our comfort and consolation. He is deeply moved when we cover Him with our love.
In Genesis 16, the Lord had seen a poor and lowly woman in the desert, and now, 42 generations later, a lowly woman had seen the Lord at a dinner party. She saw Him standing at the edge of His own wilderness, soon to become a mistreated outcast, abandoned and alone. She saw Him as He suffered silently in a room full of friends. She saw the tenderness in His eyes and the weight on His shoulders, and she soothed His suffering by giving all she had to ease His pain.
The disciples had disregarded the dire words of Jesus about His impending death, but this woman had somehow heard Him. This woman had believed Him. This woman had stepped forward to keep company with Jesus in His darkest hour, to anoint His body for burial and to fill His lungs with the fragrance of lavish love.
REFLECTION:
Take a pause for a moment before moving into these remaining sacred moments with Jesus. Remain disengaged from others, from technology, from whatever draws your attention away from God’s presence. Stretch your legs; breathe some fresh air; take a drink of water. As we prepare to turn toward the Passion of the Christ in the garden, let’s ask God to give us eyes to see Him; for ears to hear Him; for hearts to give Him what He longs for — our attentive companionship and love.
KEEPING WATCH
The world was deep in darkness by the time Peter, James and John followed Jesus into a grove of olive trees after the Passover meal. It was probably approaching midnight. But even in the dark it was impossible not to notice the weight now bearing down fully upon Jesus.
“My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” Jesus said to His three companions. “Stay here and keep watch with me.”
Keep watch. The Romans had divided the night into four “watches” when Roman soldiers would stand guard in a world without ambient light, night vision technology or the ability to call 911. Darkness was a time of vulnerability, when soldiers stood at attention and on high alert, scanning the night sounds for danger. The Jewish people had likewise divided the night into three watches, and besides keeping an eye and ear out for danger, the Israelites laid on their beds and longed for God.
“On my bed, I remember you,” David said in Psalm 63. “I think of you through the watches of the night.” In Psalm 119 he added, “My eyes stay open through the watches of the night, that I might meditate upon your promises.” Then in Lamentations 2:19 we read words that may have been on the heart and mind of Jesus as He entered into the garden: “Arise, cry out in the night, as the watches of the night begin; pour out your heart like water in the presence of the LORD.”
“Keep watch” meant more than “keep an eye out for danger” to Jesus. It meant pay attention and lean forward with longing toward your God. Jesus hoped His friends would bear witness to His suffering and keep Him company, if only from a distance. So He asked them to keep watch, then He went a little further and began to liquidate His heart with the Father on the ground.
REFLECTION:
Where do you recognize the humanity of Jesus in this part of the passage? What does it look like?
Can you recall a time when you poured out your heart like water in God’s presence? What was this experience like for you?
There is not a day that goes by when most of us do not carry unnamed grief and sorrow. Or grief and sorrow that needs to be named again. What would it look like to “liquidate your heart” in God’s presence today? Do you sense an invitation to join Jesus before the Father with your sorrow? A simple prompt might help: Father, I am grieving ________. Or, Father, I am sad about _________.
LEANING IN
Maybe it was the effect of the bread and the wine from the Passover feast working its way through their bodies. Maybe it was the hard-to-swallow words from Jesus numbing their minds and emotions. Whatever the case, these three friends were beginning to feel drowsy as Jesus disappeared into the darkness to pray.
This was not the first time Jesus had taken these three friends aside to watch and witness a profound moment in His life. And this was not the first time the three had trouble keeping their eyes open. The first time was at the Mount of Transfiguration, when Jesus revealed the fullness of His divinity in the company of Moses and Elijah (Luke 9:28-36). Now Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane revealing something equally as essential to His disciples. The one who was fully God was also fully human. The Son of God was also the Son of Man.
Jesus had asked His friends to keep watch with Him while He prayed. Did they see Him collapse upon the ground among the twisted and gnarled trees? Did they hear Him cry out to His Father in deep distress? Did they see His heart turn into water and His sweat turn into blood (Luke 22:44)?
It had been hard not to notice the weight pressing down upon Jesus for the past few days. Did it occur to Peter, James and John that Jesus had led them into a garden whose name meant “olive press”? Did they catch sight of the stone basin that was likely nearby, the one with the millstone and the beam of wood that turned olives into oil? Were the ancient trees with silver leaves the only ones standing at attention that night as Jesus lay crushed upon the ground?
Before we judge the disciples too harshly, let’s consider our own response. “Stay here and keep watch with me,” Jesus asks. Will you bear witness to my suffering and keep me company while I pray? The invitation still stands. Are we willing to disappear into the darkness with Jesus? Our companionship means everything to Him.
Jesus has shown us what it looks like to keep company with someone who is suffering. We honor the solitary nature of suffering by staying put and keeping watch — from a distance. It is the simple practice of being present and paying attention.
Author and teacher Parker Palmer put it this way, “When we sit with a dying person, we gain two critical insights into what it means to ‘be alone together.’ First, we realize we must abandon the arrogance that often distorts our relationships — the arrogance of believing that we have the answer to the other person’s problem.” What is before us is not a “problem to be solved,” Palmer adds, but “a mystery to be honored.”
