Readings for Lent and Easter

The Triumphal Entry

21 And when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, ² saying to them, “Go into the village before you, and right away you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her. Untie them^[a] and^[b] bring them^[c] to me. ³ And if anyone says anything to you, you will say, ‘The Lord needs them,’^[d] and he will send them at once.” ⁴ Now this took place so that what was spoken through the prophet would be fulfilled, saying,

⁶ So the disciples went^[g] and did^[h] just as Jesus directed them, ⁷ and^[i] brought the donkey and the colt and put their^[j] cloaks on them, and he sat on them. ⁸ And a very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them^[k] on the road. ⁹ And the crowds who went ahead of him and the ones who followed were shouting, saying,

¹⁰ And when^[n] he entered into Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” ¹¹ And the crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee!”

The Cleansing of the Temple

¹² And Jesus entered the temple courts^[o] and drove out all those who were selling and buying in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those who were selling doves. ¹³ And he said to them, “It is written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’^[p] but you have made it a cave of robbers!”

¹⁴ And the blind and the lame came up to him in the temple courts^[q] and he healed them. ¹⁵ But when^[r] the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children shouting in the temple courts^[s] and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant. ¹⁶ And they said to him, “Do you hear what these children^[t] are saying?” So Jesus said to them, “Yes, have you never read, ‘Out of the mouths of children and nursing babies you have prepared for yourself praise’?”^[u]