Matthew 21:12-32

¹²And Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all those who were selling and buying on the temple grounds, and He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. ¹³And He *said to them, “It is written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a den of robbers.”

¹⁴And those who were blind and those who limped came to Him in the temple area, and He healed them. ¹⁵But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He had done, and the children who were shouting in the temple area, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became indignant, ¹⁶and they said to Him, “Do You hear what these children are saying?” And Jesus *said to them, “Yes. Have you never read, ‘From the mouths of infants and nursing babies You have prepared praise for Yourself’?” ¹⁷And He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.

¹⁸Now in the early morning, when He was returning to the city, He became hungry. ¹⁹And seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves alone; and He *said to it, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.” And at once the fig tree withered.

²⁰Seeing this, the disciples were amazed and asked, “How did the fig tree wither all at once?” ²¹And Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly I say to 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 say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen. ²²And whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive it all.”

²³When He entered the temple area, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to Him while He was teaching, and said, “By what authority are You doing these things, and who gave You this authority?” ²⁴But Jesus responded and said to them, “I will also ask you one question, which, if you tell Me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. ²⁵The baptism of John was from what source: from heaven or from men?” And they began considering the implications among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ ²⁶But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the people; for they all regard John as a prophet.” ²⁷And answering Jesus, they said, “We do not know.” He also said to them, “Neither am I telling you by what authority I do these things.

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 vineyard.’ ²⁹But he replied, ‘I do not want to.’ Yet afterward he regretted it and went. ³⁰And the man came to his second son and said the same thing; and he replied, ‘I will, sir’; and yet he did not go. ³¹Which of the two did the will of his father?” They *said, “The first.” Jesus *said to them, “Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you. ³²For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even have second thoughts afterward so as to believe him.