Matthew
Chapter 21
1 When they got close to Jerusalem and reached Bethphage at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples.
2 Tell them, go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied up, and a young donkey with her: untie them and bring them to me.
3 If anyone asks you about it, say, ‘God needs them,’ and he will send them right away.
4 This happened to fulfill what the prophet had said.
5 Tell the people of Zion, look, your King is coming to you, humble, and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the young of a donkey.
6 The disciples went and did what Jesus told them to do.
7 They brought the donkey and the young colt, put their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them.
8 A huge crowd spread their clothes on the road; others cut branches from the trees and scattered them on the road.
9 The crowds going ahead and those following shouted, “Hosanna to the son of David! He who comes in the name of God is blessed; Hosanna in the highest!”
10 When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up and asked, “Who is this?”
11 The crowd said, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”
12 Jesus entered God’s temple and drove out all who were selling and buying there. He flipped over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves.
13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a hideout for thieves.”
14 Blind and disabled people came to him in the temple, and he healed them.
15 When the religious leaders saw the amazing things he did, and heard the children shouting in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were very upset.
16 And said to him, “Do you hear what they are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, ‘From the mouths of children and babies you have made perfect praise’?”
17 He left them, went out of the city to Bethany, and stayed there.
18 In the morning as he went back to the city, he was hungry.
19 When he saw a fig tree by the road, he went to it but found no fruit, only leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never grow fruit again.” At once, the fig tree dried up.
20 When the disciples saw it, they were amazed and said, “How quickly has the fig tree dried up!”
21 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, if you believe and don’t doubt, you can do not just what was done to the fig tree, but also tell this mountain to move and be thrown into the sea, and it will happen.”
22 When you pray and believe, anything you ask for, you will get.
23 When he entered the temple, the religious leaders and elders approached him while he was teaching and asked, “What gives you the right to do these things? Who gave you this authority?”
24 Jesus replied and said to them, “I will ask you one question too, and if you answer me, I will tell you by what authority I do these things.”
25 Where did John’s baptism come from? From God or from people? They thought, “If we say, ‘From God,’ he will ask us, ‘Then why didn’t you believe John?’”
26 But if we say, ‘From people,’ we are afraid of the crowd, because everyone considers John a prophet.
27 They replied to Jesus, “We don’t know.” So he said to them, “Then I won’t tell you by what authority I do these things.”
28 What do you think? A man had two sons. He went to the first and said, “Son, go work in my vineyard today.”
29 He replied, “I won’t.” But later he changed his mind and went.
30 He went to the second and said the same thing. The second one answered, “I will go, sir,” but he did not go.
31 Which of the two did what his father wanted? They answered, “The first.” Jesus told them, “I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and prostitutes will enter God’s kingdom ahead of you.”
32 John came to you living right, but you didn’t believe him. Tax collectors and prostitutes did believe, and even after seeing this, you didn’t change your minds to believe him.
33 Listen to another story: A man owned a house, planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, made a place to press grapes, built a watchtower, rented it to farmers, and then he went to a distant land.
34 When it was almost time to pick the fruit, he sent his workers to the farmers to collect the fruit.
35 The farmers took his workers, beat one, killed another, and threw stones at another.
36 He sent more servants than before, and they were treated the same way.
37 Last of all, he sent them his son, thinking, “They will respect my son.”
38 When the workers saw the son, they said to each other, “This is the one who will inherit everything. Let’s kill him and take his inheritance.”
39 They grabbed him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
40 When the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those workers?
41 They tell him, God will terribly destroy those bad men, and will rent his vineyard to other farmers, who will give him the crops at the right times.
42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures that the stone the builders did not want became the cornerstone? This was done by God, and it is amazing to us?”
43 I tell you, God’s kingdom will be taken from you and given to a people who produce its fruits.
44 Anyone who falls on this stone will break, but if it falls on anyone, it will crush them into dust.
45 When the chief priests and Pharisees heard his stories, they understood he was talking about them.
46 But when they tried to arrest him, they were afraid of the crowd, because the people believed he was a prophet.