Lexham English Bible

Matthew 21:21-37 Lexham English Bible (LEB)

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

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

23. And after he arrived at the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him while he was teaching, saying, “By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority?”

24. And Jesus answered and said to them, “I also will ask you one question. If you tell the answer to me, I also will tell you by what authority I am doing these things.

25. From where was the baptism of John—from heaven or from men?” And they began to discuss this among themselves, saying, “If we say ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’

26. But if we say, ‘From men,’ we are afraid of the crowd, because they all look upon John as a prophet.”

27. And they answered and said to Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.

28. “Now what do you think? A man had two sons. He approached the first and said, ‘Son, go work in the vineyard today.’

29. And he answered and said, ‘I do not want to!’ But later he changed his mind and went.

30. And he approached the second and said the same thing. So he answered and said, ‘I will, sir,’ and he did not go.

31. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going ahead of you into the kingdom of God!

32. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did believe him. And when you saw it, you did not even change your minds later so as to believe in him.

33. “Listen to another parable: There was a man—a master of a house—who planted a vineyard, and put a fence around it, and dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower, and leased it to tenant farmers, and went on a journey.

34. And when the season of fruit drew near, he sent his slaves to the tenant farmers to collect his fruit.

35. And the tenant farmers seized his slaves, one of whom they beat, and one of whom they killed, and one of whom they stoned.

36. Again, he sent other slaves, more than the first ones, and they did the same thing to them.

37. So finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’