Chapter 11

11:1When they approached Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany near the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples 2and told them, "Go into the village ahead of you. As soon as you enter it, you will find a young donkey tied there, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. 3If anyone says to you, 'Why are you doing this?' say, 'The Lord needs it and will send it back here right away.'"
4So they went and found a young donkey outside in the street, tied by a door. They untied it, 5and some of those standing there said to them, "What are you doing, untying the donkey?" 6They answered them just as Jesus had said, so they let them go. 7Then they brought the donkey to Jesus and threw their robes on it, and He sat on it.
8Many people spread their robes on the road, and others spread leafy branches cut from the fields. 9Then those who went ahead and those who followed kept shouting:
Hosanna!
He who comes in the name
of the Lord is the blessed One!
10The coming kingdom
of our father David is blessed!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!
11And He went into Jerusalem and into the temple complex. After looking around at everything, since it was already late, He went out to Bethany with the Twelve.
12The next day when they came out from Bethany, He was hungry. 13After seeing in the distance a fig tree with leaves, He went to find out if there was anything on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. 14He said to it, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again!" And His disciples heard it.
15They came to Jerusalem, and He went into the temple complex and began to throw out those buying and selling in the temple. He overturned the money changers' tables and the chairs of those selling doves, 16and would not permit anyone to carry goods through the temple complex.
17Then He began to teach them: "Is it not written, My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations? But you have made it a den of thieves!" 18Then the chief priests and the scribes heard it and started looking for a way to destroy Him. For they were afraid of Him, because the whole crowd was astonished by His teaching.
19And whenever evening came, they would go out of the city.
20Early in the morning, as they were passing by, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up. 21Then Peter remembered and said to Him, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree that You cursed is withered."
22Jesus replied to them, "Have faith in God. 23I assure you: If anyone 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. 24Therefore I tell you, all the things you pray and ask for-believe that you have received them, and you will have them. 25And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven will also forgive you your wrongdoing. 26[But if you don't forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your wrongdoing.]"
27They came again to Jerusalem. As He was walking in the temple complex, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came 28and asked Him, "By what authority are You doing these things? Who gave You this authority to do these things?"
29Jesus said to them, "I will ask you one question; then answer Me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. 30Was John's baptism from heaven or from men? Answer Me."
31They began to argue among themselves: "If we say, 'From heaven,' He will say, 'Then why didn't you believe him?' 32But if we say, 'From men'"-they were afraid of the crowd, because everyone thought that John was a genuine prophet. 33So they answered Jesus, "We don't know."
And Jesus said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things."