just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
And two blind men sitting by the road, hearing that Jesus was passing by, cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”
The crowd sternly told them to be quiet, but they cried out all the more, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!”
When they had approached Jerusalem and had come to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples,
saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied there and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to Me.
If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.”
This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:
“SAY TO THE DAUGHTER OF ZION, ‘BEHOLD YOUR KING IS COMING TO YOU, GENTLE, AND MOUNTED ON A DONKEY, EVEN ON A COLT, THE FOAL OF A BEAST OF BURDEN.’”
The disciples went and did just as Jesus had instructed them,
and brought the donkey and the colt, and laid their coats on them; and He sat on the coats.
Most of the crowd spread their coats in the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in the road.
The crowds going ahead of Him, and those who 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 He had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, “Who is this?”
And the crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee.”
And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves.
And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.
But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He had done, and the children who were shouting in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became indignant
and said to Him, “Do You hear what these children are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, ‘OUT OF THE MOUTH OF INFANTS AND NURSING BABIES YOU HAVE PREPARED PRAISE FOR YOURSELF’?”
And He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.
Now in the morning, when He was returning to the city, He became hungry.
Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves only; and He said to it, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.” And at once the fig tree withered.
Seeing this, the disciples were amazed and asked, “How did the fig tree wither all at once?”
And 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.
When He entered the temple, 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?”
The baptism of John was from what source, from heaven or from men?” And they began reasoning among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’
But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the people; for they all regard John as a prophet.”
“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.’
The man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered, ‘I will, sir’; but he did not go.
Which 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.
For 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 feel remorse afterward so as to believe him.
When the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine-growers to receive his produce.
The vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third.
Again he sent another group of slaves larger than the first; and they did the same thing to them.
But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’
They took him, and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
Therefore when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers?”
They said to Him, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.”
Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures, ‘THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone; THIS CAME ABOUT FROM THE LORD, AND IT IS MARVELOUS IN OUR EYES’?
Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it.
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was speaking about them.
When they sought to seize Him, they feared the people, because they considered Him to be a prophet.
“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son.
And he sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come.
Again he sent out other slaves saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, “Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened livestock are all butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast.”’
and the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them.
But the king was enraged, and he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire.
Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy.
Go therefore to the main highways, and as many as you find there, invite to the wedding feast.’
Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered together all they found, both evil and good; and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests.
“But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes,
New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995
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