Matthew 21

1 And when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and at once you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 And if anyone says anything to you, you will say, ‘The Lord has need of them’; and he will send them at once.” 4 This has happened so that what was spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled:

6 And the disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; 7 they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their garments on them, and he sat on them. [b] 8 And the very great crowd spread their own garments on the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them on the road. 9 And the crowds going ahead of him and those following were crying out, saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the Lord’s name! Hosanna in the highest!” [c]

10 And when he entered Jerusalem the whole city was shaken, saying, “Who is this?” 11 And the crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus, the one from Nazareth of Galilee.”

12 And Jesus entered the temple and threw out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those selling doves, 13 and he says to them, “It is written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a den of robbers.” [d] 14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.

15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things he did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, 16 and said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus says to them, “Yes. Have you never read, ‘From the mouths of infants and nursing babies you prepared praise’?” [e] 17 And leaving them he went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.

18 Early in the morning, as he was returning to the city, he was hungry. 19 And seeing one fig tree by the road he went to it, and found nothing on it but leaves only, and he says to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again.” And the fig tree withered at once. 20 And when the disciples saw it they were amazed, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” 21 And Jesus answered and said to them, “Amen, I tell you, if you have faith and do not waver, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. 22 And everything you ask for in prayer, trusting, you will receive.”

23 And when he came into 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?” 24 And Jesus answered and said to them, “I also will ask you one word, which if you tell me, I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. 25 The immersion of John — where was it from? From heaven or from men?” And they were reasoning among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not trust him?’ 26 But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the crowd, for they all hold John as a prophet.” 27 And they answered Jesus and said, “We do not know.” He also said to them, “Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things.

28 “But what do you think? A man had two children. He went to the first and said, ‘Child, go work today in the vineyard.’ 29 And he answered and said, ‘I do not want to’; but later he regretted it and went. 30 And he went to the second and said the same. And he answered and said, ‘I will, sir’; and he did not go. [f] 31 Which of the two did the will of the father?” They say, “The first.” Jesus says to them, “Amen, I tell you that the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going ahead of you into the kingdom of God. 32 For John came to you in a way of righteousness, and you did not trust him; but the tax collectors and the prostitutes trusted him. And you, when you saw it, did not even regret it afterward, so as to trust him.

33 “Hear another parable. There was a man, a master of a house, who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower, and let it out to farmers, and went abroad. † 34 And when the season of the fruits drew near, he sent his slaves to the farmers to receive his fruits. 35 And the farmers took his slaves — one they beat, one they killed, one they stoned. 36 Again he sent other slaves, more than the first, and they did the same to them. 37 And afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the farmers saw the son they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ 39 And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40 When the lord of the vineyard comes, then, what will he do to those farmers?”

41 They say to him, “Bad men — he will destroy them badly, and he will let the vineyard out to other farmers, who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” [g] 42 Jesus says to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone the builders rejected became the cornerstone. This came from the Lord, and it is wonderful in our eyes’? [h] 43 For this reason I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing its fruits. 44 And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him.” [i]

45 And when the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables they knew that he was speaking about them; 46 and seeking to seize him they feared the crowds, since they held him as a prophet.