Matthew 20–22

The Parable of the Vineyard Workers

20“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. ⁱ²After agreeing with the workers on one ^•denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. ³When he went out about nine in the morning, ^jhe saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. ⁴To those men he said, ‘You also go to my vineyard, and I’ll give you whatever is right.’ So off they went. ⁵About noon and at three, ^khe went out again and did the same thing. ⁶Then about five ^lhe went and found others standing around, ^mand said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day doing nothing?’

⁷“ ‘Because no one hired us,’ they said to him.

“ ‘You also go to my vineyard,’ he told them. ⁿ⁸When evening came, the owner of the vineyard told his foreman, ‘Call the workers and give them their pay, ^ostarting with the last and ending with the first.’ ^p

⁹“When those who were hired about five ^qcame, they each received one denarius. ¹⁰So when the first ones came, they assumed they would get more, but they also received a denarius each. ¹¹When they received it, they began to complain to the landowner: ¹²‘These last men put in one hour, and you made them equal to us who bore the burden of the day and the burning heat!’ ^r

¹³“He replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I’m doing you no wrong. Didn’t you agree with me on a denarius? ^s14Take what’s yours and go. I want to give this last man the same as I gave you. ¹⁵Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my business? ^tAre you jealous ^ubecause I’m generous?’ ^vw

¹⁶“So the last will be first, and the first last.” ^xy

The Third Prediction of His Death

¹⁷While going up to Jerusalem, ^zJesus took the 12 disciples aside privately and said to them on the way: ¹⁸“Listen! We are going up to Jerusalem. The ^•Son of Man will be handed over to the ^•chief priests and ^•scribes, and they will condemn Him to death. ^a19Then they will hand Him over to the Gentiles ^bto be mocked, flogged, ^cand crucified, and He will be resurrected ^don the third day.”

Suffering and Service

²⁰Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons approached Him with her sons. ^eShe knelt down to ask Him for something. ^f21“What do you want?” He asked her.

“Promise,” ^gshe said to Him, “that these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right and the other on Your left, in Your kingdom.” ^h

²²But Jesus answered, “You don’t know what you’re asking. Are you able to drink the cup ⁱthat I am about to drink?” ^jk

“We are able,” they said to Him.

²³He told them, “You will indeed drink My cup. ^lBut to sit at My right and left is not Mine to give; instead, it belongs to those for whom it has been prepared by My Father.” ^{m 24}When the 10 disciples heard this, they became indignant with the two brothers. ²⁵But Jesus called them over and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles dominate them, and the men of high position exercise power over them. ²⁶It must not be like that among you. On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ⁿ²⁷and whoever wants to be first among you must be your ^•slave; ²⁸just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, ^oand to give His life—a ransom for many.” ^p

Two Blind Men Healed

²⁹As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Him. ^q30There were two blind men sitting by the road. When they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” ³¹The crowd told them to keep quiet, but they cried out all the more, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” ^r

³²Jesus stopped, called them, and said, “What do you want Me to do for you?”

³³“Lord,” they said to Him, “open our eyes!” ³⁴Moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes. Immediately they could see, and they followed Him.

The Triumphal Entry

21When they approached Jerusalem ^sand came to Bethphage at the Mount of Olives, ^tJesus then sent two disciples, ²telling them, “Go into the village ahead of you. At once you will find a donkey tied there, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to Me. ³If anyone says anything to you, you should say that the Lord needs them, and immediately he will send them.”

⁴This took place so that what was spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled:

⁵Tell Daughter Zion,

“Look, your King is coming to you,

gentle, and mounted on a donkey,

even on a colt,

the foal of a beast of burden.” ^uv

⁶The disciples went and did just as Jesus directed them. ⁷They brought the donkey and the colt; then they laid their robes on them, and He sat on them. ⁸A very large crowd spread their robes on the road; others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them on the road. ⁹Then the crowds who went ahead of Him and those who followed kept shouting:

Hosanna to the Son of David!

He who comes in the name

of the Lord is the blessed One! ^w

Hosanna in the highest heaven! ^x

¹⁰When He entered Jerusalem, the whole city was shaken, saying, “Who is this?” ¹¹And the crowds kept saying, “This is the prophet Jesus ^yfrom Nazareth in Galilee!”

Cleansing the Temple Complex

¹²Jesus went into the temple complex ^zaand drove out all those buying and selling in the temple. He overturned the money changers’ tables and the chairs of those selling doves. ^b13And He said to them, “It is written, My house will be called a house of prayer. ^cBut you are making it a den of thieves!” ^de

Children Praise Jesus

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

“Yes,” Jesus told them. “Have you never read:

You have prepared ^fpraise ^g

from the mouths of children and nursing infants?” ^h

¹⁷Then He left them, went out of the city to Bethany, ⁱand spent the night there.

The Barren Fig Tree

¹⁸Early in the morning, ^jas 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, “^•I assure 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. ^k22And if you believe, you will receive ^lwhatever you ask for in prayer.”

Messiah’s Authority Challenged

²³When He entered the temple complex, ^mthe chief priests and the elders of the people came up to Him as He was teaching and said, “By what authority are You doing these things? Who gave You this authority?” ⁿ

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. ²⁵Where did John’s baptism come from? From heaven or from men?”

They began to argue among themselves, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ ^o26But if we say, ‘From men,’ we’re afraid of the crowd, ^pbecause everyone thought John was a prophet.” ^q27So 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“But what do you think? A man had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘My son, go, work in the vineyard today.’ ^r

²⁹“He answered, ‘I don’t want to!’ Yet 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.

³¹“Which of the two did his father’s will?”

“The first,” they said.

Jesus said to them, “I assure you: Tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you! ³²For John came to you in the way of righteousness, ^sand 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 ^tto another parable: ^uThere was a man, a landowner, who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower. ^vHe leased it to tenant farmers and went away. ^w34When the grape harvest ^xdrew near, he sent his ^•slaves to the farmers to collect his fruit. ³⁵But the farmers took his slaves, beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. ^y36Again, he sent other slaves, 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 among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance!’ ^z39So 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 produce at the harvest.” ^ab

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

The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone. ^c

This came from the Lord

and is wonderful in our eyes? ^de

⁴³Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing its ^ffruit. [⁴⁴Whoever falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; ^gbut on whoever it falls, it will grind him to powder!]” ^h

⁴⁵When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, ⁱthey knew He was speaking about them. ⁴⁶Although they were looking for a way to arrest Him, they feared the crowds, because they ^jregarded Him as a prophet. ^k

The Parable of the Wedding Banquet

22Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables: ²“The kingdom of heaven ^lmay be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. ^m3…