Jesus

saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt beside her. Untie them and bring them to Me.

If anyone questions you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”

So the disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them.

They brought the donkey and the colt and laid their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them.

The crowds that went ahead of Him and those that followed were shouting: “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Hosanna in the highest!”

When Jesus had entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”

The crowds replied, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

Then Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those selling doves.

The blind and the lame came to Him at the temple, and He healed them.

But the chief priests and scribes were indignant when they saw the wonders He performed and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”

“Do You hear what these children are saying?” they asked. “Yes,” Jesus answered. “Have you never read: ‘From the mouths of children and infants You have ordained praise’?”

Then He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where He spent the night.

In the morning, as Jesus was returning to the city, He was hungry.

Seeing a fig tree by the road, He went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. “May you never bear fruit again!” He said. And immediately the tree withered.

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do 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.

When Jesus returned to the temple courts and began to teach, the chief priests and elders of the people came up to Him. “By what authority are You doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave You this authority?”

“I will also ask you one question,” Jesus replied, “and if you answer Me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things.

So they answered, “We do not know.” And Jesus replied, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.

But what do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first one and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’

Which of the two did the will of his father?” “The first,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you.

“He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and will rent out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his share of the fruit at harvest time.”

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.

When the chief priests and Pharisees heard His parables, they knew that Jesus was speaking about them.

Although they wanted to arrest Him, they were afraid of the crowds, because the people regarded Him as a prophet.