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Jesus went into Jerusalem on a donkey
1 Jesus and his followers kept going, and they got near to Jerusalem. They came to the 2 towns called Bethany and Bethfage, on the hill called Olive Trees Hill.
Then Jesus told 2 of his followers to go to a town nearby. 2 He said, “As soon as you get there you will see a donkey tied to a post. Nobody ever rode that young donkey yet. I want you to untie that donkey and bring it to me. 3 If anyone asks you why you are taking that donkey, you can say, ‘Our leader needs it for a while, but don’t worry, he will send it back to you later.’ ”
4 The 2 men went into the town, and they found the donkey near the door of a house, then they started to untie him. 5 Some people standing there said to them, “What are you doing? Why are you untying that young donkey?” 6 Jesus’s followers told them what Jesus said, and then those people let them take the donkey and go.
7 They took the donkey back to Jesus. Then they put their coats on top of the donkey, and Jesus sat on their coats on the donkey, and he started to ride it into Jerusalem. 8 A lot of people laid their coats down on to the track in front of the donkey, and other people cut leafy branches from trees, and they put them on the track for the donkey to walk on. 9 Some of the people walked in front of Jesus, and some of them walked behind him. They all kept on yelling out,
“God, you are really great and powerful. God, we want you to look after the man you have sent. Make him strong and happy.
10 God, please make this man our big boss, just like David was our big boss. David was our grand-father that lived a long time ago.
God in heaven, you are very great and powerful.”*Psalm 118:25-26
11 Then Jesus got to Jerusalem, and he went into God’s ceremony house. He looked around at everything that was going on there. The sun was starting to go down, so Jesus left God’s ceremony house, and he and his 12 special workers went back to Bethany.
Jesus cursed a fruit tree
12-13 The next morning, Jesus and his followers started to walk from Bethany back to Jerusalem. Jesus saw a tree not far away. It was the sort of tree that gets fruit, called figs. Jesus was hungry, so he went to look for some figs on that tree, but there was nothing. It had lots of leaves, but no fruit. You see, it was not yet the right time of the year for that sort of fruit. 14 His followers heard Jesus say to that tree, “Nobody will ever eat any fruit from you again.”
Jesus stopped people selling things in God’s ceremony house
15 Then Jesus and his followers went into Jerusalem, and they went to God’s ceremony house. Inside that house people were buying and selling animals and pigeons, to use in their ceremonies. And other people were taking people’s Roman money and giving them Jewish money, to give to the bosses of God’s ceremony house. But they did those things inside that house. They didn’t respect God’s house, so they were wrong. So Jesus hunted all those people out of God’s ceremony house. He hunted out all the men that sold things, and the people that bought things, and those people that changed money. He knocked over their tables with their money on them, and he knocked over the chairs of the men that sold pigeons. 16 He wouldn’t let anyone carry those things through God’s ceremony house.
17 Then Jesus taught everyone. He said, “Do you know what God says? These words are in his book,
‘God wants his special house to be a place for people from every tribe to come and pray in.’
But you mob turned God’s house into a place where criminals steal money from people.”*Isaiah 56:7; Jeremiah 7:11
18 The Jewish law teachers and the bosses of the Jewish ceremonies heard about what Jesus did at God’s house, and they were angry. But all the other people were really happy with Jesus. Whenever he taught them, they listened to him, and they were really surprised by the things he said. So the Jewish leaders were frightened of him. They thought that maybe everyone was going to listen to Jesus and stop listening to them. So those leaders started to work out a way to kill Jesus.
19 Later that day, when the sun started to go down, Jesus and his followers left Jerusalem and went back to Bethany.
The fruit tree died
20 In the morning, Jesus and his followers walked past that fruit tree that he talked to the day before. They looked at it. It was dead and dry, right down to the ground. 21 Peter remembered the words Jesus said to it, and Peter said, “Teacher, that tree you cursed is already dead and dry.”
22 Jesus said, “If you trust God properly, you can do things like that too. 23 Listen, if you ask God to do something, and if you really trust him to do it, then he will do it for you. If you trust him properly, you can even say to a big hill, ‘God will pick you up and throw you into the sea,’ and God will do it.*Matthew 17:20; 1 Corinthians 13:2
24 So I’m telling you, if you ask God for something, and if you trust him properly, that is, if you believe that he will give you that thing, then God will make it happen for you.
25-26 And whenever you pray, first think about this. If somebody did a wrong thing to you, you have to let it go. Don’t think about payback. If you let it go, then God will let go of all the wrong things you have done too. He will say you are not guilty, and he will not do payback. So before you pray to God, you have to let go of all the wrong things that people did to you.”*Matthew 6:14-15
The Jewish leaders asked Jesus a question
27 Then Jesus and his followers went into Jerusalem, and they walked into the yard of God’s ceremony house. As Jesus walked along, some Jewish leaders went up to him. They were some bosses of the Jewish ceremonies, and some law teachers, and some elders. 28 They asked Jesus straight, “Who told you to hunt all those people out of God’s ceremony house? What big boss said that you can do that?”
29 Jesus said to them, “You answer my question first. If you answer me, then I will tell you which big boss said that I can hunt those men out of God’s ceremony house. 30 My question is about John the Baptiser. Who told him to do that washing ceremony for people? Did people tell John to do that, or did God tell him to do it?”
31 Those Jewish leaders talked together to work out their answer. They said to each other, “If we say that God told John to do it, then we will be in trouble. He will say to us, ‘So why didn’t you mob listen to him?’ 32 But we can’t say that people told him to do it.” You see, those leaders were frightened of the people there. They knew that the people believed that John was God’s man. So if those leaders said that John wasn’t God’s man, then the people might hit them.
33 So the Jewish leaders said, “We don’t know who told John to do that washing ceremony for people.”
Then Jesus said, “You did not answer me, so I will not answer you. I will not tell you which big boss said that I can do those things.”

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*11:10 Psalm 118:25-26

*11:17 Isaiah 56:7; Jeremiah 7:11

*11:23 Matthew 17:20; 1 Corinthians 13:2

*11:25-26 Matthew 6:14-15

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