Matthew 21:12–27

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

¹²Then Jesus entered the temple^p and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.^{* 13}He said to them, “It is written,

‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’

but you are making it a den of robbers.”^*

¹⁴The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them. ¹⁵But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that he did and heard^q the children crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became angry^{* 16}and said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read,

‘Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies

you have prepared praise for yourself’?”^*

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

Jesus Curses the Fig Tree

¹⁸In the morning, when he returned to the city, he was hungry. ¹⁹And seeing a fig tree by the side of the road, he went to it and found nothing at all on it but leaves. Then he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once. ²⁰When the disciples saw it, they were amazed, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” ²¹Jesus answered them, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will be done.^{* 22}Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive.”^*

The Authority of Jesus Questioned

²³When he entered the temple, 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, and who gave you this authority?”^{* 24}Jesus said to them, “I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. ²⁵Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” And they argued with one another, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why, then, did you not believe him?’ ²⁶But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for all regard John as a prophet.”^{* 27}So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.