A colt that never bore a rider,

garments folded on its back.

Clothes and branches paved the roadway;

Jerusalem received the King.

“Hosanna! Blessed is He that cometh!

Blessed David’s kingdom near!”

Voices rose before and after;

hope went ringing street to street.

Jesus entered in the temple,

looked through every court and wall.

Evening came; He left for Bethany,

having measured all.

Leaves without fruit,

noise without prayer.

Hosanna in the street,

but hunger found nothing there.

A house for every nation

turned to a den of thieves.

The King who heard the shouting

came looking underneath the leaves.

Morning found Him leaving Bethany,

hunger moving with the day.

From afar, a fig tree promised;

up close, promise fell away.

Green with leaves and bare of harvest,

full in shape and empty through.

“No man eat fruit of thee hereafter.”

The disciples heard it too.

Back within the temple courts,

tables turned and seats went down.

Buyers fled and sellers scattered;

coins struck stone across the ground.

No vessel crossed the holy place

as though the courts were common road.

“My house shall be called of all nations

house of prayer,” the Teacher showed.

“But ye have made it a den of thieves.”

The rulers heard and chose His end.

They feared His word among the people,

and began to plot again.

Leaves without fruit,

noise without prayer.

Hosanna in the street,

but hunger found nothing there.

A house for every nation

turned to a den of thieves.

The King who heard the shouting

came looking underneath the leaves.

By the next day, Peter saw it,

not one green disguise remained.

From the roots the tree had withered;

what looked living now was drained.

Have faith in God when mountains rise;

believe the word you pray.

When ye stand praying, then forgive;

let held offense give way.

Faith may cast the height to sea,

but prayer must bear forgiving fruit.

The branch is known by what it yields,

and life is known down at the root.

Branches on the road.

Tables on the ground.

A fig tree dry from the root.