The Fig Tree Withers - Matthew 21:18-22
Early in the morning, as he was on his way back to the city,
he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found
nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit
again!” Immediately the tree withered.
When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. “How did the
fig tree wither so quickly?” they asked.Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”
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Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were
buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and
the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My
house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a ‘den of
robbers.’”
The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple area, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant.
“Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him.
“Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read, “‘From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise’?”
And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.