Monday

Early in the morning as Jesus was leaving from Bethany and returning to the city, he was hungry. He saw a fig tree along the road, but when he came to it, he found nothing except leaves. Then he said to it, “You’ll never again bear fruit!” His disciples heard this. The fig tree dried up at once.

When the disciples saw it, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree dry up so fast?” they asked.

Jesus responded, “I assure you that if you have faith and don’t doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree. You will even say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea.’ And it will happen. If you have faith, you will receive whatever you pray for.”

Then Jesus went into the temple and threw out all those who were selling and buying there. He pushed over the tables used for currency exchange and the chairs of those who sold doves. He said to them, “It’s written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.’ But you’ve made it a ‘den of thieves.’”

People who were blind and lame came to Jesus in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and legal experts saw the amazing things he was doing and the children shouting in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were angry. They said to Jesus, “Do you hear what these children are saying?”

“Yes,” He answered. “Haven’t you ever read, “From the mouths of babies and infants You’ve ordained praise?” Then he left them and went out of the city to Bethany and spent the night there.