Matthew 20–22

The Workers in the Vineyard

20“The Kingdom of heaven is like this. Once there was a man who went out early in the morning to hire some men to work in his vineyard. ²He agreed to pay them the regular wage, a silver coin a day, and sent them to work in his vineyard. ³He went out again to the market place at nine o’clock and saw some men standing there doing nothing, ⁴so he told them, ‘You also go and work in the vineyard, and I will pay you a fair wage.’ ⁵So they went. Then at twelve o’clock and again at three o’clock he did the same thing. ⁶It was nearly five o’clock when he went to the market place and saw some other men still standing there. ‘Why are you wasting the whole day here doing nothing?’ he asked them. ⁷‘No one hired us,’ they answered. ‘Well, then, you also go and work in the vineyard,’ he told them.

^8*“When evening came, the owner told his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, starting with those who were hired last and ending with those who were hired first.’ ⁹The men who had begun to work at five o’clock were paid a silver coin each. ¹⁰So when the men who were the first to be hired came to be paid, they thought they would get more; but they too were given a silver coin each. ¹¹They took their money and started grumbling against the employer. ¹²‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘while we put up with a whole day’s work in the hot sun—yet you paid them the same as you paid us!’

¹³“ ‘Listen, friend,’ the owner answered one of them, ‘I have not cheated you. After all, you agreed to do a day’s work for one silver coin. ¹⁴Now take your pay and go home. I want to give this man who was hired last as much as I have given you. ¹⁵Don’t I have the right to do as I wish with my own money? Or are you jealous because I am generous?’ ”

^16*And Jesus concluded, “So those who are last will be first, and those who are first will be last.”

Jesus Speaks a Third Time about His Death

¹⁷

As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and spoke to them privately, as they walked along. ¹⁸“Listen,” he told them, “we are going up to Jerusalem, where the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the teachers of the Law. They will condemn him to death ¹⁹and then hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him, whip him, and crucify him; but three days later he will be raised to life.”

A Mother’s Request

²⁰Then the wife of Zebedee came to Jesus with her two sons, bowed before him, and asked him a favour.

²¹“What do you want?” Jesus asked her.

She answered, “Promise me that these two sons of mine will sit at your right and your left when you are King.”

²²“You don’t know what you are asking for,” Jesus answered the sons. “Can you drink the cup of suffering that I am about to drink?”

“We can,” they answered.

²³“You will indeed drink from my cup,” Jesus told them, “but I do not have the right to choose who will sit at my right and my left. These places belong to those for whom my Father has prepared them.”

²⁴When the other ten disciples heard about this, they became angry with the two brothers. ^25*So Jesus called them all together and said, “You know that the rulers of the heathen have power over them, and the leaders have complete authority. ^26*This, however, is not the way it shall be among you. If one of you wants to be great, he must be the servant of the rest; ^27*and if one of you wants to be first, he must be your slave- ²⁸like the Son of Man, who did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life to redeem many people.”

Jesus Heals Two Blind Men

²⁹As Jesus and his disciples were leaving Jericho, a large crowd was following. ³⁰Two blind men who were sitting by the road heard that Jesus was passing by, so they began to shout, “Son of David! Take pity on us, sir!”

³¹The crowd scolded them and told them to be quiet. But they shouted even more loudly, “Son of David! Take pity on us, sir!”

³²Jesus stopped and called them. “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked them.

³³“Sir,” they answered, “we want you to give us our sight!”

³⁴Jesus had pity on them and touched their eyes; at once they were able to see, and they followed him.

The Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem

21As Jesus and his disciples approached Jerusalem, they came to Bethphage at the Mount of Olives. There Jesus sent two of the disciples on ahead ²with these instructions: “Go to the village there ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied up with her colt beside her. Untie them and bring them to me. ³And if anyone says anything, tell him, ‘The Master^t needs them’; and then he will let them go at once.”

⁴This happened in order to make what the prophet had said come true:

^5*“Tell the city of Zion,

Look, your king is coming to you!

