Book of Common Prayer
Prophecy made sure
12 So I intend to go on and on reminding you about all this—even though you know it, and have been firmly established in the truth which has come to you. 13 But it seems right to me, as long as I am living in this present tent, to stir you up with a reminder, 14 since I know that I shall shortly be putting off this tent, as our Lord Jesus the Messiah showed me. 15 So I shall also be making every effort to ensure that, once I am gone, you may be able to call these things to mind at any time.
16 You see, when we made known to you the power and appearing of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, we were not following cleverly devised myths. Rather, we were eyewitnesses of his grandeur. 17 For when he received honor and glory from God the father, a voice spoke to him from the Wonderful Glory, “This is my son, my beloved one, in whom I am well pleased.” 18 We heard this voice, spoken from heaven, when we were with him on the holy mountain. 19 And we have the prophetic word made more certain. You will do well to hold on to this, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star shines in your hearts. 20 You must know this first of all, that no scriptural prophecy is a matter of one’s own interpretation. 21 No prophecy, you see, ever came by human will. Rather, people were moved by the holy spirit, and spoke from God.
The Temple and the fig tree
12 Jesus went into the Temple and threw out all the people who were buying and selling in the Temple. He overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of the dove-sellers.
13 “This is what the Bible says,” he said to them,
My house will be called a house of prayer—
but you have made it a brigands’ lair!”
14 The blind and the lame came to him in the Temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the remarkable things he was doing, and the children shouting out “Hosanna to David’s son!” in the Temple, they were very cross.
16 “Do you hear what they’re saying?” they asked Jesus.
“Yes,” said Jesus. “Did you never read what it says,
You called forth praise to rise to you
from newborn babes and infants too!”
17 Then he left them, and went out of the city to Bethany, where he stayed the night.
18 Early the next morning Jesus went back to the city. He was hungry. 19 He saw a single fig tree beside the road, but when he came up to it he found nothing on it except leaves.
“May you never bear fruit, ever again!” he said to it. Instantly the fig tree withered up.
20 The disciples saw it, and were astonished.
“Look how quickly the fig tree has withered up!” they said.
21 “I’m telling you the truth,” replied Jesus. “If you have faith, and don’t doubt, you will not only be able to do this to a fig tree, but if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. 22 Whatever you ask in prayer, you’ll get it, if you believe.”
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.