Jesus goes into Jerusalem
1 Jesus and his 12 disciples were coming near to Jerusalem. They came to the village called Bethphage, on the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus sent two of his disciples to go further. 2 He said to them, ‘Go into the village that is in front of you. When you arrive there, you will immediately see a donkey tied there with her young donkey. Undo the ropes and bring both the donkeys here to me. 3 Someone may ask you, “What are you doing?” Then say, “The Master needs them. He will send them back to you soon.” ’
21:1The Mount of Olives is on the east side of Jerusalem. Many olive trees grow on it.
4 A prophet had spoken a message from God about this long ago. Now it became true.
5 ‘Say to the people in Jerusalem,
“Look, your king is coming to you.
He is humble and he is riding on a donkey.
Yes, he is riding on a young donkey.” ’
6 So the two disciples went to the village. They did everything that Jesus had told them to do. 7 They brought the donkey and the young donkey to Jesus. They put their coats on the backs of the donkeys. Then Jesus sat on one of them. 8 Many people in the crowd put their coats down on the road. Other people cut branches down from trees. They put these branches down on the road.
21:8The people did this when a king or a great leader came. They did it to give him honour.
9 Many crowds of people went in front of Jesus and other people followed him. All of them were shouting,
‘We praise the Son of David!
May the Lord God bless the king who comes with his authority!
We praise God in heaven above!’
10 When Jesus went into Jerusalem, everybody in the city had trouble in their minds. They were asking each other, ‘Who is this man?’
11 The people in the crowd replied, ‘This is God's prophet, Jesus. He comes from Nazareth in Galilee.’
Jesus chases traders out of the temple
12 Jesus then went into the yard of the temple. People were buying and selling things there. Jesus made them all leave that place. He pushed over the tables of the men who changed coins. He also pushed over the seats of the men who sold birds.
21:12The temple had a wall around it. Only the priests went into the temple building. Other people could meet in the yard around the temple building.
21:12The people had to use different money in the temple to buy birds and animals to offer as gifts to God.
13 Jesus spoke to them all. He said, ‘The Bible says, “God's house will be a place where people come together to pray.” But you have changed it into a place where robbers meet.’
14 Blind people went to meet Jesus in the yard of the temple. People who could not walk very well also went there. Jesus caused them all to become well. 15 The leaders of the priests and teachers of God's Law saw all the powerful things that Jesus did. They also saw children in the yard of the temple who were shouting, ‘Welcome! We pray that God will bless you, Son of David!’ All these things caused the important Jews to become very angry.
16 They asked Jesus, ‘Can you hear what these children are saying?’
Jesus replied, ‘Yes, I can hear them. I am sure that you have read this in the Bible:
“ Lord God, babies and children praise you.
You yourself have taught them to do that.” ’
17 Then Jesus left everyone and he went out of the city. He stayed that night in Bethany.
21:17Bethany was a village near Bethphage, very near to Jerusalem.
Jesus causes a fig tree to die
18 On the next day, early in the morning, Jesus left Bethany to return to Jerusalem. On the way there, he was hungry. 19 He saw a fig tree near to the road. He went to see if it had fruit on it. But there were only leaves on the tree, and no fruit. Jesus said to the tree, ‘No fruit will ever grow on you again!’ Then, immediately, the tree became dry and it died.
20 The disciples saw it happen and they were very surprised. They asked Jesus, ‘How did the tree die so quickly?’
21 Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you this. You must believe in God. You must not have other ideas in your mind. If you believe in God, then you could also do the same thing to this fig tree. You could even say to this mountain, “Move away and throw yourself into the sea!” Then it would really happen. 22 So when you pray to ask God for something, believe in him. Then God will give you whatever you ask for.’
A question about Jesus' authority
23 Then Jesus returned to the yard of the temple. While he was teaching the people there, the leaders of the priests and important Jews went to him. They asked him, ‘What authority do you have to do these things? Tell us. Who gave you the authority to do them?’
24 Jesus replied, ‘I also will ask you one question. If you tell me the answer, then I will answer your question. I will tell you what authority I have to do these things. 25 John baptized people. Did God give him the authority to do this? Or did men tell him to do it?’
Then the Jewish leaders talked to each other about Jesus' question. They said, ‘We could say that God gave John his authority. But if we say that, Jesus will say to us, “Then you should have believed John.” 26 But we cannot say that John received his authority from people. All the people think that John was a prophet from God. We are afraid that the crowd might attack us.’
