Matthew 21:12–46

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.

THE PARABLE OF THE TWO SONS

²⁸“What do you think? A man had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘My son, go work in the vineyard today.’^p

²⁹“He answered, ‘I don’t want to,’ but later he changed his mind and went. ³⁰Then the man went to the other and said the same thing. ‘I will, sir,’ he answered, but he didn’t go. ³¹Which 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 entering the kingdom of God before you. ³²For John came to you in the way of righteousness,^q and you didn’t believe him. Tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; but you, when you saw it, didn’t even change your minds then and believe him.

THE PARABLE OF THE VINEYARD OWNER

³³“Listen^r to another parable:^s There was a landowner, who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower.^t He leased it to tenant farmers and went away.^{u 34}When the time came to harvest fruit, he sent his servants to the farmers to collect his fruit. ³⁵The farmers took his servants, beat one, killed another, and stoned a third.^{v 36}Again, he sent other servants, more than the first group, and they did the same to them. ³⁷Finally, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.

³⁸“But when the tenant farmers saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’^{w 39}So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. ⁴⁰Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those farmers?”

⁴¹“He will completely destroy those terrible men,” they told him, “and lease his vineyard to other farmers who will give him his fruit at the harvest.”^a

⁴²Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone.^A

This is what the Lord has done

and it is wonderful in our eyes?^Bb

⁴³Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruit. ⁴⁴Whoever falls on this stone will be broken to pieces;^c but on whomever it falls, it will shatter him.”^C

⁴⁵When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables,^d they knew he was speaking about them. ⁴⁶Although they were looking for a way to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because the people regarded him as a prophet.^e