Read the Gospels in 40 Days
Baruch Ha-Ba! Blessed Is He Who Comes!
21 Now as they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Yeshua sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village before you. Right away, you’ll find a donkey tied up and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to Me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Master needs them.’ And right away he will send them.”
4 This happened to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet, saying,
5 “Say to the daughter of Zion,
‘See, your King is coming to you,
humble and sitting on a donkey,
a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”[a]
6 The disciples went and did as Yeshua had directed them. 7 They brought the donkey and colt and put their clothing on them, and He sat on the clothing. 8 Most of the crowd spread their clothing on the road, and others began cutting branches from the trees and spreading them on the road. 9 The crowds going before Him and those following kept shouting, saying,
“Hoshia-na to Ben-David!
Baruch ha-ba b’shem Adonai!
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hoshia-na in the highest!”[b]
10 When He entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” 11 And the crowds kept saying, “This is the prophet Yeshua, from Natzeret in the Galilee.”
12 Then Yeshua entered the Temple[c] and drove out all those selling and buying in the Temple. He overturned the tables of the moneychangers[d] and the seats of those selling doves. [e] 13 And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’[f] but you are making it ‘a den of thieves’!”[g]
14 The blind and lame came to Him in the Temple, and He healed them. 15 But when the ruling kohanim and Torah scholars saw the wonders He performed, and the children crying out in the Temple and saying, “Hoshia-na to Ben-David,” they became indignant. 16 And they said to Him, “Do You hear what these children are saying?” “Yes,” Yeshua said to them. “Haven’t you ever read,
‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing toddlers
You have prepared praise for Yourself’?”[h]
17 Then He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and He spent the night there.
Faith Moves Mountains
18 Now early in the morning, as He was returning to the city, He became hungry. 19 Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came up to it and found nothing on it except leaves only. And He said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree shriveled up at once.
20 When the disciples saw it they were astonished. “How did the fig tree shrivel on the spot?” they asked.
21 Yeshua answered them, “Amen, I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. 22 And whatever you ask in prayer, trusting, you shall receive.”
Questions about Yeshua’s Authority
23 Now when He entered the Temple, the ruling kohanim and the elders of the people came to Him while He was teaching, saying, “By what authority are You doing these things? Who gave You this authority?”
24 Yeshua replied to them, “I also will ask you one question. If you tell Me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things. 25 John’s immersion, where was it from? From heaven or from men?”
They began to dialogue among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ 26 But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the crowd, for all hold up John as a prophet.” 27 So answering Yeshua, they said, “We don’t know.”
Then He said to them, “Neither am I telling you by what authority I do these things.”
A Parable about Intentions and Actions
28 “Now what do you think? A man had two sons, and he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go work in the vineyard today.’ 29 The son answered, ‘I won’t,’ but afterward he had a change of heart and went. 30 The man went to the second son and said the same thing. But he answered, ‘I will, sir,’ and didn’t go. 31 Which of the two did the will of the father?”
“The first,” they said.
Yeshua said to them, “Amen, I tell you, the tax collectors and prostitutes are going ahead of you into the kingdom of God. 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him. But the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and even after you saw this, you had no change of heart to believe him.”
Parable of the Vineyard
33 “Listen to another parable. There was a master of a household who planted a vineyard. He put a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower.[i] Then He leased it to some tenant farmers and went on a journey. 34 Now when fruit season drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit. 35 But grabbing his servants, the tenants beat up one, killed another, and stoned still another. 36 Again the master sent other servants, even more than the first, and they did the same thing to them. 37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’
38 “But when the tenants saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir! Come on, let’s kill him and get his inheritance!’ 39 So grabbing him, they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40 Therefore when the master of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”
41 “He will bring those miserable men to a miserable end,” they said to Him, “and will lease the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the fruits in their seasons.” 42 Yeshua said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures[j]?
‘The stone which the builders rejected,
this has become the chief cornerstone.
This came from Adonai,
and it is marvelous in our eyes.’[k]
43 Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to people producing its fruits. 44 Whoever falls on this stone will be shattered; but the one upon whom it falls, it will crush him.”[l]
45 When the ruling kohanim and Pharisees heard Yeshua’s parables, they realized He was talking about them. 46 Although they were trying to seize Him, they feared the crowds, because they regarded Him as a prophet.
Invitation to the Wedding Feast
22 Yeshua answered and spoke to them again in parables, saying, 2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who made a wedding feast for his son. 3 He sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they wouldn’t come. 4 Again he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who were invited, “Look, I’ve prepared my meal. My oxen and fattened cattle are killed, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast!”’
5 “But paying no attention, they went away, one to his own farm, another to his business. 6 And the rest grabbed his servants, humiliated them, and killed them. 7 Now the king became furious! Sending his troops, he destroyed those murderers and set fire to their city.
8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. 9 So go into the highways and byways, and invite everyone you find to the wedding feast.’ 10 And those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all they found, both bad and good; and the wedding was filled with guests.
11 “But when the king came in to look over the guests, he saw a man there who wasn’t dressed in wedding clothes. 12 ‘Friend,’ he said to him, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ But the man was silent. 13 Then the king said to his servants, ‘Tie him up hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.”
A Trap about Paying Taxes
15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might trap Him with a word. 16 And they sent to Him some of their disciples, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are honest and teach the way of God in truth. And what others think doesn’t concern You, for You do not look at men’s appearance. 17 Tell us therefore, what do You think? Is it permitted to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”
18 But Yeshua, knowing their wickedness, said, “Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites? 19 Show Me the tax money.”
So they brought Him a denarius.
20 And He said to them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
21 “Caesar’s,” they said to Him.
Then He said to them, “Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” 22 And hearing this, they were amazed. So they left Him and went away.
Religious Leaders Ask a Tricky Question
23 On that day, Sadducees (who say there is no resurrection) came to Yeshua and questioned Him, saying, 24 “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If someone dies having no children, his brother as next of kin shall marry his widow and father children for his brother.’ [m] 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died; and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother. 26 In the same way also the second, and the third, down to the seventh. 27 Last of all, the woman died. 28 So in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had married her.”
29 But answering, Yeshua said to them, “You’ve gone astray, because you don’t understand the Scriptures or the power of God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 31 But concerning the resurrection of the dead, haven’t you read what was spoken to you by God, saying, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living!” [n] 33 When the crowds heard this, they were astounded at His teaching.
The Greatest Mitzvot
34 But the Pharisees, when they heard that Yeshua had silenced the Sadducees, gathered together in one place. 35 And testing Him, one of them, a lawyer, asked, 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Torah?”
37 And He said to him, “‘You shall love Adonai your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ [o] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ [p] 40 The entire Torah and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Yeshua Overturns the Arguments
41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Yeshua asked them a question, 42 saying, “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose Son is He?”[q]
“David’s,” they say to Him.
43 “Then how is it,” He says to them, “that David by the Ruach calls him ‘Lord’?
44 For he says, ‘Adonai said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand,
until I put Your enemies under Your feet.”’[r]
45 If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his son?” 46 No one was able to answer Him a word. Nor did anyone dare from that day on to question Him any longer.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.