Cleansing the Temple
Then they came to Jerusalem. Jesus entered the temple area and began to drive out those who were selling and buying in the temple courts. He turned over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves,
and he would not permit anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.
Then he began to teach them and said,“Is it not written:‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have turned it into a den of robbers!”
The chief priests and the experts in the law heard it and they considered how they could assassinate him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed by his teaching.
Judgment of Pretenders
“Not everyone who says to me,‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of heaven– only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.
On that day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many powerful deeds in your name?’
Then I will declare to them,‘I never knew you. Go away from me, you lawbreakers!’
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples…
“The experts in the law and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat.
Therefore pay attention to what they tell you and do it. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they teach.
They tie up heavy loads, hard to carry, and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing even to lift a finger to move them.
They do all their deeds to be seen by people. They love the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues
and elaborate greetings in the marketplaces, and to have people call them ‘Rabbi.’
But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher and you are all brothers.
And call no one your ‘father’ on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.
Nor are you to be called‘teacher,’ for you have one teacher, the Christ.
The greatest among you will be your servant.
And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
“But woe to you, experts in the law and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You keep locking people out of the kingdom of heaven! For you neither enter nor permit those trying to enter to go in.
