Choose Greatness Study #7
Righteousness in Prayer: Jesus’ Passion
Mark 11
Today, there seems to be a passion for things in our world to be “right,” and a prevailing awareness that they are not. This sense that things are not the way they are supposed to be can be traced to the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden, as they doubted the truthfulness of what God had said, and acted in disobedience to it. “Because you have listened to the voice of your of your wife and have eaten of the tree, cursed is the ground…in pain you shall eat of it…by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread…and to dust you will return,” God says to Adam (Genesis 3:17-19). With righteousness forfeited, unrighteousness became the norm. Family members became jealous of each other, destroying one another. As successive generations proliferated, people groups and cultures were wholly characterized by a willful wandering in unrighteousness from God. Those hungering and thirsting for righteousness (like Noah) were few and far between.
Against this backdrop, millennia later, the Son of Righteousness appears. He came to serve. He came to do His Father’s will. But he also came to call for a fresh hunger for righteousness in a day of hypocrisy and compromise. Significantly, the Father loved His Son because of Jesus’ passionate love for righteousness. This study directs us into the example of our Savior-Servant in his commitment to bringing the fresh joy of righteousness (God’s gift of righteousness and our practice of righteousness) to everyday thinking and living. What can we learn from Him about this?
GETTING STARTED –
- Can you think of a gift from someone that you really appreciated receiving? Why was the gift joyful?
- What do you understand the “gift of righteousness” from God to be? What is that gift?
- If righteousness is a gift from God (Romans 4:3, 2 Cor. 5:21), what impact should that have on how we live having received the gift? (see Romans 6:11-19)
SOME TIME IN SCRIPTURE
In his final week of pre-cross life…
FIRST – Jesus enters Jerusalem in a specific, purposeful way which the crowd recognizes (Mark 11:7-10). Their actions referenced what the prophet Zechariah’s anticipation in chapter 9:9. What should they have understood from the prophet’s prediction about why Jesus had arrived and what his priorities were?
SECOND – Jesus curses a fruitless fig tree and then clears out the compromised Temple (Mark 11:12-17) What did these actions communicate about Jesus’ passion for righteousness. What was wrong? What needed to be right? And oddly, what response was given to what he did (cf. 11:18-19)? Also…what consequences were pictured when the “fruit of righteousness” is not the product of life (Mark 11:20-21)?
THIRD – Jesus encourages his disciples to live a life of determined, eager faith and expectant prayer (Mark 11:22-25). Yet some “not right” things can hinder our praying. What are those things? And how does 1 John 5:13-15 help shape our understanding of Jesus’ teaching here?
PERSONAL TO US
Interestingly, Jesus’ passion for righteousness in Mark 11 focused in on PRAYER. A house of prayer for all had turned into a marketplace for personal profit. Our personal praying can be hindered by doubt, or an unwillingness to forgive those who may have wronged or harmed us.
HONEST WITH EACH OTHER — Finish by discussing with one another your prayer life these days? Are you praying fervently, with eager faith? Is there any sin in your life (“unrighteousness”) which is getting in the way of a clear channel with the Lord? Take some time with James 5:13-20, and let James’ instruction shape your sharing and prayer time together.