Matthew 21:12–46

Cleansing the Temple

^12aAnd Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the ^bmoney changers and the seats of those who were selling ^cdoves.

¹³And He ^*said to them, “It is written, ‘^aMy house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a ^brobbers’ ¹den.”

¹⁴And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and ^aHe healed them.

¹⁵But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the marvelous things which He had done, and the children who were shouting in the temple, saying, “Hosanna to the ^aSon of David,” they became indignant

¹⁶and said to Him, “Do You hear what these children are saying?” And Jesus ^*said to them, “Yes; have you never read, ‘^aOut of the mouth of infants and nursing babies You have prepared praise for Yourself’?”

¹⁷And He left them and went out of the city to ^aBethany, and spent the night there.

The Barren Fig Tree

^18aNow in the morning, when He was returning to the city, He became hungry.

¹⁹And seeing a lone ^afig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves only; and He ^*said to it, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.” And at once the fig tree withered.

²⁰And seeing this, the disciples marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither all at once?”

²¹And Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly I say to you, ^aif you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen.

²²“And ^aall things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”

The Authority of Jesus Challenged

^23aAnd when He entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to Him ^bwhile He was teaching, and said, “By what authority are You doing these things, and who gave You this authority?”

²⁴And Jesus answered and said to them, “I will also ask you one ¹thing, which if you tell Me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these things.

²⁵“The baptism of John was from what source, from heaven or from men?” And they began reasoning among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’

²⁶“But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the crowd; for they all regard John as ^aa prophet.”

²⁷And they answered Jesus and said, “We do not know.” He also said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

Parable of Two Sons

²⁸“But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go work today in the ^avineyard.’

²⁹“And he answered and said, ‘I will not’; but afterward he regretted it and went.

³⁰“And the man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered and said, ‘I will, sir’; but he did not go.

³¹“Which of the two did the will of his father?” They ^*said, “The first.” Jesus ^*said to them, “Truly I say to you that ^athe tax collectors and prostitutes ¹will get into the kingdom of God before you.

³²“For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but ^athe tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even regret afterward so as to believe him.

Parable of the Vine-Growers

³³“Listen to another parable. ^aThere was a ¹landowner who ^bplanted a ^cvineyard and put a ^cwall around it and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and rented it out to ²vine-growers and ^dwent on a journey.

³⁴“Now when the ¹harvest time approached, he ^asent his slaves to the vine-growers to receive his fruit.

³⁵“And the vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third.

³⁶“Again he ^asent another group of slaves larger than the first; and they did the same thing to them.

³⁷“But afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’

³⁸“But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’

³⁹“And they took him, and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

⁴⁰“Therefore when the ¹owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers?”

⁴¹They ^*said to Him, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and ^awill rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.”

⁴²Jesus ^*said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures,

‘^aThe stone which the builders rejected,

This has become the chief corner stone;

This came about from the ¹Lord,

and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

⁴³“Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation, producing the fruit of it.

⁴⁴“And ^ahe who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.”

⁴⁵And when the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He ^*was speaking about them.

⁴⁶And although they were seeking to seize Him, they ^afeared the crowds, because they were regarding Him to be a ^bprophet.