27 So the Jewish leaders answered Jesus, ‘We do not know who gave John his authority.’
Jesus said to them, ‘You will not answer my question. So I will not tell you what authority I have to do these things.’
Jesus tells a story about two sons
28 Jesus said to the Jewish leaders, ‘Tell me what you think about this story. A man had two sons. He went to the older son and he said, “Son, go and work in my field today.”
29 The older son replied, “I do not want to go and work there today.” But after he had said that, he did go and work in the field.
30 The man went to his other son and he said the same thing to him. The second son replied, “Yes, father, I will go.” But then he did not go to work in the field.
31 Tell me, which of the man's sons did what his father wanted?’
The Jewish leaders replied, ‘The older son did what his father wanted.’
Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you this. The men who take taxes from people are going into the kingdom of God before you. It is the same with prostitutes. They also are going into the kingdom of God before you. 32 John the Baptist came to show you the right way to live. You did not believe him. But the men who take taxes did believe him. Prostitutes also believed him. Even after you saw this, you did not believe him. You did not change the way that you live.’
Jesus tells a story about wicked farmers
33 Then Jesus said to the Jewish leaders, ‘Listen to another story that I will tell you. There was a man who had his own farm. He planted vines in a vineyard to grow grapes there. He built a wall around the vineyard. He dug a hole in the ground for a winepress to make wine. He also built a tower to watch over the garden.
The man then found some farmers to work in the vineyard for him. Then he went away to another country. 34 When it was nearly time for the harvest, the master sent his servants to speak to the farmers. He wanted them to give him his fruit from the vines. 35 But the farmers took hold of the servants. They hit one of them with sticks. They killed another one. They threw stones at another servant and killed him. 36 So the master sent other servants to go to the farmers. He sent more servants than the first time. But the farmers did the same thing to those servants too. 37 After that, the master sent his own son to the farmers. He thought, “The farmers will surely respect my son.”
38 The farmers saw the master's son coming. They said to each other, “This is the master's own son. The farm will belong to him when his father dies. So we should kill the son and then the farm will belong to us.” 39 So the farmers took hold of the son. They threw him out of the vineyard and they killed him.’
40 Jesus then said, ‘One day, the master will return to his vineyard. What do you think he will do then to those farmers?’
41 The Jewish leaders said to Jesus, ‘The master will completely destroy those wicked people. Then he will give the vineyard to other farmers to take care of it. Those new farmers will give the master the fruit that he should have at the time of harvest.’
42 Jesus said to them, ‘I am sure that you have read this in the Bible:
“The builders refused to use a certain stone.
They thought that it had no value.
But now that stone has become the most important stone at the corner of the building.
The Lord God did this.
We can see that he did something great.”
21:42See Psalm 118:22-23. God had chosen Jesus to do his work. But the Jewish leaders would not agree with that. 43 I tell you this. Because you do not believe in me, God will take his kingdom away from you. He will give it to people who show that they obey him.
44 When a person falls onto that stone, it will break his body into pieces. When that stone falls on top of someone, it will destroy him completely.’
45 The leaders of the priests and the Pharisees heard what Jesus said in his stories. They knew that he was speaking against them. 46 They wanted to take hold of him and put him in prison. But they did not try to do it because they were afraid of the people. The people thought that Jesus was a prophet from God.
Matthew 22
Jesus tells a story about a marriage party
1 Jesus continued to use stories to teach the people. 2 He said, ‘This is what the kingdom of heaven is like. A king prepared a special meal for his son's marriage. 3 He asked many people to come. When the meal was ready, he sent his servants out to tell those people to come. But they refused to come.
4 So the king then sent out other servants. He said to them, “Tell this message to all those people that I have asked to come. Tell them that the master says, ‘My servants have prepared the meal. They have killed my large oxen and some fat young cows to eat. Everything is ready. Now come to the marriage party!’ ”
5 But the people did not think that the king's message was important. They went away to do their own work. One man went to his farm and another man went to his business. 6 Other people took hold of the king's servants. They hurt them and they killed them. 7 The king was very angry. He sent his soldiers to the city where those people lived. They killed the people who had murdered the king's servants. They destroyed their city with fire.
8 Then the king said to his other servants, “The meal for my son's marriage is ready. But the people that I had asked to come did not deserve to come. 9 So go out now to the town's streets where people meet together. Ask all the people that you find there to come to the marriage party.” 10 Then those servants went out into the streets. They brought to the king's house all the people that they met. Some were good people and some were bad people. Very many people came. The room for the marriage party was full!
