¹⁹ That evening, Jesus and the disciples went outside the city.

A Lesson from the Fig Tree

(Matthew 21.20-22)

²⁰ As the disciples walked past the fig tree the next morning, they noticed that it was completely dried up, roots and all. ²¹ Peter remembered what Jesus had said to the tree. Then Peter said, “Teacher, look! The tree you put a curse on has dried up.”

²² Jesus told his disciples:

Have faith in God! ^23 (A) If you have faith in God and don't doubt, you can tell this mountain to get up and jump into the sea, and it will. ²⁴ Everything you ask for in prayer will be yours, if you only have faith.

^25-26 (B) Whenever you stand up to pray, you must forgive what others have done to you. Then your Father in heaven will forgive your sins.^[a]

A Question about Jesus' Authority

(Matthew 21.23-27; Luke 20.1-8)

²⁷ Jesus and his disciples returned to Jerusalem. And as he was walking through the temple, the chief priests, the nation's leaders, and the teachers of the Law of Moses came over to him. ²⁸ They asked, “What right do you have to do these things? Who gave you this authority?”

²⁹ Jesus answered, “I have just one question to ask you. If you answer it, I will tell you where I got the right to do these things. ³⁰ Who gave John the right to baptize? Was it God in heaven or merely some human being?”

³¹ They thought it over and said to each other, “We can't say that God gave John this right. Jesus will ask us why we didn't believe John. ³² On the other hand, these people think that John was a prophet. So we can't say it was merely some human who gave John the right to baptize.”

They were afraid of the crowd ³³ and told Jesus, “We don't know.”

Jesus replied, “Then I won't tell you who gave me the right to do what I do.”