Matthew 21

When they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you. Immediately you will find a donkey tied there, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Look, your king is coming to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’” The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds going ahead of him and those following cried out, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was shaken and asked, “Who is this?” The crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee.” Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those selling doves. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a den of robbers.” The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonders he did and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant and said to him, “Do you hear what these children are saying?” Jesus said to them, “Yes. Have you never read, ‘From the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?” He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night. In the morning, as he returned to the city, he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree beside the road, he went to it but found nothing on it except leaves. He said to it, “May no fruit ever grow from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once. When the disciples saw this, they marveled and said, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” Jesus answered them, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree. Even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching and said, “By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority?” Jesus answered them, “I too will ask you one question. If you answer me, I too will tell you by what authority I do these things. Where did John’s baptism come from—from heaven or from men?” They discussed it among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the crowd, for they all regard John as a prophet.” So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” He also said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. But what do you think? A man had two children. He went to the first and said, ‘Child, go and work in the vineyard today.’ He answered, ‘I will not.’ But afterward he changed his mind and went. He went to the second and said the same. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did his father’s will?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, tax collectors and prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and prostitutes believed him. Even after you saw this, you did not change your minds and believe him. Hear another parable. A landowner planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower. He leased it to tenant farmers and went away. When harvest time drew near, he sent his slaves to the tenants to receive his fruit. The tenants seized his slaves, beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first, and they did the same to them. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and take his inheritance.’ They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. So when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruit in its seasons.” Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures,
‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
This came from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who produce its fruits. The one who falls on this stone will be shattered, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.” When the chief priests and Pharisees heard his parables, they knew he was speaking about them. Though they sought to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.

Rights and attribution