•1 For the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man, the master of a house, who went out in the early morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. He agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day and sent them off to his vineyard. Then going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and said to them: Go on, you also, into my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is fair. And they went. And going out again about the sixth and the ninth hour he did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found more men standing there, and said to them: Why are you standing thus idle all day? They said to him: Because nobody hired us. He said to them: Go on, you also, into my vineyard. Then when it was twilight the master of the vineyard said to his overseer: Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last to come and going on to the first. And those who had come at the eleventh hour came and were paid a denarius each. And those who had been hired first came and thought they would receive more; and they also were paid a denarius each. But when they were paid they murmured against the master of the house, saying: Those who came last did one hour's work, and you have made them the equals of us, who bore the heaviness of the day and the heat. But he answered one of them and said: Friend, I do you no wrong. Did you not agree with me on one denarius? Take your wages and go. But I desire to give this last man the same as I gave you. Can I not do as I wish with what is my own? Or does your eye hurt because I am kind?
Thus they who are last shall be first and they who are first shall be last.
Then as Jesus set out to go up to Jerusalem he took the twelve with him, alone, and on the way he said to them: Behold, we are going to Jerusalem, and the son of man will be given over into the hands of the high priests and the scribes and they will condemn him to death, and give him over to the Gentiles to mock and flog and crucify; and on the third day he will rise.
At that time there came to him the mother of the sons of Zebedee with her sons, and bowed before him and had something to ask of him. He said to her: What do you wish? She said: Tell me that these, my two sons, shall sit on your right and on your left in your Kingdom. Jesus answered and said: You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I am to drink? They said: We can. He said to them: You shall drink my cup; but for you to sit on my right and on my left, that is not mine to give, but it is for those who have been appointed by my father. Hearing this, the other ten were indignant over the two brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said: You know that the leaders of the Gentiles are lords over them, and their great men exercise power over them. It is not thus with you; but he who wishes to be great among you shall be your servant, and he who wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; as the son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his own life for the redemption of many.
Now as they were going out from Jericho a great crowd followed him. And behold, two blind men sitting by the road, hearing that Jesus was going by, cried aloud and said: Lord, have pity on us, son of David. But the people told them angrily to be quiet, but they cried the louder, saying: Lord, have pity on us, son of David. Jesus stopped and spoke to them and said: What do you wish me to do for you? They told him: Lord, let our eyes be opened. Jesus pitied them, and laid his hands on their eyes, and at once they saw, and followed him.
tl Then as they came near Jerusalem and arrived at Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples ahead, saying to them: Go on into the village that lies before you, and presently you will find a donkey, tethered, and a foal with her. Untie them and bring them to me. And if anyone says anything to you, say that their master needs them, and he will send them at once. This was done so as to fulfill the word spoken by the prophet, saying: Say to the daughter of Zion: Behold, your king comes to you, modest and riding on a donkey and with a foal, the son of a beast of burden. His disciples went and did as Jesus told them, and brought the donkey and the foal, and piled clothing on them, and he sat on this. And most of the crowd strewed clothing of their own in the road, and others cut branches from the trees and strewed them in the road. And the crowds who went before him and who came after him cried aloud, saying: Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And when he entered Jerusalem, all the city was disturbed, and said: Who is this? And the multitude answered: This is the prophet Jesus of Nazareth in Galilee.
And Jesus went into the temple and drove out all who bought and sold in the temple, and overtimed the tables of the money changers and the stalls of the sellers of doves, and said to them: It is written: My house shall be called a house of prayer, and you are making it a den of robbers. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. When the high priests and the scribes saw the wonders he performed, and that the boys cried out in the temple and said: Hosanna to the son of David, they were angry and said to him: Do you hear what they are saying? But Jesus said to them: Yes. Have you never read that from the mouths of children and babies you have composed praise?
Then he left them and went out of the city, into Bethany, and spent the night there. Early in the morning he came back to the city, and he was hungry. And seeing a single fig tree beside the road, he went to it, and found nothing on it except only leaves, and said to it: Let there be no more fruit from you, forevermore. And at once the fig tree dried up. His disciples seeing it were astonished and said: How did the fig tree suddenly dry up? Jesus answered them and said: Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not deliberate, you can not only do what was done to the fig tree but you can even say to this mountain: Rise up and throw yourself into the sea, and it will happen; and all that you ask for by prayer, if you have faith, you shall receive.
Now when he had gone into the temple and was teaching there, the high priests and the elders of the people came to him, saying: By what authority do you do this, and who gave you this authority? Jesus answered and said to them: I too will ask you to tell me one thing, and if you tell me, I will tell you by what authority I do this. Whence came the baptism of John? From heaven or from men? They discussed this among themselves, saying: If we tell him: From heaven, he will say to us: Then why did you not believe him? But if we tell him: From men, then we have the people to fear, for they all hold John to be a prophet. And they answered Jesus and said: We do not know. He answered them in turn: Neither will I tell you by what authority I do this. What do you think? A man had two sons. He went to the first and said: My son, go out today and work in the vineyard. He answered and said: So I will, master; and did not go. He went to the second and spoke likewise; and he answered and said: I do not wish to; but later he repented anddidgo. Which of the two did his father's will? They said: The second. Jesus said to them: Truly I tell you that the tax collectors and the harlots shall go before you into the Kingdom of God. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and the harlots believed him; and when you saw it you did not repent, so as to believe him.
Hear one more parable. There was a man who was lord of a manor, and he planted a vineyard, and ran a fence about it and dug a pit for the wine press in it, and built a tower, and let it out to farmers, and left the country. When the time of the harvest was near, he sent his slaves to the farmers to take the harvest. And the farmers took his slaves, and one they lashed, and one they killed, and one they stoned. Again he sent slaves, more than the first ones, and they dealt with them in the same way. After this he sent his son, saying: They will respect my son. But when the farmers saw the son, they said among themselves: This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and take his inheritance. And they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. Now, when the lord of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those farmers? They said: He will destroy them evilly, as they are evil, and let the vineyard to other farmers, who will render him the harvests in their due time. Jesus said to them: Have you never read in the scriptures: The stone that the builders rejected has come to be at the head of the corner. It was made by the Lord, and is wonderful in our sight. Therefore I tell you that the Kingdom of God shall be taken away from you and given to a nation that produces its harvest. [And he who falls on that stone shall be broken; and he upon whom it falls shall be crushed by it.] And when the high priests and the Pharisees heard his parables they knew that he spoke of them; and they were looking for a way to seize him, but they feared the populace, since these held him to be a prophet.