Matthew 21

1When they were getting close to Jerusalem and had come to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples on ahead 2with instructions: “Go into the village across from you, and straightaway you will come upon a donkey tied up there with her colt. Untie them and lead them to me. 3If anyone questions you, say, ‘The Lord needs them.’ Then he will let them go at once.”

4This happened so that the word spoken through the prophet would be fulfilled: 5“Tell the daughter of Zion, ‘Your king is coming to you! He is gentle, and he is seated on a donkey and on a colt, the foal of a pack animal.’” 6The disciples went off and did what Jesus had told them. 7They brought the donkey and the colt and laid their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. 8The crowd, which was very large, spread their own cloaks across the road, and others kept cutting branches from the trees and laying them on the road. 9Crowds walked in front of him and behind him, and they kept shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heavens!” 10When he came into Jerusalem, the whole city was in an uproar. “Who is this man?” people asked. 11And the crowds kept saying, “This is the prophet, Jesus, the man from Nazareth in Galilee.”

12Jesus went into the temple courts and drove out everyone who was buying and selling there. He turned over the tables of the money changers and the seats of the dove sellers. 13“It is written,” he told them, “’My house will be called a house of prayer.’ But you are turning it into a hideout for robbers.”

14Blind and lame people came to him in the temple courts, and he healed them. 15The chief priests and the scribes saw the amazing things he was doing, and they saw the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” They were furious, 16and they said to him, “Do you hear what these children are saying?” Jesus answered them, “I do. Did you never read this: ‘Out of the mouths of little children and nursing babies you have brought forth praise for yourself’?” 17Then he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.

18Early in the morning, as he was going back into the city, Jesus felt hungry. 19Seeing a fig tree beside the road, he went up to it, but he found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “From now on, may no fruit ever grow on you!” At once the fig tree dried up. 20The disciples were astonished when they saw this. “How did the fig tree dry up so quickly?” they asked. 21Jesus answered them, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will do more than what was done to this fig tree. Even if you tell this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will be done. 22And everything you ask for in prayer you will receive, as long as you believe.”

23Jesus went into the temple courts, and while he was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him. “What authority do you have for doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you this authority?” 24Jesus replied, “I too will put one question to you. If you answer it for me, then I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. 25John’s baptism, where did it come from? Was it from heaven or from human beings?” They began to argue it out among themselves: “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask us, ‘Then why did you not believe John?’ 26But if we say, ‘From human beings,’ we have the crowd to fear, since they all regard John as a prophet.” 27So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Then I will not tell you either by what authority I do these things.

28Now tell me what you think. A man had two sons. He came to the first one and said, ‘Go and work in the vineyard today, son.’ 29He answered, ‘I do not want to.’ Yet afterward he changed his mind and went. 30Then the father went to the second son and said the same thing. This one answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go. 31Which of the two did what their father wanted?” “The first,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are leading the way into the kingdom of God, ahead of you. 32For John came to you showing the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him. But the tax collectors and the prostitutes did believe him. And even after you saw that, you did not change your minds later and believe him.

33Listen to another parable. A man who owned an estate planted a vineyard. He set a hedge around it, cut a pit for a winepress, and put up a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenant farmers and went abroad. 34When harvest time came near, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his share of the crop. 35The tenants grabbed his servants. One they beat up, another they killed, and another they pelted with stones. 36So the owner sent other servants, a larger group than the first, and the tenants treated them the same way. 37Finally he sent his son to them. He told himself, ‘They will show respect to my son.’ 38The tenants, though, saw the son and said to one another, ‘Here is the one who will inherit the vineyard. Come on, if we kill him, his inheritance will be ours.’ 39They took hold of him, forced him outside the vineyard, and killed him. 40Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41They answered him, “He will put those evil men to a miserable death, and he will lease the vineyard to other tenants, who will hand over the fruit to him at each harvest.”

42Jesus said to them, “Did you never read this in the Scriptures: ‘The very stone the builders turned down has become the cornerstone. The Lord has brought this about, and we look on it with wonder’? 43This is why I tell you: you will lose the kingdom of God. It will be taken from you and given to a people that bears the fruit it calls for.

44Whoever falls on this stone will be dashed to pieces, and if it falls on anyone, it will crush them to dust.”

45The chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables and realized that he meant them. 46They wanted to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowds, who regarded him as a prophet.