Matthew 21:18-27

When Jesus got up the next morning, he was hungry. He started out for the city, and along the way he saw a fig tree. But when he came to it, he found only leaves and no figs. So he told the tree, “You will never again grow any fruit!” Right then the fig tree dried up. The disciples were shocked when they saw how quickly the tree had dried up. But Jesus said to them, “If you have faith and don't doubt, I promise you can do what I did to this tree. And you will be able to do even more. You can tell this mountain to get up and jump into the sea, and it will. If you have faith when you pray, you will be given whatever you ask for.” Jesus had gone into the temple and was teaching when the chief priests and the leaders of the people came up to him. They asked, “What right do you have to do these things? Who gave you this authority?” 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. Who gave John the right to baptize? Was it God in heaven or merely some human being?” They thought it over and said to each other, “We can't say God gave John this right. Jesus will ask us why we didn't believe John. On the other hand, these people think John was a prophet, and we are afraid of what they might do to us. That's why we can't say it was merely some human who gave John the right to baptize.” So they told Jesus, “We don't know.” Jesus said, “Then I won't tell you who gave me the right to do what I do.”