21:1 When they got near Jerusalem, they came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus sent out two disciples

21:2 with these instructions: “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey and her colt hitched. Untie them and bring them to me.

21:3 If anyone asks you, just tell them ‘The Master needs them’ and they’ll let them go without question.

21:4 This has to happen in order to fulfill what the prophet declared:

21:5 ‘tell the daughter of Zion, “Look! Your king is coming to you gently, riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the offspring of a beast of burden.”’ ”

21:6 The disciples went off and did as Jesus told them.

21:7 They brought the donkey and colt, then put their outer garments on them so Jesus could sit on them.

21:8 Then many in the crowd spread out their garments on the road in front of him, while others used tree branches that they had cut off.

21:9 And both those in front of him and those behind went along saying, “Celebrate the Descendant of David! Blessed is the one bearing the name of the Master! Celebrate in the presence of God!”

21:10 When he entered Jerusalem, the entire city was shaken. Some asked, “Who is this?”

21:11 and the crowd answered, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee!”

21:12 Then Jesus entered the temple compound and threw out all the merchants and customers there. He overturned the tables of the brokers and the benches of those selling doves,

21:13 and he said, “It has been written, ‘my house will be called a house of prayer’, but you have turned it into a hideout for robbers!”

21:14 The blind and lame came to him in the temple compound, and he healed them.

21:15 But when the ruling priests and scripture scholars saw the wonderful things he was doing, and when they heard the children there shouting “Celebrate the Descendant of David!”, they were indignant.

21:16 So they said to Jesus, “Do you hear what these children are saying?” “Yes,” replied Jesus. “Haven’t you ever read that ‘You have prepared praise to come of the mouths of toddlers and infants’?”

21:17 And he left them there and went out of the city to spend the night in Bethany.

21:18 In the morning he headed back to the city. He was hungry,

21:19 and along the way he saw a fig tree. But when he got close to it he couldn’t find a single fig on it; there were only leaves. So he said to it, “You will never produce figs again!” Instantly the tree dried up,

21:20 and when the disciples saw it they were surprised and asked, “How did it dry up so fast?”

21:21 “Let me assure you of this,” Jesus answered, “If you have faith and don’t doubt, you will be able to do more than I did to this fig tree. You will be able to say to this mountain, ‘Get up and throw yourself into the sea!’, and it will happen.

21:22 Everything you ask for in prayer, you will have— if you believe.”

21:23 When he was teaching in the temple compound, the ruling priests and elders of the people came and demanded, “What authority do you have to do these things? Who gave you jurisdiction?”

21:24 “Let me ask you a question,” Jesus replied, “And if you can answer my question, then I’ll answer yours.

21:25 The immersion of John… was it from heaven or from people?” They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say ‘From heaven’, he’ll say ‘Then why didn’t you believe?’

21:26 But if we say ‘From people’, we fear what they’d do to us since they consider him a prophet.”

21:27 So they finally said, “We don’t know.”And Jesus retorted, “Then I’m not telling you where I got this authority.

21:28 “Here’s something for you to think about: Suppose someone had two children, and he told the first one to go out and work in the vineyard that day.

21:29 But that one said, ‘No, I don’t want to,’ yet later they felt bad about it and went out anyway.

21:30 The same question was put to the other one, who said, ‘Yes, sir’ but didn’t go.

21:31 So which one actually did what the father wanted?” “The first,” they answered. And Jesus replied, “I can assure you that tax contractors and the promiscuous will enter the kingdom of God before you do!

21:32 For John came to you walking the path of righteousness and you did not believe him. But tax contractors and the promiscuous believed him. And even when you saw that, you still didn’t have any regrets and believe him!

21:33 “Listen to another parable: A certain landowner planted a vineyard, put up a wall around it, dug a wine press, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenant farmers and went traveling abroad.

21:34 When it came time for the harvest, he sent his slaves to the tenant farmers to get the produce.

21:35 But they grabbed the slaves and beat up one, killed another, and stoned yet another.

21:36 So he sent more slaves than before, and they did the same to them.

21:37 “Finally he sent his own son, thinking ‘They will respect my son!’

21:38 But when the tenant farmers saw him they said to each other, ‘This is the heir; come on, let’s kill him, and then we will inherit the vineyard!’

21:39 So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

21:40 Now when the landowner comes, what do you think he’ll do to those tenant farmers?”

21:41 “He will wipe out those criminals!” they replied, “And he’ll lease the vineyard to others who will give him his due share of the crop.”

21:42 So then Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures, ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. The Master has done this, and it is a wonderful thing to see!’?

21:43 This is why I’m telling you that the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation that will give God what belongs to him!”

21:44

21:45 And when they heard this, the ruling priests and Pharisees realized he was talking about them.

21:46 So they wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowd, who considered him a prophet.