11 Then the king came into the room to see all the people. He saw one man who was not wearing the right clothes for a marriage. 12 The king said to the man, “How did you come in here, my friend? You are not wearing the right clothes for a marriage.” The man could not answer the king.
22:12At that time, there was a special meal when a man married. People who came to the meal also had special clothes to wear.
13 The king said to his servants, “Tie his hands and his feet. Take him and throw him into the dark place outside. There, people will cry and they will bite their teeth together.”
14 God asks many people to come to him. But he only chooses a few people to be there with him.’
The Pharisees ask Jesus about taxes
15 After the Pharisees heard this, they met together. They decided what they could do to make Jesus say something wrong. Then they would have a reason to take hold of him. 16 So they sent their own disciples to Jesus. They also sent people who were friends of King Herod. They said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, we know that you only say true things. You teach us what God wants us to do. It does not matter to you what other people think. If someone is important, you do not change your answers to make them happy. 17 So tell us your answer to this question: Should we pay our taxes to the Roman ruler, Caesar? Is it right to give that money to him, or not?’
22:17Caesar was the most important Roman ruler. He lived in Rome, their capital city. In Jesus' time, the Romans ruled over many other countries.
18 Jesus knew that these men wanted to do a wicked thing. So he said to them, ‘You are asking that question to cause trouble for me. You are not being honest! 19 Now, show me the coin that you use for the tax.’
So they brought a coin to him. 20 Then Jesus asked them, ‘Whose picture is on this coin? Whose name is on it?’
21 They replied, ‘It is Caesar's picture and Caesar's name.’
Jesus said to them, ‘So you should give to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar. And give to God the things that belong to God.’
22 When they heard Jesus' answer, they were very surprised. So they left him and they went away.
The Sadducees ask Jesus about life after death
23 On the same day, some Sadducees also came to Jesus. Sadducees do not believe that anyone becomes alive again after they die. They wanted to ask Jesus a question.
22:23The Sadducees were an important group of Jewish leaders.
24 They said to him, ‘Teacher, Moses said in the Bible: A man might die and leave behind a wife but no children. Then that man's brother must marry the widow. Then their children will be called the children of the brother who died. 25 Once, there were seven brothers who lived here. The oldest brother married a woman. Then he died before they had any children. So the second brother married the widow. 26 But then he also died with no children. So a third brother married this woman. And the same thing happened to all the brothers, even to the seventh brother. They all died before the woman had any children. 27 After all this, the woman also died. 28 You teach that one day dead people will become alive again. On that day, whose wife will that woman be? She had married all seven of those brothers.’
29 Jesus said to the Sadducees, ‘You are wrong. This is because you do not know the Bible. And you do not know how powerful God is. 30 One day, God will raise people up after they have died. They will become alive again. But then men and women will not marry. They will not have husbands or wives. Instead, they will be like the angels in heaven. 31 It is true that one day dead people will become alive again. You have read in the Bible about what God said to you: 32 “I am the God of Abraham. I am the God of Isaac. And I am the God of Jacob.” God is not the God of people who are dead. He is the God of people who are alive.’
33 The crowd heard this. They were very surprised about what Jesus was teaching.
Jesus teaches the Pharisees about God's most important command
34 The Pharisees heard that Jesus had said these things to the Sadducees. Now the Sadducees could not say anything more to him. So the Pharisees met together. They decided what they would say to Jesus.
35 One of the Pharisees had studied God's Law very well. He asked Jesus a question to see how he would answer. 36 He said, ‘Teacher, which of God's laws is the most important command for us to obey?’
37 Jesus replied to him, ‘You should love the Lord your God completely: Love him with all your mind. Love him with all that you are. Love him in all that you think. 38 This is the greatest command and the most important of all God's laws. 39 The second command is also important, like the first one. You should love other people as much as you love yourself. 40 All God's laws that Moses gave us come from these two commands. All the things that the prophets wrote also come from them.’
Jesus teaches people about the Messiah
41 While the Pharisees met together, Jesus asked them, 42 ‘What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?’
The Pharisees replied, ‘He will be King David's son.’
43 Jesus said to them, ‘So think about this. God's Holy Spirit caused King David to call the Messiah his Lord. David said,
44 “The Lord God said to my Lord:
Sit at my right side until I win against your enemies.
Then you will be able to put your feet on them.”
45 We see here that King David calls the Messiah his Lord. So can you really say that the Messiah is David's son?’ 46 Nobody could answer the question that Jesus asked. After this, everyone was afraid to ask Jesus any more questions.
