Jesus rides into Jerusalem

11 Jesus and his disciples were coming near to Jerusalem. They were almost at the villages called Bethphage and Bethany. They were on the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus sent two of his disciples to go further.^[a]

² He said to them, ‘Go into the village that is in front of you. When you arrive there, you will immediately see a young donkey. Someone has tied it there. Nobody has ever yet ridden on it. Undo the rope and bring the donkey here to me. ³ Someone may ask you, “Why are you doing this?” Then say, “The Master needs the donkey. He will send it back here soon.” ’

⁴ So the two disciples went into the village. They found the young donkey in the street. Someone had tied it outside, by a door. So the disciples undid the rope. ⁵ Some people were standing there. They asked the two disciples, ‘What are you doing? Why are you undoing the donkey's rope?’ ⁶ The disciples answered them. They repeated what Jesus had told them to say. The people then let them take the donkey away. ⁷ The two disciples brought the young donkey to Jesus. They put their coats on its back and Jesus sat on it. ⁸ Many people then put their coats down on the road. Other people cut branches down from trees in the fields. They put the branches down on the road as well.^[b]

⁹ Many people went in front of Jesus, and other people followed him. All of them were shouting,

¹¹ Jesus went into Jerusalem and went to the temple. He looked at everything there. It was late in the day, so he then went out of the city to Bethany. The 12 apostles went with him.

A tree without fruit

¹² On the next day, they left Bethany. Jesus was hungry. ¹³ He saw a fig tree which was a long way away. There were leaves on it. So he went to see if it had fruit on it. When he reached it, he found nothing except leaves. That was because it was not the right season for it to have fruit. ¹⁴ So Jesus said to the tree, ‘Nobody will ever eat your fruit again.’ And his disciples heard what he said.

Jesus goes to the temple

¹⁵ When they arrived back in Jerusalem, Jesus went into the yard of the temple.^[c] People were buying and selling things there. Jesus began to make them all leave that place. Some men were changing coins there for people.^[d] He pushed over their tables. And he pushed over the seats of the men who sold birds.^[e]

¹⁶ Jesus would not let anyone carry things through that place. ¹⁷ While he was teaching the people, Jesus said, ‘The Bible says, “God's house will be a place where people from all countries pray.” But you have changed it into a place where robbers meet.’

¹⁸ The leaders of the priests and the teachers of God's Law heard this. And they thought about how they could kill Jesus. They were afraid of him. That was because all the crowd were listening to him. And the things that he taught caused the crowd to be very surprised.

¹⁹ When it was evening, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city again.

The fig tree is dead

²⁰ The next morning, Jesus and his disciples passed the fig tree. They saw that it was completely dead. ²¹ Peter remembered what Jesus had said. So he said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, look at that fig tree. You said that it should die, and it has died.’

²² So Jesus said to them, ‘You must believe in God. ²³ I tell you this: A person could say to this mountain, “Move and throw yourself into the sea.” Then it will happen like he says. But he must not let other ideas come into his mind. He must really believe that those things will happen. If he does believe it, God will do those things for him. ²⁴ So I tell you this. When you pray to ask God for anything, believe in him. Believe that you have received that thing. Then you will have whatever you have asked for. ²⁵ But when you stand up to pray, first you must forgive other people. If anyone has done something bad against you, forgive that person. If you do forgive them, your Father in heaven will forgive you. God will forgive you for the bad things that you have done.’ ^26 [f]

Jesus talks about his authority

²⁷ Jesus and his disciples arrived again in Jerusalem. Jesus was walking about in the yard at the temple. The leaders of the priests, the teachers of God's Law and the important Jews came to him. ²⁸ They asked him, ‘What authority do you have to do these things? Who gave you the authority to do them?’

²⁹ Jesus replied, ‘I will ask you one question and you should answer me. If you do that, then I will answer your question. I will tell you what authority I have to do these things. ³⁰ John baptized people. Did God give him authority to do this? Or did men tell him to do it? Now, tell me your answer.’

³¹ Then the Jewish leaders talked to each other. 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.” ³² But we do not want to say that only men gave John his authority.’ The Jewish leaders were afraid of the crowd. All the people thought that John really was a prophet from God.

³³ So the Jewish leaders answered Jesus: ‘We do not know who gave John his authority.’

So Jesus said to them, ‘You will not answer my question. So I will not tell you what authority I have to do these things.’