“Second,” Palmer says, we realize we must overcome “the fear that causes us to turn away when the other reveals something too vexing, painful or ugly to bear … we hold the dying person in our gaze, our hearts, knowing that it would be disrespectful to avert our eyes, that the only gift we have to offer in this moment is our undivided attention.”
Let’s now stand at the edge of mystery and give Jesus our undivided attention. He has given us the eyes of our anointed imaginations to keep watch with Him again today. Slow your pace and linger with the questions below.
Place yourself in the garden with Jesus. Imagine yourself sitting on the ground at the base of a gnarled and ancient olive tree, the moonlight dancing off the silvery leaves in the darkness. What night sounds do you hear?
Witness Jesus asking Peter, James and John to stay close by and keep watch with Him. What do you notice about His body language as He speaks? The expression on His face? The tone in His voice?
Now Jesus walks a little farther and collapses. What does it sound like, when His body hits the ground?
What do you see as you watch Him? What do you hear?
What emotions are stirred within you as you hear Jesus plead for His life before the Father?
What questions rise up within you?
Pause and become more fully present
in this moment with Jesus.
Time passes painfully and slowly as Jesus lies facedown on the ground. Then Jesus gathers Himself to His feet. What does He do? Does He brush Himself off? Does He wipe tears from His face? What do you notice about His movement as He makes His way back to His friends?
At what point does Jesus realize His friends are sleeping? How does it register in His body language? What do you notice?
“Couldn’t you keep watch with me for one hour?” Jesus asks. What is His tone? What emotion do you hear in His voice?
What emotions are stirred within you?
Is there anything you would like to do or to say to Jesus in this moment?
Again, pause and linger in this moment with the Lord.
Jesus goes away for a second time and prays, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”
The content of His prayer is a little different this time. Is there anything different about His posture?
What do you see on His face? What do you hear in His voice?
Jesus returns to His disciples a second time and again finds them sleeping. What does it say to you about Jesus, that He keeps returning to His friends?
Pause and linger.
Now Jesus disappears into the darkness to pray a third time. He is just a few feet from you. You lean forward to listen. What is He going to say this time to the Father? Both Matthew and Mark tell us, He prayed “the same thing.”
As you stand respectfully on the edge of this mystery, what are you wondering?
Are there any longings or desires stirring in you?
Offer what you are noticing within you to the Lord.
Eugene Peterson closes out the passage in The Message this way: “When he came back the next time, he said, ’Are you going to sleep on and make a night of it? My time is up, the Son of Man is about to be handed over to the hands of sinners. Get up! Let’s get going! My betrayer is here.’”
As you witness this final conversation in the garden, what do you notice about the disciples? What do you notice about Jesus?
Now imagine Jesus pausing, turning and looking at you with tenderness in His eyes and a gentle nod of His head. With a wordless glance, what does Jesus say to you?
Linger with the Lord in this moment, as if time is standing still.
Perhaps capture what you are hearing or experiencing with a few written words.
Finally, slowly, Jesus turns to face His betrayer, and then, for an unexpected moment, He turns back to you. What might you like to say to Jesus before He is led away? If you could offer words that would linger with Him like the fragrance of expensive perfume, what words would you offer Him in this moment? Again, do not hurry past this moment with the Lord.
Here is a prayer that might help bring closure to this time:
Jesus, may all that is you flow into me.
May your body and blood
be my food and drink.
May your passion and death
be my strength and life.
Jesus, with you by my side
enough has been given.
May the shelter I seek
be the shadow of your cross.
Let me not run from the love
which you offer.
But hold me safe from the forces of evil.
On each of my dyings
shed your light and your love.
Keep calling to me until that day comes.
when, with your saints,
I may praise you forever. Amen.
— David L. Fleming, SJ. Hearts on Fire: Praying with Jesuit
When you are ready, take time to gently transition out of silence and solitude into the world that awaits you. Perhaps go for a walk, listen to some music or simply step outside and breathe the fresh air, savoring what you have experienced with the Lord. Borrow the words from Psalm 116:7 as a parting blessing: “Return to your rest, my soul, for the LORD has been good to you.”
We invite you to engage with the Midday Pause for Prayer video and then the Guide for Teams later today or this evening. Maybe now or sometime later, consider the thoughts below on “Moving Forward.”
Thank you for steeping yourself in the presence of Jesus — for His sake, for your own sake and for the sake of kids who need to know Him and His love.
MOVING FORWARD
As you begin to gently transition out of solitude and silence, consider these questions for moving forward.
- As we travel through the days and weeks leading to Good Friday and Easter Sunday, what would it look like to continue to keep company with Jesus along the way? Remember, your companionship means everything to Him.
- In the days ahead, if and when you wake up in the middle of the night, what would it look like to keep watch with Jesus, instead of turning to a glowing screen, getting lost in a world of worry or checking the to-do list in your mind?
- Parker Palmer gave us insights into sitting with a dying friend. He goes on to say, all of us are dying all the time, so why wait until the final days or hours to honor the mystery in others and give them our undivided attention? What would it look like to practice simply being present without offering advice or attempting to “fix” a problem? Sometimes attempting to “fix” someone’s problem is our attempt to alleviate our own discomfort instead of faithfully holding the discomfort of the other. How might you practice paying attention to the people in your life in the days ahead?