Matthew 21:12–27

CLEANSING THE TEMPLE

¹²Jesus went into the temple^Cc and threw out all those buying and selling. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves.^{d 13}He said to them, “It is written, my house will be called a house of prayer,^D but you are making it a den of thieves!”^Ee

CHILDREN PRAISE JESUS

¹⁴The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. ¹⁵When the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonders that he did and the children shouting in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant ¹⁶and said to him, “Do you hear what these children are saying?”

Jesus replied, “Yes, have you never read:

You have prepared^F praise^f

from the mouths of infants and nursing babies?”^G

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

THE BARREN FIG TREE

¹⁸Early in the morning,^h as he was returning to the city, he was hungry. ¹⁹Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, he went up to it and found nothing on it except leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” At once the fig tree withered.

²⁰When the disciples saw it, they were amazed and said, “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?”

²¹Jesus 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, but even if you tell this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will be done.^{i 22}And if you believe, you will receive^j whatever you ask for in prayer.”

THE AUTHORITY OF JESUS CHALLENGED

²³When he entered the temple,^k 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? Who gave you this authority?”^l

²⁴Jesus answered them, “I will also ask you one question, and if you answer it for me, then I will tell you by what authority I do these things. ²⁵Did John’s baptism come from heaven, or was it of human origin?”

They discussed it among themselves, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’^{m 26}But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we’re afraid of the crowd,ⁿ because everyone considers John to be a prophet.”^{o 27}So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.”

And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.