He is humble and rides on a donkey

and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

⁶So the disciples went and did what Jesus had told them to do: ⁷they brought the donkey and the colt, threw their cloaks over them, and Jesus got on. ⁸A large crowd of people spread their cloaks on the road while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. ^9*The crowds walking in front of Jesus and those walking behind began to shout, “Praise to David’s Son! God bless him who comes in the name of the Lord! Praise God!”

¹⁰When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was thrown into an uproar. “Who is he?” the people asked.

¹¹“This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee,” the crowds answered.

Jesus Goes to the Temple

¹²Jesus went into the Temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the stools of those who sold pigeons, ^13*and said to them, “It is written in the Scriptures that God said, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer.’ But you are making it a hideout for thieves!”

¹⁴The blind and the crippled came to him in the Temple, and he healed them. ¹⁵The chief priests and the teachers of the Law became angry when they saw the wonderful things he was doing and the children shouting in the Temple, “Praise to David’s Son!” ^16*So they asked Jesus, “Do you hear what they are saying?”

“Indeed I do,” answered Jesus. “Haven’t you ever read this scripture? ‘You have trained children and babies to offer perfect praise.’ ”

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

Jesus Curses the Fig-Tree

¹⁸On his way back to the city early next morning, Jesus was hungry. ¹⁹He saw a fig tree by the side of the road and went to it, but found nothing on it except leaves. So he said to the tree, “You will never again bear fruit!” At once the fig tree dried up.

²⁰The disciples saw this and were astounded. “How did the fig tree dry up so quickly?” they asked.

^21*Jesus answered, “I assure you that if you believe and do not doubt, you will be able to do what I have done to this fig tree. And not only this, but you will even be able to say to this hill, ‘Get up and throw yourself in the sea,’ and it will. ²²If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

The Question about Jesus’ Authority

²³Jesus came back to the Temple; and as he taught, the chief priests and the elders came to him and asked, “What right have you to do these things? Who gave you this right?”

²⁴Jesus answered them, “I will ask you just one question, and if you give me an answer, I will tell you what right I have to do these things. ²⁵Where did John’s right to baptize come from: was it from God or from human beings?”

They started to argue among themselves, “What shall we say? If we answer, ‘From God,’ he will say to us, ‘Why, then, did you not believe John?’ ²⁶But if we say, ‘From human beings,’ we are afraid of what the people might do, because they are all convinced that John was a prophet.” ²⁷So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.”

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

The Parable of the Two Sons

²⁸“Now, what do you think? There was once a man who had two sons. He went to the elder one and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ ²⁹‘I don’t want to,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. ³⁰Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. ‘Yes, sir,’ he answered, but he did not go. ³¹Which one of the two did what his father wanted?”

“The elder one,” they answered.

So Jesus said to them, “I tell you: the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the Kingdom of God ahead of you. ^32*For John the Baptist came to you showing you the right path to take, and you would not believe him; but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. Even when you saw this, you did not later change your minds and believe him.

The Parable of the Tenants in the Vineyard

^33*“Listen to another parable,” Jesus said. “There was once a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a hole for the winepress, and built a watchtower. Then he let out the vineyard to tenants and went on a journey. ³⁴When the time came to gather the grapes, he sent his slaves to the tenants to receive his share of the harvest. ³⁵The tenants seized his slaves, beat one, killed another, and stoned another. ³⁶Again the man sent other slaves, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. ³⁷Last of all he sent his son to them. ‘Surely they will respect my son,’ he said. ³⁸But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the owner’s son. Come on, let’s kill him, and we will get his property!’ ³⁹So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.

⁴⁰“Now, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” Jesus asked.

⁴¹“He will certainly kill those evil men,” they answered, “and let the vineyard out to other tenants, who will give him his share of the harvest at the right time.”

^42*Jesus said to them, “Haven’t you ever read what the Scriptures say?

‘The stone which the builders rejected as worthless

turned out to be the most…