New Testament in a Year

¹⁹ And when evening came they went out of the city.

The Barren Fig Tree Withered

²⁰ And as they^[a] passed by early in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. ²¹ And Peter remembered and^[b] said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered!” ²² And Jesus answered and^[c] said to them, “Have faith in God! ²³ Truly I say to you that whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea!’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. ²⁴ For this reason I say to you, whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you have received it,^[d] and it will be done for you. ²⁵ And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him,^[e] so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your sins.”^[f]

Jesus’ Authority Challenged

²⁷ And they came again to Jerusalem. And as^[g] he was walking in the temple courts,^[h] the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came up to him ²⁸ and said to him, “By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority that you do these things?” ²⁹ So Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question. Answer me and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. ³⁰ The baptism of John—was it from heaven or from men? Answer me!” ³¹ And they began to discuss^[i] this^[j] with one another, saying, “What should we say?^[k] If we say ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ ³² But if we say, ‘From men’”—they were afraid of the crowd, because they all looked upon John as truly a prophet.^{[l] 33} And they replied to Jesus saying, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”