Matthew 21

EasyEnglish Bible

Jesus goes into Jerusalem

21 Jesus and his 12 disciples were coming near to Jerusalem. They came to the village called Bethphage.^[a] They were on the Mount of Olives.^[b] Then Jesus sent two of his disciples to go further.

² He said to them, ‘Go into the village that is in front of you. When you arrive there, you will immediately see a donkey tied there with her young donkey. Undo the ropes and bring both the donkeys here to me. ³ Someone may ask you, “What are you doing?” Then say, “The Master needs them. He will send them back to you soon.” ’

⁴ A prophet had spoken a message from God about this long ago. Now it became true.

⁵ ‘Say to the people in Jerusalem,

⁶ So the two disciples went to the village. They did everything that Jesus had told them to do. ⁷ They brought the donkey and the young donkey to Jesus. They put their coats on the backs of the donkeys. Then Jesus got up and sat on one of them. ⁸ Many people in the crowd put their coats down on the road. Other people cut branches down from trees. They put these branches down on the road.^[d]

⁹ Many crowds of people went in front of Jesus and other people followed him. All of them were shouting,

¹⁰ When Jesus went into Jerusalem, everybody in the city had trouble in their minds. They were asking each other, ‘Who is this man?’

¹¹ The people in the crowd replied, ‘This is God's prophet, Jesus. He comes from Nazareth in Galilee.’

Jesus visits the temple

¹² Jesus then went into the yard of the temple.^[f] People were buying and selling things there. Jesus made them all leave that place. He pushed over the tables of the men who changed coins.^[g] He also pushed over the seats of the men who sold birds.

¹³ Jesus spoke to them all. He said, ‘The Bible says, “God's house will be a place where people come together to pray.” But you have changed it into a place where robbers meet.’^[h]

¹⁴ Blind people went to meet Jesus in the yard of the temple. People who could not walk very well also went there. Jesus caused them all to become well. ¹⁵ The leaders of the priests and teachers of God's Law saw all the powerful things that Jesus did. They also saw children in the yard of the temple who were shouting, ‘Welcome! We pray that God will be good to you, Son of David!’ All these things caused the important Jews to become very angry.

¹⁶ They asked Jesus, ‘Can you hear what these children are saying?’

Jesus replied, ‘Yes, I can hear them. I am sure that you have read this in the Bible:

¹⁷ Then Jesus left everyone and he went out of Jerusalem. He stayed that night in Bethany, a village near the city.^[j]

Jesus causes a fruit tree to die

¹⁸ On the next day, early in the morning, Jesus left Bethany to return to Jerusalem. On the way there, he was hungry. ¹⁹ He saw a fig tree near to the road. He went to see if it had fruit on it. But there were only leaves on the tree, and no fruit. Jesus said to the tree, ‘No fruit will ever grow on you again!’ Then, immediately, the tree became dry and it died.

²⁰ The disciples saw it happen and they were very surprised. And they asked Jesus, ‘How did the tree die so quickly?’

²¹ Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you this: You must believe in God. You must not have other ideas in your mind. If you believe in God, then you could also do the same thing to this fig tree. You could even say to this mountain, “Move away and throw yourself into the sea!” Then it would really happen. ²² So when you pray to ask God for something, believe in him. Then God will give you whatever you ask for.’

²³ Then Jesus returned to the yard of the temple. While he was teaching the people there, the leaders of the priests and important Jews went to him. They asked him, ‘What authority do you have to do these things? Tell us. Who gave you the authority to do them?’

²⁴ Jesus replied, ‘I also will ask you one question. If you tell me the answer, then I will answer your question. I will tell you what authority I have to do these things. ²⁵ John baptized people. Did God give him the authority to do this? Or did men tell him to do it?’ Then the Jewish leaders talked to each other about Jesus' question. They said, ‘We could say that God gave John his authority. But if we say that, Jesus will say to us, “Then you should have believed John.” ²⁶ But we do not want to say that only men gave John his authority. All the people think that John was a prophet from God. We are afraid that the crowd might attack us.’

²⁷ So the Jewish leaders answered Jesus: ‘We do not know who gave John his authority.’

Jesus said to them, ‘You will not answer my question. So I will not tell you what authority I have to do these things.’

Jesus tells a story about two sons

²⁸ Jesus said to the Jewish leaders, ‘Tell me what you think about this story. A man had two sons. He went to the older son and said, “Son, go and work in my field today.”

²⁹ The older son replied, “I do not want to go and work there today.” But after he had said that, he did go and work in the field.

³⁰ The man went to his other son and he said the same thing to him. The second son replied, “Yes, father, I will go.” But then he did not go to work in the field.

³¹ Tell me, which of the man's sons did what his father wanted?’

The Jewish leaders replied, ‘The older son did what his father wanted.’

Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you this: The men who take taxes from people are going into the kingdom of God before you. It is the same with prostitutes. They also are going into the kingdom of God before you. ³² John the Baptist came to show you the right way to live. You did not believe him. But the men who take taxes did believe him. Prostitutes also believed him. Even after you saw this, you did not believe him. You did not change the way that you live.’

Jesus tells a story about a farmer

³³ Then Jesus said again to the Jewish leaders, ‘Listen to another story that I will tell you. There was a man who had his own farm. He planted vines in a garden to grow grapes there. He built a wall around the garden. He dug a hole in the ground for a winepress to make wine. He also built a tall building to watch over the garden.^[k]

The man then found some farmers to work in the garden for him. Then he went away to another country. ³⁴ When it was nearly time for the harvest, the master sent his servants to speak to the farmers. He wanted them to give him the fruit that was his. ³⁵ But the farmers took hold of the servants. They hit one of them with sticks. They killed another one. They threw stones at another servant and killed him. ³⁶ So the master sent other servants to go to the farmers. He sent more servants than the first time. But the farmers did the same thing to those servants too. ³⁷ After that, the master sent his own son to the farmers. He thought, “The farmers will surely respect my son.”

³⁸ The farmers saw the master's son coming. They said to each other, “This is the master's own son. The garden will belong to him when his father dies. So we should kill the son and then the garden will be ours.” ³⁹ Then the farmers took hold of the son. They threw him out of the garden and they killed him.’

⁴⁰ Jesus then said, ‘One day, the master will return to his garden. What do you think he will do then to those farmers?’

⁴¹ The Jewish leaders said to Jesus, ‘The master will completely destroy those bad people. Then he will give the garden to other farmers to take care of it. Those new farmers will give the master the fruit that he should have at the time of harvest.’

⁴² Jesus said to them, ‘I am sure that you have read this in the Bible:

⁴³ I tell you this: Because you do not believe in me, God will take his kingdom away from you. He will give it to people who show that they obey him.

⁴⁴ When a person falls onto that stone, it will break his body into pieces. When that stone falls on top of someone, it will destroy him completely.’^[n]

⁴⁵ The leaders of the priests and the Pharisees heard what Jesus said in his stories. They knew that he was speaking against them. ⁴⁶ They wanted to take hold of him and put him in prison. But they did not try to do it because they were afraid of the people. The people thought that Jesus was a prophet from God.