1When they came near to Jerusalem, and had reached Bethphage, at the mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples.
2He said to them, "Go into the village in front of you. At once you will find a donkey tied up, and a colt with her. Untie them, and bring them to me."
3"If anyone says anything to you, you are to say, 'The Lord needs them.' Then he will send them at once."
4All this was done so that what was spoken by the prophet might come true:
5"Tell the daughter of Sion, Look, your King is coming to you, gentle, and sitting on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey."
6The disciples went and did as Jesus had told them.
7They brought the donkey and the colt, and put their clothes on them, and he sat on them.
8A very large crowd spread their clothes on the road. Others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
9The crowds that went in front and those that followed shouted, "Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest."
10When he came into Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred, and people said, "Who is this?"
12Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who were selling and buying in the temple. He turned over the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who sold doves.
13He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called the house of prayer.' But you have made it a den of thieves."
14The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.
15The chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things he did, and the children shouting in the temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David." They were very angry.
16They said to him, "Do you hear what these are saying?" And Jesus said to them, "Yes. Have you never read, 'Out of the mouth of babies and nursing infants you have made praise perfect'?"
17He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and he stayed the night there.
18In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he was hungry.
19He saw a fig tree by the road, and came to it, but found nothing on it except leaves. He said to it, "Let no fruit ever grow on you again." And straight away the fig tree withered.
20When the disciples saw it, they were amazed. They said, "How quickly the fig tree has withered!"
21Jesus answered them, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree. You will also be able to say to this mountain, 'Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' and it will be done."
22"And whatever you ask for in prayer, believing, you will receive."
23When he had come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him while he was teaching. They said, "By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority?"
24Jesus answered them, "I will also ask you one thing. If you tell me the answer, I will tell you by what authority I do these things."
25"The baptism of John, where did it come from? From heaven, or from men?" And they talked it over among themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will say to us, 'Why then did you not believe him?'"
26"But if we say, 'From men,' we are afraid of the people, for they all hold that John was a prophet."
27So they answered Jesus, "We cannot tell." And he said to them, "Then I will not tell you by what authority I do these things."
28"But what do you think? A man had two sons. He came to the first and said, 'Son, go and work today in my vineyard.'"
29"He answered, 'I will not.' But afterwards he changed his mind and went."
30"Then he came to the second son and said the same. And he answered, 'I will go, sir,' but he did not go."
31"Which of the two did what his father wanted?" They said to him, "The first." Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going 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 the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And you, when you had seen it, still did not repent afterwards and believe him."
33"Listen to another parable. There was a man who owned land. He planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower. Then he rented it out to farmers and went away to a far country."
34"When the time of the harvest came near, he sent his servants to the farmers, to receive the fruit."
35"But the farmers took his servants. They beat one, killed another, and stoned another."
36"Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did the same to them."
37"Last of all he sent his son to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.'"
38"But when the farmers saw the son, they said among themselves, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and take his inheritance for ourselves.'"
39"So they took hold of him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him."
40"So when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those farmers?"
41They said to him, "He will destroy those wicked men terribly, and will rent out his vineyard to other farmers, who will give him the fruit at the right times."
42Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the scriptures, 'The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing, and it is wonderful in our eyes'?"
43"So I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and given to a nation that will bring out its fruit."
44"And whoever falls on this stone will be broken. But if it falls on anyone, it will crush him to powder."
45When the chief priests and Pharisees heard his parables, they understood that he was speaking about them.
46They wanted to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd, because the people held that he was a prophet.