Read the Gospels in 40 Days
The King Enters Jerusalem(A)
21 When they came near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples on ahead and 2 told them, “Go into the village ahead of you. At once you will find a donkey tied up and a colt with it. Untie them, and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, tell him, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and that person will send them at once.”
4 Now this happened to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet when he said,
5 “Tell the daughter[a] of Zion,
‘Look, your king is coming to you![b]
He is humble and mounted on a donkey,
even on a colt of a donkey.’”[c]
6 So the disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and put their coats on them, and he sat upon them. 8 Many people in the crowd spread their own coats on the road, while others began cutting down branches from the trees and spreading them on the road. 9 Both the crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed him kept shouting,
“Hosanna[d] to the Son of David!
How blessed is the one who comes
in the name of the Lord![e]
Hosanna in the highest heaven!”[f]
10 When he came into Jerusalem, the whole city was trembling with excitement. The people[g] were asking, “Who is this?”
11 The crowds kept saying, “This is the prophet Jesus, the man from Nazareth in Galilee.”
Confrontation in the Temple over Money(B)
12 Then Jesus went into the Temple,[h] threw out everyone who was selling and buying in the Temple, and overturned the moneychangers’ tables and the chairs of those who sold doves. 13 He told them, “It is written, ‘My house is to be called a house of prayer,’[i] but you are turning it into a hideout[j] for bandits!”
14 Blind and lame people came to him in the Temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the high priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that he had done and the children shouting in the Temple, “Hosanna[k] to the Son of David,” they became furious 16 and asked him, “Do you hear what these people are saying?”
Jesus told them, “Yes! Haven’t you ever read, ‘From the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have created praise’?”[l] 17 Then he left them and went out of the city to Bethany and spent the night there.
Jesus Curses a Fig Tree(C)
18 In the morning, as Jesus[m] was returning to the city, he became hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the roadside, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. He told it, “May fruit never come from you again!” And immediately the fig tree dried up.
20 When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree dry up so quickly?” they asked.
21 Jesus answered them, “I tell all of you[n] with certainty, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you be able to do what has been done to the fig tree, but you will also say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. 22 You will receive whatever you ask for in prayer, if you believe.”
Jesus’ Authority is Challenged(D)
23 Then Jesus[o] went into the Temple. While he was teaching, the high priests and the elders of the people came to him and asked, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”
24 Jesus answered them, “I, too, will ask you one question.[p] If you answer it for me, I will also tell you by what authority I am doing these things. 25 Where did John’s authority to baptize[q] come from? From heaven or from humans?”
They began discussing this among themselves: “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask us, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ 26 But if we say, ‘From humans,’ we are afraid of the crowd, because everyone regards John as a prophet.” 27 So they told Jesus, “We don’t know.”
He in turn told them, “Then I won’t tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”
The Parable about Two Sons
28 “But what do you think? A man had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ 29 His son[r] replied, ‘I don’t want to,’ but later he changed his mind and went. 30 Then the father[s] went to the other son[t] and told him the same thing. He replied, ‘I will,[u] sir,’ but he didn’t go. 31 Which of the two did the father’s will?”
They answered, “The first one.”
Jesus told them, “I tell all of you[v] with certainty, tax collectors and prostitutes will get into God’s kingdom ahead of you! 32 John came to you living a righteous life,[w] and you didn’t believe him, but the tax collectors and prostitutes did. But even when you saw that, you didn’t change your minds[x] at last and believe him.”
The Parable about the Tenant Farmers(E)
33 “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a wall around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenant farmers and went abroad. 34 When harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenant farmers to collect his produce. 35 But the farmers took his servants and beat one, killed another, and attacked another with stones. 36 Again, he sent other servants to them, a greater number than the first, but the tenant farmers[y] treated them the same way. 37 Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the tenant farmers saw his son, they told one another, ‘This is the heir. Come on, let’s kill him and get his inheritance!’ 39 So they grabbed him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40 Now when the owner of the vineyard returns, what will he do to those farmers?”
41 They told him, “He will put those horrible men to a horrible death. Then he will lease the vineyard to other farmers who will give him his produce at harvest time.”
42 Jesus asked them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures,
‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.[z]
This was the Lord’s[aa] doing,
and it is amazing in our eyes.’?[ab]
43 That is why I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce fruit for it. 44 The person who falls over this stone will be broken to pieces, but it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”[ac]
45 When the high priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they knew that he was talking about them. 46 Although they wanted to arrest him, they were afraid of the crowds, who considered Jesus[ad] to be a prophet.
The Parable about a Banquet(F)
22 Again Jesus spoke to them in parables. He said, 2 “The kingdom from[ae] heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to call those who had been invited to the wedding, but they refused to come. 4 So[af] he sent other servants after saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, “Look! I’ve prepared my dinner. My oxen and fattened calves have been slaughtered. Everything is ready. Come to the wedding!”’ 5 But they paid no attention to this and went away, one to his farm, another to his business. 6 The rest grabbed the king’s[ag] servants, treated them brutally, and then killed them. 7 Then the king became outraged. He sent his troops, and they destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
8 “Then he told his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. 9 So go into the roads leading out of town and invite as many people as you can find to the wedding.’ 10 Those servants went out into the streets and brought in everyone they found, evil and good alike, and the wedding hall was packed with guests.
11 “When the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 He asked him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ But the man[ah] was speechless. 13 Then the king told his servants, ‘Tie his hands and feet, and throw him into the darkness outside!’ In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth,[ai] 14 because many are invited, but few are chosen.”
A Question about Paying Taxes(G)
15 Then the Pharisees went and planned how to trap Jesus[aj] in conversation. 16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians.[ak] They said, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere and that you teach the way of God truthfully. You don’t favor any individual, because you pay no attention to external appearance. 17 So tell us what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
18 Recognizing their wickedness, Jesus asked, “Why are you testing me, you hypocrites? 19 Show me the coin used for the tax.”
They brought him a denarius.[al] 20 Then he asked them, “Whose face and name is this?”
21 They told him, “Caesar’s.”
So he told them, “Then give back to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
22 When they heard this, they were amazed. Then they left him and went away.
A Question about the Resurrection(H)
23 That same day some Sadducees, who claim there is no resurrection, came to Jesus[am] and asked him, 24 “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and have children for his brother.’[an] 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his widow to his brother. 26 The same thing happened with the second brother, and then the third, and finally with the rest of the brothers.[ao] 27 Finally, the woman died, too. 28 Now in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be, since all of them had married[ap] her?”
29 Jesus answered them, “You are mistaken because you don’t know the Scriptures or God’s power, 30 because in the resurrection, people[aq] neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like the angels[ar] in heaven. 31 As for the resurrection from the dead, haven’t you read what was spoken to you by God when he said, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?[as] He[at] is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”
33 When the crowds heard this, they were amazed at his teaching.
The Greatest Commandment(I)
34 When the Pharisees heard that Jesus[au] had silenced the Sadducees, they met together in the same place. 35 One of them, an expert in the Law, tested him by asking, 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus[av] told him, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’[aw] 38 This is the greatest and most important[ax] commandment. 39 The second is exactly like it: ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’[ay] 40 All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commandments.”
A Question about David’s Son(J)
41 While the Pharisees were still[az] gathered, Jesus asked them, 42 “What do you think about the Messiah?[ba] Whose son is he?”
They told him, “David’s.”
43 He asked them, “Then how can David by the Spirit call him ‘Lord’ when he says,
44 ‘The Lord[bb] told my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet.”’?[bc]
45 If David calls him ‘Lord’, how can he be his son?”
46 No one could answer him at all,[bd] and from that day on no one dared to ask him another question.
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