21 Jesus and his disciples came close to Jerusalem, entering Bethphage beside the Mount of Olives. Jesus sent two disciples, 2 telling them, “Go into the village up ahead and you will immediately find a donkey tied there with a colt. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, just say, ‘The lord needs them,’ and he will send them immediately.” 4 This happened to fulfill what was said through the prophet: 5 “Tell the daughter of Zion, ‘Look, your king is coming to you, gentle, and riding on a donkey — on a colt, the offspring of a donkey.’” 6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had told them. 7 They brought back the donkey and the colt. They spread their coats on them, and Jesus sat on the coats. 8 Most of the crowd laid their coats on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and laid them on the road. 9 The crowds who went in front of him, and those following, were all shouting, “Hosanna[172] to the son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” 10 When Jesus arrived in Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, with people asking, “Who is this?”  11 The crowds replied, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee.”
    12 Jesus went into the Temple and threw out all the people trading there. He overturned the money-changers’ tables and the dove-sellers’ seats,  13 and said to them, “It is written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are turning it into a robbers’ den.”
    14 The blind and the lame came to Jesus in the Temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and religious teachers saw the wonderful things he had done, and the children shouting in the Temple, “Hosanna to the son of David,” they became angry. 16 “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him. “Yes,” Jesus replied. “Did you not ever read the Scripture: ‘From the mouths of infants and babies You have prepared praise for Yourself’?”  17 And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he stayed the night.
    18 The next morning as he walked back into the city, he became hungry. 19 He saw a fig tree by the side of the road, so he went over to it, but did not find any fruit, just leaves. He said to the fig tree, “You will never produce fruit from now on!” Immediately the fig tree withered. 20 When the disciples saw this, they were astonished. “How did the fig tree wither so suddenly?” they asked. 21 Jesus answered, “I am telling you the truth: if you have faith and do not doubt, you will do not only what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. 22 You will receive everything you ask for in prayer, if you believe.”
    23 When Jesus went into the temple, the chief priests and the ruling elders of the people came to him while he was teaching and asked, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” 24 Jesus replied, “I will ask you a question too. If you answer me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. 25 The baptism of John — where was that from? From heaven, or from people?” They discussed this among themselves. “If we say ‘From heaven,’ he will ask us why we did not believe him. 26 But if we say, ‘From people,’ we are afraid of what the people will do, because they all consider John to be a prophet.” 27 So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” Then he said to them, “So I am not telling you by what authority I do these things.
    28 “But what do you think about this? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first son and said, ‘Son, go to work today in the vineyard.’ 29 The son answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterwards he was sorry, and he changed his mind and went. 30 The father went to the second son and said the same thing. He replied, ‘I will go,’ but he did not. 31 So which of the two sons did what his father wanted?”[173] They answered, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “I am telling you the truth: tax collectors and prostitutes will go ahead of you into the Kingdom of God. 32 John came to tell you the right way and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him. Even when you saw this, you did not change your minds and believe him.
    33 “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put up a wall around it and dug out a winepress, and built a watchtower. He rented it to some tenant farmers and then went on a journey. [174] 34 When it was harvest-time, he sent his servants to the farmers to get his share of the crop. 35 The farmers seized his servants, beat one, killed another, and stoned the third. 36 So he sent more servants, and the farmers treated them the same way. 37 So then he sent his son, saying to himself, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But the farmers, when they saw the son, said to each other, ‘Here is the heir. Come on, let us kill him so that we can take his inheritance!’ 39 They took him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40 So when the vineyard owner comes, what will he do to those farmers?” 41 They said to Jesus, “He will destroy those terrible men in a terrible way, and rent out the vineyard to other farmers who will give him his share of the crops at harvest-time.”
    42 “Have you not read the Scriptures?” Jesus asked them. “‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the main cornerstone. This was from the Lord, and it is wonderful in our eyes.’  43 That is why I am telling you that the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and will be given to a people who produce its fruit. [175] 44 Whoever falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but on whomever it falls it will crush them to dust.”[176] 45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized he was speaking about them. 46 They tried to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd, because the people believed he was a prophet.