Matthew 21:1-22

1When they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage at the Mount of Olives, Jesus then sent two disciples,

2telling them, “Go into the village ahead of you. At once you will find a donkey tied there with her colt. Untie them and bring them to me.

3If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them at once.”

4This took place so that what was spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled:

5Tell Daughter Zion, “See, your King is coming to you, gentle, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

6The disciples went and did just as Jesus directed them.

7They brought the donkey and the colt; then they laid their clothes on them, and he sat on them.

8A very large crowd spread their clothes on the road; others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them on the road.

9Then the crowds who went ahead of him and those who followed shouted: Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!

10When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in an uproar, saying, “Who is this?”

11The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”

12Jesus went into the temple and threw out all those buying and selling. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves.

13He said to them, “It is written, my house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of thieves!”

14The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.

15When the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonders that he did and the children shouting in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant

16and said to him, “Do you hear what these children are saying?” Jesus replied, “Yes, have you never read: You have prepared praise from the mouths of infants and nursing babies?”

17Then he left them, went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.

18Early in the morning, as he was returning to the city, he was hungry.

19Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, he went up to it and found nothing on it except leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” At once the fig tree withered.

20When the disciples saw it, they were amazed and said, “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?”

21Jesus answered them, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you tell this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will be done.

22And if you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”