The Triumphal Entry
Plain English Version (PEV)
Mat 21:1–11
- 1 Jesus talked to the Jewish leaders. He said, “Tell me what you think about this picture story. A man had 2 sons. He went to the oldest son and said, ‘Son, go and work on our farm today.’
- 2 The oldest son said, ‘No. I don’t want to.’ But later he changed his mind, and he went and worked on their farm.
- 3 The father also went to his youngest son and said the same thing to him, he said, ‘Son, go and work on our farm today.’ The youngest son said, ‘Yes, Dad, I will go.’ But he didn’t go to work on their farm.”
- 4 Then Jesus asked those Jewish leaders, “Which one of that man’s sons did what his father wanted?” They said, “The oldest son did what his father wanted.” Then Jesus said, “This message that I am telling you now is true. There are people that did bad things, but they will go into God’s family before you mob do. You know, there are some men that get tax money from people and give it to the Roman government. And sometimes a woman does bad, so if a man pays her money she sleeps with him, like a woman sleeps with her husband. But listen. Some of those bad people will go into God’s family before you mob do.
- 5 You see, John the Baptiser came and told everyone the right way to live, and you mob didn’t believe him. But some of those bad people did believe him, and they stopped doing bad things. And even when you saw them do that, you still didn’t change your minds. You didn’t say you were sorry for the bad things you did, and you didn’t turn around to follow God’s way.”
Mrk 11:1–11
- 1 Jesus and his followers kept walking and got near to Jerusalem. They came to the 2 towns called Bethany and Bethphage, on the hill called Olive Trees.
- 2 Then Jesus told 2 of his followers to go to the nearest town. He said, “As soon as you get there you will see a donkey tied to a post. Nobody ever rode that young donkey yet. I want you to untie that rope and bring him to me.
- 3 If anyone asks you why you are taking that donkey, you can say, ‘Our boss needs him for a while, but don’t worry, he will send him back to you later.’”
- 4 The 2 men went into the town and they found the donkey near the door of a house, then they started to untie him.
- 5 Some people standing there said to them, “What are you doing? Why are you untying that young donkey?”
- 6 Jesus’s followers told them what Jesus said, and then those people let them take the donkey and go.
- 7 They took the donkey back to Jesus. They put their coats on top of the donkey, then Jesus sat on their coats on the donkey and started to ride him into Jerusalem.
- 8 A lot of people laid their coats down on to the track in front of the donkey and other people went to the gardens and cut leaves from trees and put these leaves on the track for the donkey to walk on.
- 9 Some of the people walked in front of Jesus and some walked behind him. They all kept on yelling out, “God, you are really great and powerful. God, we want you to look after the man you have sent. Make him strong and happy.
- 10 God, please make this man boss over everyone, just like his grand-father, the big boss called King David. God in heaven, you are very great and powerful.”
- 11 Jesus came to Jerusalem and went into God’s ceremony house. He looked around at everything that was going on there. The sun was starting to go down, so Jesus left God’s ceremony house and went back to Bethany with his 12 close followers.