Chapter 21

¹When they were near Jerusalem and had come to Bethphage and the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples on ahead, ²saying to them,

“Go to the village that lies in front of you, and you will at once find an ass tied there, and a colt with her. Untie her and bring them to me. ³If anyone says anything to you, you are to say, ‘The Master needs them’; then he will send them at once.”

⁴Now this happened in fulfilment of what was said by the prophet,

⁵“Tell the daughter of Zion,

‘Here is your king coming to you,

Gentle, and riding on an ass,

And on the foal of a beast of burden.’ ”

⁶So the disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; ⁷they brought the ass and the colt, and laid their coats upon them, and Jesus seated himself upon them. ⁸And most of the crowd spread their coats in his way, and others cut branches from the trees and scattered them before him. ⁹And the crowds that went in front of him and that followed him shouted,

“God bless the Son of David!

Blessed be he who comes in the Lord’s name.

God bless him from on high!”

¹⁰When he came into Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred, and everyone asked,

“Who is he?”

¹¹The crowd answered,

“It is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth in Galilee!”

¹²And Jesus went into the Temple and drove out all who were buying or selling things in it, and he upset the money-changers’ tables and the pigeon-dealers’ seats, ¹³and he said to them,

“The Scripture says, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a robbers’ cave.”

¹⁴And blind and lame people came up to him in the Temple, and he cured them. ¹⁵But when the high priests and the scribes saw the wonders that he did and saw the boys shouting in the Temple, “God bless the Son of David!” they were indignant, ¹⁶and said to him,

“Do you hear what they are saying?”

Jesus said to them,

“Yes. Did you never read, ‘You have drawn praise from the mouths of children and infants’?”

¹⁷And he left them, and went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.

¹⁸In the morning as he went back to the city, he grew hungry, ¹⁹and seeing a fig tree by the roadside, he went up to it, but found nothing on it but leaves. And he said to it,

“No more fruit shall ever grow on you!”

And the fig tree withered up at once. ²⁰When the disciples saw it, they were amazed and said,

“How did the fig tree come to wither up immediately?”

²¹Jesus answered,

“I tell you, if you have faith and have no doubt, you will not only do what I have done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Get up and throw yourself into the sea,’ it will be done. ²²And everything that you pray for with faith, you will obtain.”

²³When he had entered the Temple, and was teaching, the high priests and the elders of the people came up to him, and said,

“What authority have you for doing as you do, and who gave you this authority?”

²⁴Jesus answered,

“Let me ask you one question, and if you answer it, I will tell you what authority I have for doing as I do. ²⁵Where did John’s baptism come from? Was it from heaven, or from men?”

And they argued with one another,

“If we say, ‘It was from heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ ²⁶But if we say, ‘From men,’ we have the people to fear, for they all consider John a prophet.”

²⁷And they answered Jesus,

“We do not know.”

He said to them,

“Nor will I tell you what authority I have for doing as I do. ²⁸But what do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘My son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ ²⁹And he answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go. ³⁰Then the man went to the second son, and told him the same thing. And he answered, ‘I will not!’ But afterward he changed his mind and went. ³¹Which of the two did what his father wanted?”

They said,

“The second one.”

Jesus said to them,

“I tell you, the tax-collectors and prostitutes are going into the Kingdom of God ahead of you. ³²For John came to you with a way of uprightness, and you would not believe him. The tax-collectors and prostitutes believed him, but even after seeing that, you would not change your minds and believe him!

³³“Listen to another figure. There was a land owner who planted a vineyard and fenced it in, and hewed out a wine-vat in it, and built a watch-tower, and leased it to tenants, and left the neighborhood. ³⁴When the time for the vintage approached he sent his slaves to the tenants to receive his share. ³⁵But the tenants took his slaves and beat one and killed another and stoned a third. ³⁶Again he sent other slaves and more of them than he had sent at first, and they treated them in the same way. ³⁷Finally he sent his son to them, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’ ³⁸But when the tenants saw his son, they said to one another. ‘This is his heir! Come on, let us kill him, and get his inheritance!’ ³⁹So they took him and drove him out of the vineyard and killed him. ⁴⁰When the owner of the vineyard comes back, therefore, what will he do to these tenants?”

⁴¹They said to him,

“He will put the wretches to a miserable death, and let the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his share of the vintage when it is due.”

⁴²Jesus said to them,

“Did you never read in the Scriptures,

“ ‘That stone which the builders rejected

Has become the cornerstone;

This came from the Lord,

And seems marvelous to us’?

⁴³“That, I tell you, is why the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and given to a people that will produce its proper fruit. ⁴⁴Whoever falls on that stone will be shattered, but whoever it falls upon will be pulverized.”

⁴⁵When the high priests and the Pharisees heard his figures, they knew that he was speaking about them, ⁴⁶and they wanted to have him arrested, but they were afraid of the people, for the people considered him a prophet.