Matthew 21 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
As they got close to and came to on the of Jesus sent two of his ahead,
telling them, "Go into the village just ahead of you, and right away you'll find a tied there with her colt beside her. Untie them and bring them to me.
If anyone says anything to you, tell them, 'The needs them,' and they'll send them right away."
This happened to fulfill what the had spoken:
"Tell the of Look — your is coming to you, riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a working animal."
The students went and did exactly what Jesus told them to do.
They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their on them, and Jesus sat on them.
A huge crowd spread their cloaks on the road ahead of him, while others cut branches from the trees and spread those on the road too.
The crowds walking ahead of him and the ones following behind kept shouting, to the of is for the one who comes in the name of the in the highest heaven!"
When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was up. "Who is this?" people kept asking.
The crowds answered, "This is the prophet Jesus, from in
Then Jesus went into the and drove out everyone who was buying and selling there. He flipped over the tables of the and the seats of those selling
He told them, "The Scripture says, 'My will be called a of — but you've turned it into a for
Blind and people came to him in the Temple, and he healed them.
But when the and the saw the amazing things he was doing and the children shouting in the Temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" — they were furious.
They asked him, "Do you hear what these children are saying?" Jesus replied, "Yes — haven't you ever read, 'You drew from the mouths of children and nursing babies'?"
Then he left them, went out of the city to and spent the night there.
Early the next morning, as he was heading back to the city, he got hungry.
He noticed a by the road and went over to it, but found nothing on it except leaves. He said to it, "May you never produce fruit again!" And immediately the dried up.
When the students saw this, they were amazed. "How did the fig tree dry up so fast?" they asked.
Jesus answered them, "I'm telling you the truth: if you have and don't it, you'll be able to do more than what happened to this fig tree. You could even say to this mountain, 'Pick yourself up and throw yourself into the sea,' and it would happen.
Whatever you ask for in with genuine trust — you'll receive it."
When Jesus entered the Temple and started teaching, the chief priests and Jewish came up to him and demanded, "Who gave you the to do these things? Who authorized you?"
Jesus replied, "I'll ask you one question too, and if you answer me, I'll tell you where my authority comes from.
John's — where did it come from? Was it from or was it just a human idea?" They started arguing among themselves: "If we say 'from he'll ask us, 'Then why didn't you trust him?'
But if we say 'a human idea,' we're afraid of the crowd — because everyone considers John to have been a prophet."
So they answered Jesus, "We don't know." And he said to them, "Then I'm not going to tell you where my authority comes from either."
"But what do you think about this? A man had two sons. He went to the first and said, 'Son, go work in the today.'
The son said, 'I don't want to.' But later he and went.
Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. This one answered, 'Sure, sir' — but never went.
Which of the two did what the father wanted?" They answered, "The first one." Jesus told them, "I'm telling you the truth: and are entering God's ahead of you.
John came to you showing the to and you didn't trust him. But tax collectors and down on — they trusted him. And even after seeing that, you still refused to and trust him.
"Listen to another story. There was a who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it, built a watchtower, then leased it out to and went on a journey.
When harvest time arrived, he sent his to the farmers to collect his share of the crop.
But the farmers grabbed his servants — they beat one, killed another, and pelted another with stones.
So he sent another group of servants, more than the first time, and they treated them the same way.
Finally, he sent his son to them. 'They'll respect my son,' he said.
But when the farmers saw the son, they said to each other, 'This is the Come on, let's kill him and take his inheritance for ourselves!'
So they grabbed him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
"So when the owner of the vineyard comes back, what do you think he'll do to those farmers?"
They answered him, "He'll bring those terrible men to a terrible end and lease the vineyard to other farmers who will actually give him his share of the crop at harvest time."
Jesus said to them, "Haven't you ever read this in the Scriptures? 'The stone the rejected has become the The did this, and it's an incredible thing to see.'
That's why I'm telling you: God's kingdom will be taken away from you and given to a people who will actually produce its
Anyone who falls on this will be broken to pieces, and anyone it falls on will be crushed."
When the chief priests and the heard his stories, they realized he was talking about them.
They wanted to him, but they were afraid of the crowds — because the people considered him a prophet.